Modern Healthcare Breaking News

Nurses at the University of Michigan voted in favor of a three-day work stoppage to protest “ongoing and continuous violations of their workplace rights” after their contracts expired June 30.

The Senate passed its opioids legislation, laying the groundwork for a final bicameral deal. The upper chamber also cleared a stand-alone healthcare bill to target insurer gag clauses on pharmacists.

A Senate proposal would take aim at hospital balance billing—a practice that has caused sticker-shock reverberations across the country and sparked increasing public outcry.

A school-based survey shows nearly 1 in 11 U.S. students have used marijuana in electronic cigarettes, heightening health concerns about the new popularity of vaping among teens.

The CMS wants to buck a trend of hospitals denying patient transfers from ambulatory surgery centers. The proposal is part of a broader effort to reduce providers’ administrative burdens and improve access to care.

The National Quality Forum released its first-ever set of quality measures for rural hospitals and ambulatory care facilities to improve quality of care and access in rural communities.

Cigna and Express Scripts still must secure certain state regulatory approvals to complete the deal, but the nod from the federal antitrust enforcers takes care of the biggest hurdle.

The deal will allow TriMedx to expand its healthcare clientele and Aramark to focus on its core food, facilities and uniforms businesses, executives said.

Health Net, one of two payers in the VA Choice system, is losing its claims-processing contract starting Oct. 1. The VA will step into the gap as it looks to take on a greater role in paying community providers for taking care of veterans.

HHS will create a patient safety database to track quality of care at ambulatory surgery centers, as they become more prevalent across the country.