Business Intelligence
Georgia-based Athens Orthopedic Clinic is investigating a recent data breach in which as many as 397,000 current or former patients' information was compromised, potentially including personal medical information.
Results show overexertion is strongly felt across all practice types, and most physicians struggle with poor work-life balance, the study found. Moreover, thirty-nine percent of respondents didn't think their facility supported a strong work-life balance.
A report in 2012 by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse revealed that medical schools devoted little time to teaching addiction medicine -- only a few hours over four years. Since then, the number of Americans overdosing from prescribed opioids has surpassed 14,000 per year, quadrupling from 1999 to 2014.
Experts estimate that about half of all people turning 65 today will need daily help as they age, either at home or in nursing homes. Such long-term care will cost an average of about $91,000 for men and double that for women, because they live longer.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced a number of payment and policy changes last week, addressing Medicare inpatient rehabilitation facilities, hospice benefit and skilled nursing facilities.
In one of the first looks at privately insured patients with opioid problems, researchers paint a grim picture: Medical services for people with opioid dependence diagnoses skyrocketed more than 3,000 percent between 2007 and 2014. The study considers a huge cohort of people who have either job-based insurance or buy coverage on their own.
Despite the high cost of specialty drugs driving up expenditures, Medicare Part D prescription drug plan premiums are projected to rise by only about $1.50 over the average premium last year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced Friday.
Centene's Medicare Advantage network could not handle the type of Medicare Advantage business required in a potential Humana divestiture, Centene Chairman and CEO Michael F. Neidorff said during an earnings call this week.
As a new report showed the vast majority of U.S. states failing when it comes to healthcare price transparency, one expert has said that for states to get on board they must first take a hard look at the websites they are creating to communicate costs.
Their findings are important because, under the health law, services that the task force assigns an "A" or "B" grade must generally be covered by health plans, including Medicare, without charging consumers anything out of pocket.