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Another three New York City hospitals reached tentative contract agreements with unions overnight Friday, leaving about 8,700 nurses still prepared to strike on Monday to protest what they say are unsafe staffing levels. (Coleman-Lochner, 1/7)

Nurses at two of New York City's largest hospitals were set to go on strike Monday in a dispute over pay and staffing levels after a weekend of negotiations that has yet to produce a deal for a new contract. The walkout, set to begin at 6 a.m., would involve as many as 3,600 nurses at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan and 3,500 at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. (1/9)

With more than half of U.S. hospitals expected to lose money over the last year, some industry groups are pressing the Congress to decide which should be designated "essential" to qualify for more federal funds. Billions of dollars could be on the line. But there's no standard definition of an essential hospital, and many facilities claim to be safety nets. (Dreher, 1/9)

A rush of vaccines, virus tests and a busy flu season started overwhelming pharmacies more than a year ago, forcing many to temporarily close when workers weren’t available. Major drugstore chains have raised pay and dangled signing bonuses to add employees. They’re also emphasizing the lunch breaks and sending routine prescription work to other locations to improve conditions in their pandemic-battered pharmacies. (Murphy, 1/7)

Dr. Paul Jeffords and his colleagues at Atlanta-based Resurgens Orthopaedics were worried about their ability to survive financially, even though their independent orthopedic practice was the largest in Georgia, with nearly 100 physicians. They nervously watched other physician practices sell out entirely to large hospital systems and health insurers. They refused to consider doing that. (Meyer, 1/6)

Congress was full of good intentions when it directed the Department of Health and Human Services to make sure patients get their test results as soon as they’re available. But the implementation of that directive has set off a battle between doctors on one side and HHS and patient advocates on the other, and raised a fundamental question: How should patients get bad news? The debate underscores how medicine’s digital transformation is changing the doctor-patient relationship and upending ingrained practices. (Leonard, 1/9)

Alaska has violated state and federal law by failing to process Medicaid applications in a timely manner, according to an Anchorage-based civil rights law firm that settled a class-action lawsuit in federal court with the state three years ago. (Maguire, 1/7)

For years, BioMarin CEO Jean-Jacques “J.J.” Bienaime has been saying that Roctavian — the company’s gene therapy to treat hemophilia A — could be the biggest product the biotech firm has ever launched. Based on a meeting with STAT Sunday, his hopes don’t seem to have dimmed a bit despite the regulatory delays the product has faced in the U.S. (Herper, 1/8)

Virtual care provider Teladoc Health is refreshing its app more than two years after acquiring Livongo Health for $18.5 billion. Teladoc introduced the new app at the 2023 Consumer Electronics Show conference, held in Las Vegas. The app will provide primary care, mental health and chronic care management services across a single platform in either English or Spanish.  (Turner, 1/6)

Anglo-Swedish pharma giant AstraZeneca PLC has agreed to buy CinCor Pharma Inc., including global rights to its baxdrostat cardiorenal drug, for an upfront transaction value of around $1.3 billion. ... The deal is expected to close in the first quarter.AstraZeneca said the acquisition will bolster its cardiorenal pipeline by adding baxdrostat, an inhibitor that has shown promise in clinical trials lowering blood pressure in treatment-resistant hypertension. (Hoppe, 1/9)