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
340B rebate models arrive in the form of a new pilot program
Federal healthcare officials took a step last week toward permitting rebate models in the 340B Drug Pricing Program, launching a pilot to allow for the testing of such models. The idea was proposed over the past year by drug manufacturers looking to rein in what they say are excesses of the 340B program. Rather than…
News Briefs: Budget reconciliation bill finalized with big implications for Medicaid
Declines in coverage and spending await the healthcare industry under the budget reconciliation bill signed into law by President Donald Trump on July 4. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects $912 billion in reduced Medicaid spending and 10 million additional uninsured Americans in 2034 as a result of the law known as the One Big…
HFMA Annual Conference news highlights
HFMA’s Annual Conference kicked off June 22 in Denver with a major industry announcement, and over the next three days, the event featured timely news, guidance and best practices for healthcare finance professionals. Here is a sampling of the content offerings from the 80+ sessions at the conference. HFMA announces new tool to quantify the…
Medicare final rule brings a mixed bag for FY26 hospital inpatient payments
Hospitals collectively will receive a base payment increase of 2.6% in Medicare reimbursement for inpatient care provided in FY26, according to a newly published final rule. It’s a somewhat uneventful set of regulations compared with the recently released 2026 proposed rule for Medicare outpatient payments. But hospitals were hoping for a bigger inpatient update, with…
CMS looks to modernize the U.S. digital health infrastructure
Eight health systems have joined a Trump administration initiative to accelerate the implementation of integrated patient-facing technology in the healthcare ecosystem. The agreement is a voluntary pledge by the health systems to be early adopters of forthcoming technology that will be designed, in part, to enhance interoperability and eliminate paper-based clinical encounters. Participants will be…
Reeling payers plan to increase scrutiny of providers’ coding practices
Health insurers see provider coding practices as one factor in unfavorable cost trends, several companies said during recent earnings calls. Those cost trends, in turn, have driven substandard Q2 financial results. “We know this adjustment is disappointing, and we’re taking concrete actions to address it,” Gail Boudreaux, president and CEO of Elevance Health said recently,…
In comments, for-profit hospital leaders don’t dwell on ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ impact
Leaders of for-profit hospital chains ranged from noncommittal to confident in recent remarks about impending rollbacks to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Hospitals have several years to prepare for some of the changes, and the interval also leaves time to modify policies in the newly passed budget reconciliation bill, health system leaders said…
AI technology brings wholesale CDI benefits to Intermountain Health
At a time when the healthcare labor picture is marked by sustained high costs and shortages of key roles, one department at Intermountain Health found a way to operate as though it had six additional FTEs without an increase in the headcount. The enhanced productivity was one benefit of implementing AI technology in clinical documentation…
Perils and promise of Medicare Advantage highlighted at congressional hearing
Testimony during a congressional hearing this week highlighted the strain hospitals are experiencing from the administrative roadblocks posed by Medicare Advantage (MA). For all the potential seen in the program to improve health and care delivery, MA is not working the way it should, several industry experts acknowledged during the July 22 joint hearing of…
The latest on providers’ landmark antitrust suit alleging price fixing by MultiPlan and healthcare insurers
Billions of dollars are at issue in an ongoing lawsuit in which providers allege price fixing by a vendor and a large segment of the health insurance industry. Providers bringing the suit maintain that the healthcare technology solutions company MultiPlan and roughly 700 health plans conspired to suppress reimbursement for out-of-network services over a decade…