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Facing public backlash, some health care companies are abandoning hospital deals

Facing public backlash, some health care companies are abandoning hospital deals

Anna Claire Vollers | (TNS) Stateline.org

Worried about hospitals closing and higher costs for patients, state lawmakers are increasingly tangling with hospitals over potential health care mergers, in some cases derailing deals they think don’t serve the public interest.

Financially strapped hospitals often look to merge with or be acquired by other systems. After a pandemic-era slowdown, health care mergers and acquisitions have risen steadily over the past two years. But some proposed hospital deals in Connecticut, Louisiana, Minnesota and elsewhere have fizzled amid heavy pushback from lawmakers, organized labor and grassroots organizations.

At least 10 health care “megadeals” were called off or unwound just last year, due in part to increased oversight, reported Becker’s Hospital Review, an industry publication.

“We have seen situations nationally in certain health care transactions where a lot of promises were made, but when you look into it, clinics are closing, prices are going up, access is down,” Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, a Democrat, told Stateline. read more

Wendy’s isn’t the first: Dynamic pricing is everywhere

Wendy’s isn’t the first: Dynamic pricing is everywhere

By Anna Helhoski | NerdWallet

When word got around that the burger chain Wendy’s would start surging prices in 2025, the backlash was swift. What followed was a swarm of media coverage, outraged customers, late-night TV jokes and a bevy of spicy memes.

It seemed the fast food chain’s alleged dastardly plans were dead on arrival. That is, they might have been if surging prices for your Frosty and fries was what Wendy’s was really planning to do. Wendy’s quickly clarified that it wasn’t surge pricing, after all; it was actually using “dynamic pricing.” That distinction is key, but it’s still business-school speak that’s not clear to most people.

“I think they didn’t think through how people would interpret that phrase,” says Robert Shumsky, a professor of operations management at Dartmouth University’s Tuck School of Business.

Here’s the difference: Surge pricing uses real-time supply and demand data to raise — and only raise — prices. If you’ve ever tried to get a rideshare during rush hour, you’ve experienced how surge pricing hikes up the cost of your fare. Dynamic pricing, on the other hand, uses real-time supply and demand data to fluctuate prices up or down. read more

More medical-marijuana licenses could go to Black Florida farmers

More medical-marijuana licenses could go to Black Florida farmers

TALLAHASSEE — State lawmakers have signed off again on expanding the number of medical-marijuana licenses earmarked for Black farmers, opening the door for three applicants who lost out earlier.

Expansion of such licenses was included in a wide-ranging Department of Health bill (SB 1582) that also addresses such issues as septic-tank inspections and screening for newborns and pregnant women.

A provision added to the bill in the last week of this year’s legislative session would help at least three Black farmers who had sought medical-pot licenses but were deemed ineligible to apply by state officials.

Passage of the bill is the latest twist in a drawn-out effort to allow Black farmers to join the state’s cannabis program, which has exploded in size since voters approved a constitutional amendment broadly authorizing medical marijuana in 2016.

If signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis, the bill would bring to six the number of potentially lucrative medical-marijuana licenses earmarked for Black farmers with ties to decades-old litigation about discriminatory lending practices by federal officials. read more

Astronaut Thomas Stafford, commander of Apollo 10, dies at 93

Astronaut Thomas Stafford, commander of Apollo 10, dies at 93

Astronaut Thomas P. Stafford, who commanded the Apollo 10 dress rehearsal flight for the 1969 moon landing and the first U.S.-Soviet space linkup, died Monday. He was 93.

Stafford, a retired Air Force three-star general, took part in four space missions. Before Apollo 10, he flew on two Gemini flights, including the first rendezvous of two U.S. capsules in orbit. He died in a hospital near his Space Coast Florida home, said Max Ary, director of the Stafford Air & Space Museum in Weatherford, Oklahoma.

Stafford was one of 24 NASA astronauts who flew to the moon, but he did not land on it. Only seven of them are still alive.

“Today General Tom Stafford went to the eternal heavens which he so courageously explored as a Gemini and Apollo astronaut as well as a peacemaker in Apollo Soyuz,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said via X, formerly known as Twitter. “Those of us privileged to know him are very sad but grateful we knew a giant.”

General Thomas Stafford, an Apollo astronaut, waves during a black tie event celebrating the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 and the moon landing. The event, sponsored by Omega watches, was at the Kennedy Space Center on Thursday, May 9 2019. (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel)
Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel

General Thomas Stafford, an Apollo astronaut, waves during a black tie event celebrating the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 and the moon landing. The event, sponsored by Omega watches, was at the Kennedy Space Center on Thursday, May 9 2019. (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel)

After he put away his flight suit, Stafford was the go-to guy for NASA when it sought independent advice on everything from human Mars missions to safety issues to returning to flight after the 2003 space shuttle Columbia accident. He chaired an oversight group that looked into how to fix the then-flawed Hubble Space Telescope, earning a NASA public service award. read more

Businesses are ready for April’s total solar eclipse with celestial-themed doughnuts and beer

Businesses are ready for April’s total solar eclipse with celestial-themed doughnuts and beer

By WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS (AP Business Writer)

NEW YORK (AP) — Eclipse-themed beer. Jewelry and ornaments. And doughnuts that capture the sun’s disappearing act with the help of buttercream frosting.

With April 8’s total solar eclipse right around the corner, businesses are ready for the celestial event that will dim skies along a generous path across North America.

There are oodles of special eclipse safety glasses for sale, along with T-shirts emblazoned with clever slogans and other souvenirs — just like the last time the U.S. got a big piece of the total solar eclipse action in 2017.

Hotels and resorts along the prime path are luring in visitors with special packages and Southwest and Delta are selling seats on eclipse-viewing flights. Cities, museums and parks are staging watch parties to draw in tourists as well as residents.

“This is a special event and … the travel industry certainly is in a very good spot,” said Jie Zhang, a marketing professor at the University of Maryland’s business school. She also noted the eclipse craze arrives at a time when consumers are continuing to ramp up spending on new experiences. read more