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U.S. hospitals' median operating margin could sink to -7% by the end of 2020 without additional federal government support to offset COVID-19 losses, a new report finds. The American Hospital Association commissioned the report from healthcare consultancy Kaufman Hall and timed its release on Tuesday to coincide with bipartisan talks around a new federal COVID-19 relief package, just as increased unemployment benefits are set to expire. The prominent hospital lobbying group has released multiple reports during the pandemic to support its requests for more federal grants and loans. (Bannow, 7/21)

Should your doctor ask you to make a donation to help the medical center where you were treated? If you are a generous donor, should you be rewarded with a better room — or your doctor’s cellphone number? Medical centers across the United States are asking patients, especially wealthy ones, to donate money, in addition to whatever they pay for actual care. The money is needed, the providers say, to defray costs or provide charity care. (Kolata, 7/21)

While healthcare industry lobbying dipped in the second quarter of 2020, private equity-backed physician staffing firms beefed up their work on Capitol Hill. Envision Healthcare and TeamHealth were the two largest backers of a dark-money group that blanketed airwaves with ads opposing benchmarking policies to protect patients from surprise medical bills. Despite cutting physicians' hours due to the COVID-19 pandemic, both increased their lobbying spending last quarter. (Cohrs, 7/21)

A fund launched in 2012 by the biotech venture capital firm Flagship Pioneering is on track to return its investors’ money nine times over. That’s the eyebrow-raising return multiple for Flagship Ventures Fund IV — the highest recorded return multiple in a new STAT report that took a deep dive into returns data for more than a dozen of the country’s top biotech venture capital firms. (Sheridan, 7/22)