• California/Minnesota: Sutter Health and Allina Health have signed a letter of intent to combine and create a 39-hospital health system spanning California, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. According to the organizations, the proposed merger will help expand access to care and improve affordability through $2 billion in investments toward ambulatory care, specialty services, and digital and AI-enabled tools. Under the transaction, Allina would become Sutter's Upper Midwest Division while still retaining its board of directors, brand, and regional headquarters in Minneapolis. "At Allina Health, we have been thinking about partners that would enable us to better serve our community — partners that would value our strengths and share our aligned mission, our view of the future and our values," said Allina president and CEO Lisa Shannon. "This has been almost a yearlong journey discussing how we could better serve our communities together." Over the next few months, the organizations will complete their due diligence and finalize terms before entering a definitive agreement. Currently, the deal is expected to close by the end of 2026, pending regulatory approval. (Gooch, Becker's Hospital Review, 3/17)
• Maryland: Earlier this month, VRBPAC unanimously recommended including a new flu variant called subclade K in the 2026-2027 influenza vaccines. Subclade K is a variant of the H3N2 influenza virus that emerged in late 2025. Since then, it has become the dominant strain in the Northern Hemisphere. Subclade K has also been linked to earlier and more severe flu outbreaks in several countries, including the United States where there was a surge in flu hospitalizations during the winter. According to Becker's Clinical Leadership, VRBPAC's recommendations align with those issued by the World Health Organization in late February. Typically, decisions about the composition of flu vaccines are made in February or March since manufacturers need several months to produce and distribute the shots in time for the fall flu season. However, the strains selected for the vaccine are not always the ones circulating during flu season. "We were reminded about how difficult strain selection is" this year, said Arnold Monto, acting VRBPAC chair and a professor of public health and epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. "It's a little bit of science, a little bit of luck." (Cerutti, Becker's Clinical Leadership, 3/13; Szabo, CIDRAP News, 3/12)
• Maryland: CMS will transition to an independent dispute resolution (IDR) "gateway" during the second half of the year. Instead of using single-use web forms, the agency will rely on a "secure, centralized platform" to manage disputes. According to Becker's Hospital Review, the IDR process stems from the No Surprises Act, which has continued to receive pushback, leading to investigations and lawsuits. Since 2022, the IDR process has cost $5 billion, with $2.8 billion coming from administrative fees. The IDR process also has a significant backlog, with HHS receiving 90,000 claims in the first few months of the IDR portal launching in 2022. So far, there is limited information about the new IDR platform, but CMS said it will share more information soon. (Casolo, Becker's Hospital Review, 3/16)

Over the last few months, vaccine recommendations and policy have changed rapidly, leading to growing confusion and uncertainty among both patients and providers. Radio Advisory's Rae Woods outlines the impacts of these changes, what to expect in the near term, and what leaders can do to prepare.