Category: Modern Healthcare

GPOs’ ‘pay to play’ fees drive up healthcare costs

Many health systems use group purchasing organizations to get supplies and devices. But GPOs charge manufacturers to have their products appear in catalogs and that’s contributing to high healthcare costs, according to three Johns Hopkins professors.

Paying doctors more to increase screenings doesn’t violate kickback laws

Providing incentive payments to doctors in order to get them to increase the rate of preventive screenings they perform does not violate federal kick back laws, according to HHS’ Office of Inspector General.

$215M settlement proposed in alleged USC gynecologist abuse

Under the agreement, the University of Southern California will pay $2,500 to $250,000 to each of the approximately 500 women who claimed abuse by Dr. George Tyndall between 1988 and 2016.

EHRs, financial instability contribute to physicians’ pessimism

Burdened by EHRs and anxious about their financial well-being, physicians don’t have a particularly rosy outlook on the practice of medicine, according to a report from Leavitt Partners.

93 women accuse former USC doctor of sex abuse and more news from other sources

Novartis buys cancer-drug manufacturer Endocyte, FHIR boosters want the CMS and ONC to use their standard, and AI helps writers write.

Marijuana in babies? Colo. researchers find new evidence

Two Colorado specialists have found marijuana’s brain-altering component lingers in breastmilk at least six weeks. As researchers worry growing maternal cannabis use could translate into a public health crisis for children, physicians are seeing…

Joint Commission accreditation doesn’t lead to better outcomes, study shows

Hospitals the receive accreditation from organizations like the Joint Commission don’t have better mortality or readmission rates than their non-accredited peers, according to a new study.

Fear of denials could be pushing more joint procedures into outpatient setting

Hospital administrators, worried about denials, have been pushing doctors to perform knee replacement procedures in outpatient settings.

Medical device manufacturers need to say what’s in their products

In a newly released draft guidance, the FDA created two tiers of devices—those that connect to other devices and networks and those that don’t—and recommended all devices come with lists of their components.

Will Republicans keep their new promises on pre-existing condition protections?

Despite congressional GOP candidates’ promises, health policy analysts doubt whether victorious Republicans would move to replace those ACA protections with equally strong measures to cover people with health conditions as part of repeal legislation.