Category: FierceHealthcare

Allscripts managed to buy Practice Fusion and McKesson for just $50M

In less than six months, Allscripts acquired two EHR platforms by Practice Fusion and McKesson for a grand total of $50 million by divesting a portion of McKesson’s business for 27% more than it paid for the entire health IT portfolio. Allscripts Presi…

Healthcare consolidation doesn’t pay off for patients, experts tell lawmakers at hearing

There is little evidence that healthcare consolidation improves patient care or lowers healthcare costs, experts told lawmakers at a hearing this week. The speakers, economic and health policy experts from Harvard, Duke University and Carnegie Mellon, …

Study suggests gender bias by women physicians can influence care decisions

A female patient treated by a female doctor is less likely to be admitted to a restricted intensive care unit, where beds and other resources are limited, according to a new study. The research is touted as first-of-its kind proof that gender bias affe…

Penn Medicine launches new telehealth hub as interest in virtual services mounts nationwide

Penn Medicine has launched a Center for Connected Health, which features 50 full-time employees and pulls together several telehealth programs geared toward urgent care, ICU patients and those with chronic illnesses. The new center comes at a time when…

In New York, pay difference not only persists, it widens, between new male and female doctors

A study that looked at new physicians in New York state had discouraging news for female doctors. Researchers found that not only have differences in pay persisted between newly trained male and female doctors, the gap has grown over time. The biggest …

FDA’s Scott Gottlieb wants to use funding boost to create a Center of Excellence on Digital Health

The FDA plans to use approximately $400 million to create a Center of Excellence on Digital Health, which would house the agency’s new precertification program, and develop analytic and natural language processing tools to integrate real-world data fro…

Physician Practice Roundup—Doctor sentenced to prison for fraud; Patients with depression go untreated

A New York surgeon was sentenced to 13 years in prison for the submission of millions of dollars in false and fraudulent Medicare claims; Despite efforts to detect and treat depression during primary care visits, a study found that only one-third of pa…

Healthcare Roundup—Patients still seek chaplains; ‘Training’ may help seniors recover faster from surgery

Hospital patients are still interested in chaplain services, even as fewer people identify as religious; seniors may recover from surgery more quickly if they mentally and physically “train” for it; plus more healthcare news from around the web.

4 ways to cut down on no-show patients at your practice

No-show patients are an annoying and costly problem for practices, but the community-based Elmont Teaching Health Center in Long Island, New York, is making headway. And “if it works here, it can work anywhere,” one of the center’s physicians, Peter A….

HHS Secretary Alex Azar goes before House panel to defend health program cuts in Trump’s proposed FY19 budget

Newly confirmed Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told the House Committee on Ways and Means Wednesday morning that the Trump administration’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2019 makes significant and strategic investment in health program…