Humana is exiting Medicare Advantage plans that cover around 600,000 members next year. That's the second year in a row they've pulled back. Aetna is trimming its lineup too. Presbyterian is dropping most of its MA business. Becker's has been keeping a running tally all summer, and the seniors who get the letters by September 30 mostly land right back in traditional, fee-for-service Medicare.

The scope-of-practice fight got loud again this summer. Indiana became the latest state to hand nurse practitioners full practice authority. New York spent the spring in a standoff over whether its NPs get to keep practicing on their own past a July 1 deadline. And the AMA, of all groups, put out research with a headline that cuts against the whole premise of the debate. Where do NPs go once you f

A piece went around last week with a headline most hospital executives would never say out loud. Stop saying there's a nursing shortage. TIME ran it on July 30, and RegisteredNursing.org built a whole 2026 analysis around the same data the next day. Here's the number that should stop you cold. More than 280,000 people passed the NCLEX in 2025, up about 34 percent from 2016. Around 7 million nurses