Editors’ Top Five Week of February 19, 2018

Healthcare Spending to Reach 19.7% of GDP Within a Decade
The growth over the next decade will largely be driven by economic and demographic factors, including changes in projected income growth, increases in medical prices and a shift in insurance enrollment from private health insurance to Medicare due to the aging U.S. population. (Jeff Byers/Healthcare Dive)

Skilled Nursing Providers Would Lose Out Under Trump’s Revised Payments
A plan to lump together payments to all post-acute providers would be a budget cut dressed up as reform, providers said after reviewing the Department of Health and Human Services budget proposal. (Kimberly Marselas/McKnights Long-Term Care News)

Medical Device Industry Wants to End Payment Logjams
In recent weeks, members of the industry have celebrated victories on Capitol Hill, including the suspension of Obamacare’s medical device tax in the January spending bill and the Republican-backed tax law. (Kimberly Leonard/The Washington Examiner)

Amazon’s Latest Ambition: To Be a Major Hospital Supplier
Amazon.com Inc. is pushing to turn its nascent medical-products business into a major supplier to U.S. hospitals and outpatient clinics that could compete with distributors of items ranging from gauze to hip implants. (Melanie Evans and Laura Stevens/Wall Street Journal)

FDA Commissioner Releases Proposal
The FDA released a proposal to help accelerate new medical treatments for neurological disorders such as muscular dystrophies, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Alzheimer’s disease, migraine and epilepsy. The agency emphasized moving away from the more siloed structure that has “had people working in discrete organizational units.” Bloomberg reports.