UHS acquires Talkspace for $835M to expand behavioral health access

Universal Health Services finalized its $835 million acquisition of online therapy provider Talkspace on Monday, closing a deal that was first announced five months ago and cleared necessary regulatory approvals in the interim. The transaction bolsters the for-profit health system’s existing behavioral health offerings. UHS CEO Marc Miller called the move a “game changer,” stating that integrating Talkspace expands behavioral health services for the company’s current patient base while also aiming to bring more consumers into the health system. The acquisition allows UHS to provide further services and represents a significant expansion of the company’s telehealth capabilities within the behavioral health sector.

UnitedHealth ignored cybersecurity gaps for years before Change Healthcare attack, investor suit says2 sources

Two institutional investors filed suit against UnitedHealth Group on August 17, 2026, alleging the company spent years ignoring governance and cybersecurity gaps while deceiving investors, artificially inflating share prices, and defrauding Medicare. The complaint accuses UnitedHealth of manipulating earnings and shuttering an internal Medicare billing audit, and argues that neglected cybersecurity deficiencies directly enabled the Change Healthcare cyberattack. Plaintiffs further allege the company rushed its acquisition of a claims processing business while concealing operational failures and issuing misleading financial disclosures. Jill Hughes reported the filing for Healthcare Dive.

Cook Medical reports cyber breach with no evidence of sensitive data theft

Cook Medical, a Bloomington, Indiana-based medical device maker, has confirmed that an outside party gained access to company systems. The company says operations are running normally. Exposed data included contact information for U.S. and Canadian customers, Salesforce communication records, internal business files, employee names, and company email addresses. Cook Medical found no evidence that sensitive or protected data was obtained, and that assertion remains the company’s primary public position. No details about the attacker’s identity or the specific timeline of the intrusion were disclosed.

Abridge extends AI clinical decision support to all clinicians across 300 health systems

San Francisco-based Abridge is extending context-aware clinical decision support to every clinician across its partner health systems, regardless of how patient visits are documented, the company announced in an August 17 news release. Since launching in April, the tool has been adopted by more than 300 enterprise health systems representing over 250 million patients. The rollout broadens access across Abridge’s full partner base, standardizing clinical support capabilities for all providers within the ecosystem and integrating with existing documentation workflows. The company tracks monthly active users within its network as it scales clinical decision support infrastructure across its entire partner health system network.

Insurer prior authorization denial rates span 2% to 25%, new federal data reveals

For the first time, federal regulators have a comprehensive look at how often insurers say no. CMS required health plans to disclose prior authorization denial rates, and a KFF analysis of the newly released data reveals a range spanning 2% to 25% across carriers last year. The figures, which cover the previous calendar year, expose wide operational differences among major health plans and quantify the administrative barriers providers face when seeking coverage approval. Federal regulators mandated the disclosure to address concerns about opaque insurer practices, and the data makes plain that a patient’s access to care can hinge heavily on which insurance card they carry.

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