Walmart is opening 25 new pharmacies to focus on patients with autoimmune diseases, the company announced on July 25.

As the third most common disease category in the US, roughly 50 million people (nearly 15% of the population) have an autoimmune disease, according to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. And while that number is likely an undercount due to how difficult these conditions can be to diagnose, autoimmunity has reached “epidemic levels” in the US, according to the National Health Council.

The 25 new pharmacies come after Walmart piloted six autoimmune-focused pharmacies in October 2023.

“These new locations will continue to make this specialized care more accessible,” Kevin Host, SVP of Walmart Health and Wellness Pharmacy, said in an emailed statement. “Since piloting this effort less than a year ago, our teams have seen the need, and recognized how to impact the communities we serve in meaningful ways.”

Keep reading here.—MA

What does the future of healthcare look like? Well, we don’t have the full picture, but we do know where you can go to get a good look at how the industry is innovating.

Don’t miss HLTH, the must-attend event for health and innovation leaders, focused on the theme “boldly stepping into health’s future.” This year, they'll be taking over the Venetian Expo Center in Las Vegas from October 20–23.

Get your in-person ticket to access HLTH’s content, which will include new tracks, such as:

• AI Pavilion: Experience live interactive demonstrations around use cases for AI in healthcare.
• Nurses @ HLTH: Elevate the voices of nurses and nurse leaders.
• Food as Medicine: See how nutrition and healthcare go hand in hand.

Tap in to the latest trends in healthcare. Get your ticket today.

From financial collapse to federal investigation, 2024 is not Steward Health Care’s year.

In the for-profit chain’s latest setback, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee voted on July 25 to launch a formal investigation into the Dallas-based system’s bankruptcy filing and subpoena its CEO Ralph de la Torre.

Senators on the bipartisan committee alleged in their remarks before the vote that de la Torre and other executives mismanaged the company’s finances and made bad business deals—such as selling off the chain’s real estate holdings in 2016—at the expense of patient care.

De la Torre made a gross salary of nearly $3.8 million in the year before bankruptcy, according to court documents obtained by Becker’s Hospital Review. “It is time for Congress to hold Dr. de la Torre accountable for his greed,” committee Chairman Sen. Bernie Sanders said ahead of the vote.

Keep reading here.—CC

A first-half study of the US healthcare sector revealed a cyber-salvo against the industry.

The report from threat-intel firm Cyble, which highlighted healthcare-specific cyberthreat activity from January to June of 2024, found:

• 121 ransomware attacks
• 18 verified data breaches

“The recent trend where we are seeing large number of attacks directly on these hospitals, healthcare providers, just shows the increasing desperation within the cybercriminal ecosystem, to basically target any organization for maximum monetary benefit,” Kaustubh Medhe, VP of research and cyber threat intelligence at Cyble, told IT Brew.

The FBI’s investigation of internet crime incidents last year also demonstrated a heavy targeting of hospitals. The agency’s 2023 Internet Crime Report found that its Internet Crime Complaint Center received 249 queries from ransomware-affected healthcare orgs—surpassing all critical infrastructure sectors, including critical manufacturing (which received 218 complaints) and government facilities (156 complaints).

Read more on IT Brew.—BH

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