According to a new trustees report, Social Security and Medicare could run out of funds as soon as 2033, earlier than last year's prediction, in today's bite-sized hospital and health industry news from California, Georgia, and Maryland.
- California: The Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine is partnering with Pepperdine Graziado Business School to launch a new integrated MD/MBA program. The dual degree program aims to provide medical students with business, leadership, and financial skills alongside their clinical education. "Over the years, many physicians in our Executive MBA programs have shared their desire to better understand business and organizational management. A common reflection we hear is, 'I wish I had done my MBA much earlier in my career,'" said Clemens Kownatzki, associate dean of academic programs and associate professor of finance at Pepperdine Graziadio. "This dual-degree program allows medical students to gain that critical business knowledge at the outset of their careers." (Bean, Becker's Hospital Review, 6/19)
- Georgia: According to a new CDC report, U.S. overdose deaths increased slightly between 2024 and 2025, reversing the recent trend of declining drug deaths. During the 12-month period between January 2024 and January 2025, there were roughly 82,138 overdose deaths, an increase of around 1,400 from the previous 12-month period. Although it is a relatively small increase, some addiction researchers said the report's findings are troubling. "If we assume it's not a blip, this makes it more likely that the sudden drop [in fatal overdoses] was a one-off event rather than a fundamental change in epidemic dynamics," said Keith Humphreys, a researcher at Stanford University. Some health experts have also expressed concerns about cuts to federal addiction-related public health and science programs and potential cuts to Medicaid impacting U.S. overdose deaths going forward. "America is still in the middle of an incredibly deadly addiction and overdose crisis," said Stephen Taylor, head of the American Society of Addiction Medicine. "Reducing federal support for Medicaid — the largest payer of mental health and substance use disorder treatment — would be a sign of retreat." (Mann, NPR, 6/18)
- Maryland: According to a new trustees report, Social Security and Medicare could run out of funds by 2033 if Congress does not change how the programs are financed. Last year, the programs' trustees projected that Social Security would be insolvent by 2035 and Medicare by 2036. The new report predicts that Social Security could run out of funds by 2033 or 2034 and Medicare by 2033. According to the trustees, Medicare spent more money on beneficiaries' hospital bills in 2024 than originally projected, which led them to move up the program's insolvency date by three years. "Current-law projections indicate that Medicare still faces a substantial financial shortfall that needs to be addressed with further legislation," the trustees wrote in the report. "Such legislation should be enacted sooner rather than later to minimize the impact on beneficiaries, providers, and taxpayers." (Associated Press/MedPage Today, 6/18; Zauzmer Weil, Washington Post, 6/18)
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