An overview of the top health industry stories from this year.
From breakthrough innovations to policy overhaul and public health debates, 2025 was another transformative year in healthcare news. In this article, Repertoire Magazine looks back at the stories and trends that defined the industry this year.
Vaccine policy
Policy related to vaccination has been a major topic of discussion in 2025, having continued to evolve throughout the year as public health agencies and healthcare providers adapt to a changing vaccine regulatory framework.
HHS restructuring of Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices
In June 2025, current Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. restructured the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP), which develops recommendations on the use of vaccines to control disease in the United States. All 17 sitting members of the committee were removed and replaced with new members. The Biden administration appointed all 17 of the former sitting ACIP members, 13 of which were appointed in 2024. ACIP’s vaccination recommendations become official Center for Disease Control (CDC) policy once adopted by the Director of the CDC.
FDA ends emergency use authorization for COVID vaccines
In August 2025, The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rescinded emergency use authorizations (EUAs) for COVID-19 vaccines. The Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) authority allows the FDA to help strengthen the nation’s public health protections against threats like infectious diseases by facilitating the availability and use of medical countermeasures (MCMs) needed during public health emergencies, according to the FDA. The Secretary of HHS declares when an emergency use authorization is appropriate; HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stated that the COVID-19 EAU decision was made to end national coronavirus vaccine mandates.
Shifting COVID-19 vaccination guidance
In October 2025, the CDC shifted its COVID-19 vaccination guidance from standardized national recommendations to a “shared clinical decision-making” approach. This change, influenced by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s advisory panel, emphasizes personal discussions between healthcare providers and patients when making decisions on whether to get vaccinated, especially for patients under 65 without underlying health conditions.
Childhood vaccine recommendation updates
The CDC updated its child immunization schedules in October 2025 to recommend that toddlers receive protection from varicella (chickenpox) as a standalone immunization rather than in combination with measles, mumps and rubella vaccination. The CDC now advises separating the chickenpox vaccine from the MMRV combination vaccine for children under 4 years old; the updated guidance aims to reduce the risk of febrile seizures associated with the MMRV vaccine.
AI in healthcare, digital health and technology
In 2025, Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology continued to dominate in diagnostics, care delivery and workflow optimization – but with the technology’s rapid growth also comes growing ethics and privacy concerns.
CHAI and NACHC join forces to prioritize community health centers in AI adoption
Community Health Centers (CHCs) provide critical healthcare and resources to patients at more than 17,000 sites across the U.S. – and they are experiencing rapid changes as AI transforms the healthcare ecosystem. The Coalition for Health AI (CHAI) and the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC), as a result, announced a new strategic partnership in August 2025 that aims to empower safe and responsible AI adoption at CHCs across the nation.
By leveraging both organizations’ expertise, the partnership will ensure that CHCs and their patients are positioned to benefit from the use of AI in healthcare as well as build a trusted AI infrastructure specifically designed with CHCs and other safety-net providers.
Healthcare AI moves from pilots to real-world use, focusing on ROI and clinical efficiency
U.S. healthcare providers and payers are ramping up their AI investments to improve profit margins as they focus on an imperative of harnessing tech to bolster returns, according to an October 2025 study from Bain & Company and KLAS Research. Approximately 70% of providers and 80% of payers now have an AI strategy in place or in development – a significant increase from 60% for both groups in last year’s Bain/KLAS survey.
The prioritization of technology solutions that deliver greatest impact to bottom lines comes as the deployment of AI in healthcare moves from broad exploration to a more focused execution capturing financial benefits, Bain and KLAS reported in their 2025 Healthcare IT Spending study.
Thermo Fisher Scientific to accelerate life science breakthroughs with OpenAI
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. plans to increase its growth strategy using the AI platform OpenAI. The company stated that the collaboration will help to improve the speed and success of drug development, enabling customers to get medicines to patients faster and more cost effectively.
The collaboration will deploy OpenAI advanced capabilities to Thermo Fisher’s industry leading PPD™ clinical research business, leverage OpenAI capabilities to more quickly help identify therapies that are unlikely to succeed, integrate AI into Thermo Fisher’s Accelerator™ Drug Development solution and launch frontier AI to Thermo Fisher colleagues with ChatGPT Enterprise.
Premier advocates for improved supply chain cybersecurity
As the use of AI in healthcare has expanded, Premier has emphasized the importance of its secure and ethical rollout. Premier submitted recommendations in October 2025 to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on its 2025 updates to the minimum elements for a software bill of materials (SBOM).
Premier recommended that CISA take the following actions to strengthen cybersecurity and safeguard critical infrastructure: update certain data fields to make SBOM minimum elements more useful to stakeholders in critical infrastructure, including healthcare; incorporate AI models into the “Dependency Relationship” field and explore ways to leverage the private sector contracting process to promote broad adoption of SBOM minimum elements.
Cleveland Clinic collaboration to create AI-powered technology for structural heart care
Cleveland Clinic entered an agreement with DASI Simulations in October 2025 to co-develop the next generation of AI for the treatment of structural heart diseases. As part of a two-year co-development partnership, DASI and Cleveland Clinic are working to develop innovative AI technology that can assist doctors in real time during heart procedures. By combining Cleveland Clinic’s clinical expertise and extensive data with DASI’s advanced AI models, the goal is to create the world’s first AI-powered “co-pilot” system for catheterization labs.
Supply chain and tariffs
Tariffs and supply chain disruptions dominated healthcare news early in 2025; concerns which continue to influence purchasing and clinical decision-making as the year comes to a close.
New Vizient survey finds drug shortages cost hospitals nearly $900M annually
In June 2025, Vizient announced an updated analysis of the financial impact of drug shortages for hospitals to their workforce and budgets. The survey, “Beyond the Shortage: The Hidden Cost of Drug Supply Chain Disruptions,” revealed that in 2023, hospitals across the U.S. spent roughly 20 million hours managing a range of drug shortages, which translates to nearly $900 million annually in labor costs, which is more than double the labor costs reported of just under $360 million in the 2019 survey.
The respondents who participated in the 2024 survey monitored an average of 43 drug shortages and a maximum of 70 over the course of 2023. Approximately 27% of respondents reported that drug shortages caused disruptions in patient care, and planned medical procedures were also impacted by shortages, with disruptions reported in 32% of cases, followed by hospital admissions at 22%.
Tariff-driven cost increases factored into small business health premiums
President Trump indicated in August 2025 that the administration will phase in tariffs on pharmaceutical imports – starting with a “small tariff,” and climbing to 150% within roughly 12 to 18 months, and eventually rising to as much as 250%, as part of an effort to bring drug manufacturing back to the U.S. A tariff on pharmaceutical imports may, however, inadvertently impact employee health benefits across the nation, as tariffs can indirectly affect health insurance premiums by increasing the cost of imported medical goods like prescription drugs.
Pfizer reaches landmark agreement with U.S. Government to lower drug costs for American patients
Pfizer announced a historic agreement with the Trump Administration in September 2025 that will ensure U.S. patients pay lower prices for prescription medicines while simultaneously aiming to strengthen the nation’s role as a global leader in biopharmaceutical innovation.
Pfizer additionally agreed to implement measures designed to ensure Americans receive comparable drug prices to those available in other developed countries and pricing newly launched medicines at parity with other key developed markets.
U.S. opens tariff investigations into medical equipment
The U.S. Commerce Department stated in September 2025 that it had opened new national security investigations into the import of personal protective equipment, medical items, robotics and industrial machinery, according to CNN Business. The “Section 232” investigations from the U.S. Commerce Department are interested in the role of major exporters like China in meeting national medical needs and the “impact of foreign government subsidies and predatory trade practices.”
Premier weighs in on Section 232 Investigation into medical devices and tariffs
Premier submitted comments on the Section 232 investigation into imports of PPE and other medical devices in October 2025 – the comments recognized the value that thoughtful and targeted use of tariffs can provide to supply chain resiliency in the long-term, but Premier warned that material increases in tariffs on healthcare supplies coupled with rapid implementation timelines may result in unintended consequences that increase costs and shortages in the short-term.
Public health and policy
The national healthcare policy landscape has witnessed historic change in 2025, including administrative reorganization, sweeping healthcare reform and changes to rural health policy.
HHS reorganization & creation of ‘Administration for a Healthy America’
In March 2025, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced a major restructuring, consolidating its 28 divisions into 15 new divisions, including a new Administration for a Healthy America (AHA). The restructuring centralizes core functions such as Human Resources, Information Technology, Procurement, External Affairs and Policy to streamline healthcare operations and improve public health delivery.
The restructuring reduced the HHS workforce by nearly 10,000 full-time employees, aiming to save taxpayers $1.8 billion per year and improve Americans’ experience with HHS by making the agency more responsive and efficient while ensuring that Medicare, Medicaid and other essential health services remain intact, according to an HHS press release.
“One Big Beautiful Bill” / Budget Reconciliation Act and Healthcare Impact
The 2025 Budget Reconciliation Act, also known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, includes significant changes to who is eligible for health insurance in the U.S.
Signed into law in July 2025, the bill includes funding cuts and policy changes to Medicaid and Health Insurance Marketplaces, Medicare physician payment and medical student loans among other healthcare policy changes.
CMS launches Rural Health Transformation (RHT) Program
The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Rural Health Transformation Program (RHT), authorized in September 2025, outlines details on how states can apply to receive funding from the $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program created under the Working Families Tax Cuts Act.
The RHT Program seeks to support rural health innovations, help rural providers work together and become long-term access points for care, attract and retain a skilled healthcare workforce built of providers in rural communities, spark the growth of innovative care models to improve health outcomes and foster the use of new, innovative technologies.
The funding is to be allocated to approved states over five fiscal years, with $10 billion of funding available each fiscal year, beginning in fiscal year 2026 and ending in fiscal year 2030, according to CMS.
Infectious disease resurgence and other health news
In 2025, the U.S. saw a resurgence of certain infectious diseases, along with other notable health trends.
Measles makes a comeback
As of October 2025, more than 1,500 confirmed measles cases were reported in the United States, according to the CDC. The 2025 spike has been the largest number of cases recorded in a single year since 2000, when the disease was declared eliminated in the U.S., according to Harvard Health. There have been 44 total outbreaks reported as of October 2025, and 87% of confirmed cases are outbreak-associated. In comparison, 16 outbreaks were reported during 2024 and 69% of cases (198 of 285) were outbreak-associated.
The largest measles outbreak this year was in west Texas, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services, where 99 people were hospitalized and two unvaccinated school-age children died, the first measles deaths in the U.S. since 2015.
Pertussis cases remain elevated in 2025 despite decline from 2024 peak, CDC says
Reported cases of pertussis, a bacterial infection also known as whooping cough, have been trending down since a peak in November 2024. However, preliminary case reports remain elevated in 2025 compared to immediately before the pandemic, according to the CDC. There’s no distinct seasonal pattern to pertussis, but past trends suggest that cases may increase in summer and fall. Vaccination is the best way to prevent pertussis. However, as typical infection patterns return to the United States, CDC experts expect pertussis cases to increase both in unvaccinated and vaccinated populations.
Obesity trends in the U.S.
A 2025 report shows a modest decline in adult obesity this year: in 2024, 19 states had obesity rates of 35% or higher, down from 23 states the previous year, according to an analysis of the latest data collected by the CDC. The analysis follows a CDC report last year that found that the overall rate of obesity in the U.S. is high but holding steady, affecting about 40% of the population.