Under a bipartisan House plan, nonprofit hospitals would be subjected to investigations for anticompetitive conduct, in today's bite-sized hospital and health industry news from Arizona, Arkansas, and the District of Columbia.

• Arizona: Telehealth company eVisit on Thursday finalized a deal to acquire health tech firm Bluestream Health. While the companies did not disclose the terms of the deal, eVisit said it plans to implement Bluestream's integrated language services into its telemedicine platform. In total, eVisit plans to add 198 additional languages plus American Sign Language from Bluestream's translation services to its telehealth platform. According to eVisit CEO Sachin Agrawal, the Bluestream acquisition will allow eVisit to scale its acute and enterprise care offerings more quickly. In addition, eVisit's current customer base will double to over 100 organizations, including physician networks, hospitals, and health systems. The acquisition also bolsters eVisit's ability to expand into new sectors, including organizations focused on public healthcare delivery and incarcerated populations. "[There are] a lot of the same foundational issues," Agrawal noted. "An underserved population, often ignored [with] significant health care needs [and] high barriers to access that can be addressed through, opening up more effective digital front doors and seamless workflow." (Turner, Modern Healthcare, 4/27)
• Arkansas: Walmart Health on Wednesday announced plans to open four health centers in Oklahoma City next year, marking its expansion into another state. According to the company, the new health centers, which will be located next to Walmart Supercenters, will offer a wide range of services, including primary care, lab, X-ray, behavioral health, dental, and hearing services. By the end of 2024, Walmart plans to have around 80 health centers nationwide. Last month, Walmart Health announced plans to open 28 new centers in 2024, including six centers in the Phoenix metro area, four in metro Kansas City, 10 in the Dallas region and eight in the metropolitan Houston area. The company also has health centers in Arkansas, Georgia, and Illinois, and plans to add 16 centers in Florida by this fall. (Hudson, Modern Healthcare, 4/26)
• District of Columbia: Under a bipartisan House plan, nonprofit hospitals would be subject to investigations for anticompetitive conduct. The bill, which was sponsored by Reps. Victoria Spartz (R-IN) and Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), would expand antitrust enforcement to nonprofit hospitals under the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Act — a move that allows FTC to investigate organizations' anticompetitive behavior. While nonprofits make up almost half of all U.S. facilities, they currently fall outside FTC's scope. However, concern has been mounting in Congress over the practices of many of these organizations, leading some lawmakers to push for additional oversight. Under the Biden administration, FTC has been more aggressive in challenging healthcare transactions, especially hospital mergers. This bipartisan plan joins other reform proposals that Congress could consider after debt-ceiling negotiations. (Dreher, Axios, 4/26)