Healthcare & Power

Imaging groups and health systems in North Carolina’s larger counties can add MRI magnets without a state need determination under a 2023 law. Effects on costs, access and scanner counts remain predictions until the exemption takes effect.

Tennessee will replace need-based review with licensure for cath labs, satellite EDs and hospitals. Leaders planning capacity must watch how licensing conditions work, and whether federal rural grant incentives are driving the change, as HFMA reported.

The trade association says more than 40% of rural hospitals have negative operating margins and expects federal changes to add strain. Managers and policy watchers should separate its measured figures from its forecasts and policy requests.

Federal financing and a Medicare payment incentive support U.S. molybdenum-99 production. NorthStar’s earlier withdrawal shows why technical success is only part of the problem.