Kettering Health cyberattack causes disruption
By far the biggest health news the happened in the greater Dayton region was when Kettering Health was hit with a ransomware cyberattack with disruptions lasting about three weeks before operations were back to normal.
On May 20, a cyberattack caused a system-wide technology outage at Kettering Health, forcing some medical procedures to be canceled, diverting emergency crews to other facilities and bringing down phone lines and the online MyChart patient portal.
Credit: Bill Lackey
Credit: Bill Lackey
A ransomware group called Interlock claimed it stole 941 gigabytes of data, which includes more than 730,000 files, from Kettering Health, according to a post Interlock made about it on its data leak site on the dark web, according to an image posted by the cybersecurity firm Comparitech and other tech news sites.
By June 10, Kettering Health resumed normal operations for several key services, according to an announcement from the hospital system.
Dayton Children’s finishes its $110 million facility
As the ongoing youth mental health crisis grows, Dayton Children’s Hospital is meeting children’s need for access to professional help with the opening of its $110 million Mathile Center for Mental Health and Wellness.
Credit: Bryant Billing
Credit: Bryant Billing
The Mathile Center, located at 860 Valley St. in Dayton on Dayton Children’s main complex, doubled the amount of space for mental health treatment at Dayton Children’s Hospital and is the culmination of years of planning, fundraising and construction.
This new mental health hospital started seeing its first patients in August, which is when Dayton Children’s announced its “Do More So All Kids Thrive” campaign raised $85 million, with more than half the money allocated to improving mental health for children.
Health insurance companies, hospitals negotiate rates
As hospitals and health insurance agencies battle rising costs, rate renegotiations appear to becoming more difficult as local hospital systems and national insurers try to find fair deals. Those processes, though, risk disrupting patients’ lives if their preferred health system goes out-of-network.
Mercy Health, with locations in Clark, Champaign and Butler counties, dealt with renegotiations this past year with health plans under the insurers Cigna and then Humana.
In February, Mercy Health warned patients on employer-sponsored Cigna plans they may lose in-network insurance coverage because negotiations on reimbursements have soured after months of effort.
By April, Mercy Health announced it had agreed to a multi-year agreement Cigna for employer-sponsored plans.
Credit: Bill Lackey
Credit: Bill Lackey
Then in October, Mercy Health announced it was going through another renegotiation of rates with Humana Medicaid and Medicare Advantage plans. The health system warned patients under those health plans that those might go out-of-network at Mercy Health by December, but by mid-November, the two organizations agreed on a deal.
One local health system that was not able to come to a contract on certain plans under Humana was Kettering Health, which announced it would not be renewing its contracts with Medicare Advantage insurers Humana and Devoted Health after this year.
Employer-sponsored insurance premiums continue to rise
At the same time as health insurance companies and hospitals were renegotiating their rates, premiums for employer-sponsored plans continued to rise.
Family premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance coverage are up 6% from last year and are expected to rise again next year, according to an annual survey from the health policy analysis organization KFF, previously known as the Kaiser Family Foundation.
The average annual premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance in 2025 are $9,325 for single coverage and $26,993 for family coverage, according to the survey.
On average, employees contribute $6,850 annually to the cost of family coverage, with employers paying the rest.
Medicaid
Ohio lawmakers instructed the Ohio Department of Medicaid to pursue implementing work requirements for members who accessed Medicaid through the expansion of the program under the Affordable Care Act.
The proposed work requirement for Medicaid expansion members was included in the state budget two years ago, and this year, the Ohio Department of Medicaid followed through on that directive when it submitted its application to the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid on Feb. 28.
Credit: NYT
Credit: NYT
While the state’s application is still listed as “pending,” according to the CMS website, the federal 2025 budget reconciliation bill — signed into law on July 4 and also called the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — is enacting work requirements nationwide for Medicaid members who accessed the program through the expansion under the Affordable Care Act.
States have to enact those work requirements by Jan. 1, 2027, but they can do so sooner through the waiver program that Ohio is utilizing or the department can grant states extensions until Dec. 31, 2028.
The secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is expected to provide implementation guidance to states by June 1, 2026. Initial guidance was sent Dec. 8 of this year.
Michael Kurtz contributed to this story.
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