Nick Hut
About the Author
Nick Hut is a former newspaper reporter with more than a decade of experience at HFMA. His HFMA Daily reporting is considered a top benefit of membership as members have come to rely on Hut’s daily insights on policy, legal and business developments. He has been at the forefront of major industry news, garnering a following from national media. Nick has earned multiple national awards, including two first-place honors in 2024 from the American Society of Business Publication Editors for excellence in analysis and reporting.
Latest Work
Johnson & Johnson looks to make a big change in how hospitals obtain 340B price discounts (updated-2)
Note: This article was most recently updated Oct. 1 with information on Johnson & Johnson’s change of plans regarding a proposed 340B rebate program. See that update below. A leading drug manufacturer opened a new chapter in the fight with hospitals over the 340B Drug Pricing Program, requiring the use of a rebate program to…
A key election question: What will happen to the enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies?
Earl Pomeroy knows from experience that the politics surrounding the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are dicey. As a Democratic member of the House Ways and Means Committee, Pomeroy helped pass the ACA during his ninth term representing North Dakota. After that, “I lost my job,” he recalled. Since his time in Congress ended with his…
The financial state of the not-for-profit hospital sector: key takeaways from the latest medians
The financial condition of the U.S. not-for-profit (NFP) hospital industry can be described as steadily improving but still struggling, according to insights from two of the three main credit-rating agencies. Fitch Ratings and S&P Global both recently issued reports on sector medians, using audited data from 2023. The companies described an industry that has rebounded…
Hospitals see a margin advantage as care migrates to the outpatient department
The site-of-care shift toward the outpatient setting increasingly is manifesting in margin per case, according to recent financial data. “While overall margins for both inpatient and outpatient hip and knee replacement surgeries have declined, outpatient procedures now have higher margins than inpatient procedures,” Strata Decision Technology wrote in its Performance Trends Report for Q2 (registration…
CMS announces negotiated Medicare Part D drug prices, looks to blunt a potential spike in premiums (updated)
Note: This article was updated Oct. 2 with news about 2025 projected Part D premiums. See the update below. CMS announced the first set of negotiated drug prices under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and recently moved to head off a significant premium increase that’s projected to arise due to provisions in the 2022 law.…
Hospital revenue is enhanced by state-directed Medicaid payments, health systems report
State-directed supplemental payments made through Medicaid are a growing source of hospital revenue, according to financial reporting from the for-profit hospital sector. In reporting their Q2 financials, several of the nation’s largest health systems cited Medicaid supplemental payments as a boost. State-directed payments are a relatively new form of those payments, applying to Medicaid managed…
The courts continue to favor providers in No Surprises Act litigation, this time at the appellate level
After a string of victories in federal district court, a medical association’s success at contesting aspects of the No Surprises Act’s arbitration process recently continued at the appellate level. In an Aug. 2 ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld a lower court’s finding that regulations issued in 2022 gave too…
Mandatory Medicare bundled payments and respiratory disease reporting are on the way for hospitals
Hospitals in nearly a quarter of U.S. markets soon will be required to participate in a Medicare bundled payment model covering five surgical procedures, CMS said in newly released regulations. The model is among several policies of note in Medicare’s FY25 final rule for hospital inpatient care and long-term care hospitals. See this previous article…
Hospitals will get only a small bump in Medicare inpatient payments for FY25
Hospital representatives were less than excited about the rate update in Medicare’s FY25 final rule for inpatient care and long-term care hospitals. Published Aug. 1, the rule includes a 2.9% rate increase for acute care hospitals in the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. The increase is derived from a 3.4% hike in the market…
The fate of the FTC’s ‘noncompete’ rule appears muddled after early court decisions (updated)
Aug. 20 update: This article has been updated with news that a court has halted the FTC’s rule from taking effect. See the update below. A highly scrutinized rule prohibiting employers from using noncompete agreements has received a mixed reaction in the courts during the leadup to its implementation. Set to take effect Sept. 4,…