The debate around abortion access—particularly medications commonly used in telehealth-assisted abortions—is expected to remain a hot topic in 2024.

This fall, voters will head to the polls for the first presidential election since the Supreme Court reversed its landmark Roe v. Wade decision, which triggered a series of state abortion restrictions as well as ballot fights to preserve access to the procedure. And those fights could heat up this summer, as the high court is set to weigh in on access to a medication that’s commonly used in abortions.

Mifepristone, one of two drugs used to help induce abortions in the US, gained newfound attention—and scrutiny—as telehealth abortions became more popular during the Covid-19 pandemic and as more states moved to restrict abortion access after the Supreme Court’s June 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling.

Keep reading here.—SY

Do you work in healthcare or have information about the industry that we should know? Email Shannon at [email protected]. For confidential conversations, ask Shannon for her number on Signal.

Heard about supply chains recently? Yeah, they’re a doozy. They’ve become increasingly complex and involve risks stemming from globalization, extreme weather, geopolitical influences, and persistent raw material inflation. In short, your products are going *through* it.

Businesses are facing unprecedented challenges to keep their supply chain systems in check. That’s why NSF offers TraQtion.

TraQtion is a cloud-based quality and compliance software solution that helps retailers and manufacturers proactively manage their supply chain, sites, and product quality—all in one convenient place.

NSF is an industry pioneer in risk management mitigation, and their software solution knows a thing or 12 about boosting the safety, quality, and consistency of your product (which customers are sure to notice, BTW).

Conquer the chain. Learn more.

Nebraska Medicine, an Omaha-based health system with two hospitals and nearly 70 health centers, reduced its first-year nurse turnover by 47% with the help of an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered platform, according to a case study shared with Healthcare Brew.

More than one in five nurses (22.5%) left their health system in 2022, according to the most recent data from nursing agency NSI Nursing Solutions—and a lot of that turnover happens in the first year on the job.

After Nebraska Medicine incorporated Laudio, a platform that uses AI to help hospital leaders better manage their teams and thereby reduce turnover, executives reported significant retention improvement within eight months, Kelly Vaughn, the system’s VP of operations, told Healthcare Brew.

Keep reading here.—MA

Do you work in healthcare or have information about the industry that we should know? Email Maia at [email protected]. For confidential conversations, ask Maia for her number on Signal.

For CFOs trying to limit spikes in operating expenses, keeping healthcare costs in check might feel like trying to alter a law of nature. The sun rises in the east. Birds fly south for winter. Spending on healthcare outpaces inflation.

Now, skyrocketing demand for weight loss injections like Zepbound and Wegovy—as well as Mounjaro and Ozempic, the diabetes medications they’re based on and which are prescribed off-label for obesity—threatens to make the work even more difficult. The treatments increased employers’ prescription drug spending last year, according to Mercer, and that spending is bound to increase as more employers begin covering them. Prescription drugs are already the main reason employers’ healthcare costs have been rising.

That price increase is landing on the CFO’s desk. As part of a growing focus on strategy, including ways to reduce costs, a large share of CFOs have already been heavily involved in making benefits decisions, according to the Integrated Benefits Institute. More than half of CFOs said either that they make benefits decisions with other business functions or that they make most or even all most or even all benefits decisions themselves, according to a 2020 survey, the health and productivity research nonprofit’s most recent look at the topic.

Keep reading at CFO Brew.—GD

Do you work in healthcare or have information about the industry that we should know? Email Quinn at [email protected]. For confidential conversations, ask Quinn for their number on Signal.

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