Breaking up is hard to do—especially when the split isn’t on your terms. On Jan. 1, 2026, New Yorkers enrolled in Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield health plans received news that their insurer had broken up with Mount Sinai, one of the largest hospital systems in the US.

In an open letter, Anthem said it failed to reach a contract in negotiations with the provider network. As a result, members seeing any of Mount Sinai’s roughly 9,000 doctors no longer have insurance coverage for these providers. Coverage for the health system’s hospitals, outpatient centers, and other facilities is set to end on March 1, though experts say the two sides could still reach an agreement before then, or further down the road.

This isn’t the first time Mount Sinai has dropped coverage for patients enrolled in certain health plans, and these occurrences aren’t limited to New York. Eighteen percent of non-federal hospitals across the US fought publicly with an insurance company between June 2021 and May 2025, while 8% of these hospitals went out of network with an insurer, at least temporarily, according to research from Jason Buxbaum, a health policy researcher with Brown University’s School of Health.

These disruptions are a reflection of the current healthcare market, industry experts told HR Brew. As health costs continue to rise, both insurers and employers are looking for ways to cut back on expenses. Strategic communication is key, though, when workers are affected by such disruptions, they added.

For more on what’s driving some providers out of health plan networks, keep reading here.—CV

Today the state of Minnesota will be closed.

Protestors in the North Star State are participating in a general strike, asking residents to forgo attending school, work aside from emergency services, and shopping in protest of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity in the state, particularly the Twin Cities region.

The strike, called “ICE Out of Minnesota,” comes amid a surge of ICE detainments in the area—including a five-year-old boy returning home from school and a US citizen who was taken from his home shirtless after agents broke into it—as well as increased clashes between federal agents and protestors following the shooting and killing of 37-year-old mother Renee Good by an ICE agent. Protestors have made several demands, including that ICE leave the state and be cut off from federal funding, that the officer who killed Good be “held legally accountable,” and that businesses cease cooperation with the agency.

Mike Logan, president and CEO of the Minneapolis Regional Chamber, told HR Brew he has heard a mix of opinions on the strike from business owners, including those who are concerned about the disruptions from absences, and those who are planning to close in solidarity.

For more on how the business community is responding to the strike, keep reading here.—PM

The nurses of New York City are a-strikin’.

In what has been touted as the largest nurse strike in the city’s history, 15,000 nurses from Mount Sinai, Montefiore, and NewYork-Presbyterian hospitals started striking on Jan. 12. The issues at the top of the docket include addressing expected cuts in health benefits, better workplace violence protections, and safer staffing.

Almost immediately, the strike was shrouded in drama.

For more on what’s going on with the NYC nurse strike, keep reading on Healthcare Brew.—NO

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