Top Stories of the Week

Here are the developments that marked the last week in healthcare, handpicked by Becker's editors. To receive curated articles like this in your inbox daily, sign up for the Hospital Review newsletter here.

• The spotlight on GLP-1s is as bright as ever. Leaders of some hospital employee health are rethinking their coverage plans with respect to weight loss indications and off-label prescribing. In addition, a week after a study connected Ozempic and Wegovy to an eye condition that can cause partial blindness, two ophthalmology organizations said they have "been aware of other vision changes for some time." And a separate study found using Mounjaro for one year led to more weight loss than Ozempic did.
• Two rival hospitals in Terre Haute, Ind., seeking to merge are the first to test the state's certificate of public advantage law, which allows state regulators to approve deals the FTC would consider anticompetitive.??
• A handful of whopping donations are benefiting healthcare organizations. That list includes Johns Hopkins University, which is making medical school free for qualifying students with help from Bloomberg Philanthropies, and health systems receiving a share of $545 million in donations from investment firm founder Kenneth Griffin.?
• The OR is fueling growth at Dignity Health — their chief medical officer shares how, here.
• Emory Smyrna Hospital, part of Emory Healthcare, plans to close Dec. 29.
• CommonSpirit plans to lay off workers at hospitals in Oregon and Tennessee in the wake of a $365 million operating loss.?
• Cut wait times, improve throughput & productivity: 1 system shares its path to success, here.
• Hackensack Meridian Health filed a lawsuit against HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, challenging the secretary's interpretation of CMS' administration of the Medicare statutes.?
• CIO compensation is up 7.48% at large enterprises and 9% at midsize enterprises over the past year. A major factor driving the trend: artificial intelligence.
• Turn a crisis into cash. How systems can recover financially after a cyberattack: here.

Read more at Becker's Hospital Review.