Health systems wade into drug manufacturing with eye on reducing shortages Health systems wade into drug manufacturing with eye on reducing shortages | Healthcare Dive With hospitals entering pharma territory, the trend toward industry convergence continues. The systems’ aim is to create an FDA-approved pharmaceutical company that will either make generics directly or subcontract the manufacturing to a licensed contract manufacturing organization. “The best way to… Read More
Health Care Systems Brace for Disruptions in 2018 Look for more care in outpatient settings as hospitals consider cost containment and hiring strategies to stay above water. After a wild ride for healthcare in 2017, the industry is bracing. The year started with a White House transition that begat a series of regulatory changes and late-night debates in Congress as lawmakers came perilously… Read More
CMS reaffirms its ban on texting physician orders, clarifies patient information exchange The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services clarified its position on texting in a new memo to state surveyors this week, noting that while texting physician orders is still prohibited, exchanging patient information on a secure platform is permitted. The clarification comes weeks after the Report on Medicare Compliance, a newsletter distributed by the Health… Read More
Is Video Game Addiction a Mental Health Issue? The World Health Organization has defined “gaming disorder” in its list of classified diseases. There’s disagreement over the seriousness of the issue. When does enjoying video games turn from enthusiasm to addiction? The World Health Organization (WHO) is taking steps to answer that question by defining “gaming disorder” in its 11th International Classification of… Read More
Fitbit invests in Sano, diabetes tech start-up, to catch Apple Fitbit has made its first-ever start-up investment, putting more than $6 million into an enterprise called Sano, which is developing a coin-sized patch that tracks blood sugar levels to help control diabetes. Building blood-sugar tracking into a future device could dramatically increase the market for Fitbit devices since more than 100 million Americans are now… Read More
Trump rule would expand association health plans The Trump administration’s Department of Labor offered a proposed rule on Thursday that will allow more small businesses and organizations — even sole proprietors — to band together to form association health plans (AHPs). Echoing a call in an October executive order, the proposal would allow AHPs to sidestep Affordable Care Act (ACA) regulations, allowing them to… Read More
CVS expects $1.2B increase in annual net income from tax bill CVS announced Dec. 3 it agreed to buy Aetna in a $69 billion deal. It remains unclear how the massive plan to combine the retail pharmacy giant with Aetna’s insurance business will play out, with the deal still having to withstand antitrust scrutiny from federal regulators. The 2018 outlook from CVS predicts that adjusted operating… Read More
Data breaches rising because of lack of cybersecurity acumen “Organizations are feeling the pain of the cybersecurity skills shortage, and the situation is getting worse.” View More… Read More
2017 Health Data Breach Tally: An Analysis “Compared to the mega-breaches that hit the healthcare sector in 2015 and 2016, the top 10 breaches reported for 2017 were far smaller. The 10 largest incidents of 2017 reported so far affected a combined total of just 2.6 million individuals. And as of Dec.” View More… Read More