Hantavirus outbreak tests U.S. preparedness, fair weather for major insurers, overdose deaths continue to fall but new threat emerging

Explore Kaufman Hall’s Gist Weekly for May 8, 2026, featuring expert insights on healthcare policy, hospital strategy, AI, M&A activity, workforce trends, and the latest industry developments.

This week’s Gist Weekly covers key healthcare industry developments including hospital financial performance trends, emerging care delivery strategies, and notable policy and regulatory updates shaping providers, payers, and the broader healthcare landscape.

Explore how non-acute partnerships can drive strategic growth, improve care delivery, and create value beyond traditional scale in today’s evolving healthcare landscape.

Learn why healthcare strategic partnerships falter and how to improve outcomes with credible business cases, aligned incentives, durable structures, rigorous due diligence, and simpler, effective agreements from real-world deal insights.

In healthcare today, organizations can face opportunities across geographies and sectors, each with their own unique benefits and risks. But like a fruit tree at harvest time, these opportunities can be time sensitive.

This episode features Kris Blohm and Courtney Midanek, Managing Directors and Co-Practice Leads for Mergers and Acquisitions at Kaufman Hall, as they explore how health systems can use a holistic, data-driven approach to assess operations, optimize service lines, and drive long-term success.

As healthcare market conditions continue to stabilize after several years of pandemic-era volatility, many hospital and health system leaders are revisiting their organizations’ strategic options for long-term sustainability.

The latest Kaufman Hall Report includes an inside look at resetting organizational enterprise strategy.

Health systems are faced with two conflicting realities. The first is that partnerships will continue to be a necessary and critical part of healthcare strategy. The second is that antitrust enforcement will continue to create strong barriers to these same partnerships.

In a new episode of "Counsel That Cares," Holland & Knight healthcare attorney Jesse Neil and Anu Singh, a managing director at Kaufman Hall, discuss the complexity of healthcare markets, the impact of COVID-19 and potential partnership models for public hospitals aiming to remain viable and fulfill their community commitment amid industry shifts.

In a roundtable discussion, Kaufman Hall Managing Directors Matthew Bates and Nora Kelly and Senior Vice President Max Timm discuss the rise of risk-based contracting in value-based healthcare arrangements, what providers and insurers need to watch out for, and what success in risk-based contracting will look like.