Fierce Healthcare offers a bunch of snippet forecasts on the future of healthcare in 2020. For example

We have a lot of hospital beds in brick-and-mortar institutions and
we’re going to move to community- and home-based sites of care, which is
more convenient for the patient. Consumers are demanding easier access
to services.

The telehealth capabilities and sensors that we can put into the home
now, these devices are not just gadgets but good enough for diagnosis
and treatment. And we’re going to see more security risks so we need to
redouble our efforts to make sure data is protected and data integrity
as well. If data is altered, that can be worse than if the data were
deleted.”

— John Halamka, M.D., president, Mayo Clinic Platform

The Wall Street Journal reports today that 

More than 60 [prescription] drug makers raised prices in the U.S. on Wednesday,
according to an analysis from Rx Savings Solutions, which sells software
to help employers and health plans choose the least-expensive
medicines. The average increase was 5.8%, according to the analysis,
including increases on different doses for the same drug. The average is just below that of a year ago, when more than
50 companies raised the prices on hundreds of drugs by an average of more than 6%, according to the analysis.

The CPI-U increased by 2.1% over the period November 2018 to November 2019.

Healthcare Dive informs us that

• Hospital consolidation is associated with poorer patient experiences and doesn’t improve care, according to a study published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, refuting a common provider justification for rampant mergers and acquisitions.
• The study funded by HHS’ health quality research division, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, found that acquired hospitals saw moderately worse patient experience, along with no change in 30-day mortality or readmission rates. ​Acquired hospitals did improve slightly in clinical process, though that can’t be directly chalked up to the results of an acquisition, researchers found.
• It’s further evidence that bigger isn’t always better when it comes to hospitals, and adds onto a heap of previous studies showing provider mergers lead to higher prices for commercially insured patients.

West Georgia Ambulance, Inc. (West Georgia), has agreed to pay $65,000 to the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and to adopt a corrective action plan to settle potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Security Rule. West Georgia is an ambulance company that provides emergency and non-emergency ambulance services in Carroll County, Georgia.

West Georgia stepped into hot water when it reported a data breach to OCR as required by law.