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One day after Providence Health and Services and St. Joseph Health began operating as a combined nonprofit entity, and the newly-formed health and social services system -- dubbed Providence St. Joseph Health -- said Wednesday that it will use a $100 million investment to create the Institute for Mental Health and Wellness.

Many clinicians report feeling pressure to overprescribe opioids because scores on the pain management questions are tied to Medicare payments.

Outsourcing costs to vendors like CarePayment, ClearBalance offset by higher collections, executives say.

While the legacy skin test is cheaper in terms of materials, it requires more staff time, and a greater commitment on the part of the patient.

The data show that prices vary widely even within the most expensive regions. Patients, however, rarely know how much a procedure will cost until they receive the bill.

Michael D. Williams, president and the founding CEO of Community Hospital Corp., has announced his retirement from the organization after a 20-year stint. He'll continue to serve in that capacity until a new CEO is in place, which is expected to be around the end of June 2017.

The new HEDIS technical specifications include four new measures, changes to seven existing measures and one that's been retired altogether.

After legal battles and lobbying efforts, tens of thousands of people with hepatitis C are gaining earlier access to expensive drugs that can cure this condition.

Out-of-pocket expenses have dropped for employees while access to care has not suffered, executives say.

The study's authors said research into practice-level implementation should be the next step, particularly since the vast majority of research conducted to date has been under old -- and possibly soon-to-be-outdated -- care delivery models.