Major national plans are bringing in record profits as they diversify their business lines. Providers, meanwhile, continue to feel the lingering effects of the pandemic on care costs, labor and the supply chain. Fierce's Paige Minemyer and Dave Muoio dive into the financial trends they spotted in covering fourth-quarter earnings.   

Also, in this episode, Frank Diamond interviews Michael Millenson, president of Health Quality Advisors, about patient safety in the post-COVID era. The U.S. healthcare system didn’t have a solid enough safety culture or infrastructure before the pandemic. As a result, patient safety has suffered even more.

To learn more about topics in this episode:

• Optum expects to treat 4M in fully accountable, value-based models this year
• UnitedHealth continues to lead the way on insurer profits in Q3. Here's how its competitors fared
• Universal Health Services sees dipping profits despite halving contract labor costs from previous quarter
• Nearly a quarter of inpatient admissions experienced an adverse event in 2018, Massachusetts hospital study finds
• CMS threatens citations for hospitals without appropriate workplace safety practices
• Patient safety advocate cheers CMS' reversal on quality reporting, but hospitals say the data are no good

"Podnosis" is produced by senior multimedia producer Teresa Carey and managing editor Querida Anderson with editor-in-chief Ayla Ellison and senior editors Heather Landi and Paige Minemyer. The sound engineer is Caleb Hodgson. The interviews are by all our “Fierce” journalists. Like and subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts.

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