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
Key Senate committee eyes healthcare reform in the name of affordability
As described at a recent Senate hearing, hospitals, insurers and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) all are under scrutiny by Congress in efforts to curb the growth in healthcare costs. The Senate Health, Labor Education and Pensions (HELP) Committee held a July 31 hearing to examine ways to make healthcare more affordable for consumers and other…
Aetna’s new payment policy could leave hospitals at a disadvantage
Hospitals should take note of an insurer’s new approach regarding the two-midnight rule, especially given the potential implications if the policy becomes widely adopted. In a recent communication, Aetna said providers that contract with the company’s Medicare Advantage (MA) plans and Medicare Special Needs Plans face a new policy beginning Nov. 15 in instances when…
Finalized regulations look to phase out the manual aspect of prior authorization
Medicare’s FY26 final rule for hospital inpatient payments includes the latest federal effort to streamline and improve prior authorization. The rule has a subset of regulations titled “Health Data, Technology and Interoperability: Electronic Prescribing, Real-Time Prescription Benefit and Electronic Prior Authorization,” issued by HHS’s Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy and Office of the National Coordinator…
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…