Here's The Latest in Health Care:

•  The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) proposed a new rule on Thursday that gives states more control over setting rates for capitated payments as well as providing a three-year transition period to shift from fee-for-service to managed care. The proposed reform would allow states to include access to telehealth providers and define what qualifies as a "specialist" in determining network adequacy standards.  Read More

•  Respondents to new research are skeptical about the role electronic health records (EHRs) will play in precision medicine, saying in a recent report that precision medicine may be too complex for EHRs. Hospitals all over the world are embarking on precision medicine work, even if EHR vendors are not poised to dominate the realm.  Read More

•  In recent experiments, mice genetically modified to develop symptoms like those of Alzheimer's were given a synthetic form of THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, a substance found in marijuana, over a six week period. These mice performed as well as healthy mice on a memory test. Mice given placebos instead of THC exhibited signs of memory loss.  Read More

•  How much do you remember from this week's health care news? Take the weekly health quiz to find out!  Read More

Each Friday, Signor Goat reports the latest from the week in health care. Check back next Friday for your dose of our little medical corner of health care news. Brought to you by pMD, innovators in charge capture, secure messaging, clinical communication, MIPS registry, and care navigation software.

Here's The Latest in Health Care:

•  Amazon Web Services (AWS) is working with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to leverage cloud technology in order to make big biomedical datasets more easily accessible in health care and and for researchers. AWS is joined by Google Cloud and others for NIH's STRIDES Initiative, or Science and Technology Research Infrastructure for Discovery, Experimentation, and Sustainability.  Read More

•  On Thursday, the government announced a new payment model that would more closely align Medicare Part B drug costs with prices of the same drug in other countries. This new payment model, called the International Pricing Index (IPI), is projected to save Medicare over $17 billion over a five-year pilot.  Read More

•  You've heard of microplastics showing up on beaches all over the world. And now, researchers have even found microplastics in samples of human waste from individuals spanning across 8 different countries. There's a concern that microplastics might be entering the blood stream, lymphatic system, and even the liver.   Read More

•  The Food and Drug Administration recently approved a new flu drug, Xofluza, which is expected to work against drug-resistant strains. The drug is not approved for young children and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still strongly recommends that every American over six months of age get the flu shot as soon as possible.  Read More

Each Friday, Signor Goat reports the latest from the week in health care. Check back next Friday for your dose of our little medical corner of health care news. Brought to you by pMD, innovators in charge capture, secure messaging, clinical communication, MIPS registry, and care navigation software.

Here's The Latest in Health Care:

•  The increasing rate of C-sections (or cesarean sections) is alarming to doctors and scientists across the globe. Such high rates can be attributed to an increase in elective C-sections where the procedure is done unnecessarily. The chance of death rises to at least 60 percent for moms who elect to have a C-section and in some circumstances as much as 700 percent.  Read More

•  Average Affordable Care Act plan premiums have begun to decline, according to data released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on Thursday. Some say the decrease is a result of actions by the current administration while policy experts point to a market correction. However, there's one thing everyone is clear on: change must happen.  Read More

•  The U.S. is currently facing the largest drug epidemic in history, with opioid overdoses quadrupling over the past 20 years. Electronic Health Record (EHR) customizations are now proving to be a valuable weapon in the fight against the opioid crisis.   Read More

•  For women under 45, the risk for colorectal cancer is increased with obesity. Studies have shown that the higher a women's body mass index, the greater her risk for early onset colorectal cancer. Weight gain of 44 to 88 pounds had a 65 percent increased risk over those who gained 10 pounds of less.  Read More

Each Friday, Signor Goat reports the latest from the week in health care. Check back next Friday for your dose of our little medical corner of health care news. Brought to you by pMD, innovators in charge capture, secure messaging, clinical communication, MIPS registry, clinically integrated network, and care navigation software.

Here's The Latest in Health Care:

•  The data of approximately 40,800 past and current patients at the Fetal Diagnostic Institute of the Pacific were impacted by a recent ransomware attack. It is crucial that health care employees are educated properly in ransomware prevention and should be paired with the right security tools and preventative measures.  Read More

•  JAMA Pediatrics recently published that usability standards for pediatric electronic health records (EHRs) should be considered different than those used for adult patients. The pediatric population faces unique safety challenges and these challenges should be addressed when designing EHRs.  Read More

•  The newest Apple watch includes a sensor that allows users to take an electrocardiogram that can be shared with their physician. While such heart data can provide insight on the patient's risk for stroke, there is also an increased chance of false positives.  Read More

•  On Wednesday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) declared an epidemic surrounding teenage use of electronic cigarettes. The FDA gave device makers notice that they have 60 days to prove their ability to keep their devices away from minors.  Read More

Each Friday, Signor Goat reports the latest from the week in health care. Check back next Friday for your dose of our little medical corner of health care news. Brought to you by pMD, innovators in charge capture, secure messaging, clinical communication, MIPS registry, clinically integrated network, and care navigation software.

Here's The Latest in Health Care:

•  Cats and dogs can serve a bigger purpose than simply being a house pet. More and more, animals are being used for therapeutic purposes, also helping to heal and provide joy to the sick. Animal-assisted therapy can include quality time with not just dogs and cats but also miniature horses, cats, rabbits, and even llamas, oh my!  Read More

•  Civica Rx, a nonprofit generic drug company established and launched by some of the country's largest health systems, aims to lower the cost of medications. The company, which has drawn interest from over 120 health organizations, is first focusing on 14 drugs that are being administered in hospitals.  Read More

•  The National Institutes of Health's All of Us program aims to enroll 100K participants to share their data for research purposes. This program bears similarities to the UK's National Health Service's October roll-out of services that will allow equitable access to genetic and genomic testing.  Read More

•  The Affordable Care Act is yet again the center of a health care saga. A recent lawsuit by Republicans aiming to strike down the federal health law has Democrats and Republicans facing each other in court. The lawsuit comes after Congress eliminated the penalty for not having health insurance, which was part of last year's tax bill. Republicans say this action renders the entire health law unconstitutional, while Democrats are arguing against this.  Read More

Each Friday, Signor Goat reports the latest from the week in health care. Check back next Friday for your dose of our little medical corner of health care news. Brought to you by pMD, innovators in charge capture, secure messaging, clinical communication, MIPS registry, clinically integrated network, and care navigation software.

Here's The Latest in Health Care:

•  Over a third of calories that Americans consume these days come from foods purchased or eaten in restaurants, and most of these restaurant-goers are completely clueless about how many calories they're consuming. Every restaurant has their extreme calorie contenders, like Cheesecake Factory's Breakfast Burrito or Chili’s Honey-Chipotle Crispers & Waffles. The obesity crisis, which has reached epidemic proportions is showing no signs of slowing down for Americans over 5 years old.  Read More

•  A group of insurers filed a petition in July 2016 requesting two clarifications to the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) 2015 Omnibus TCPA Order, which allows HIPAA-covered entities to communicate with patients that give their phone number to a health care provider. The changes to the current language would allow a patient's phone number given to any HIPAA-covered entity to constitute prior consent to make non-marketing calls.  Read More

•  Federal health officials have reported a sharp increase in STDs in the U.S. for the fourth year in a row. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there have been nearly 2.3 million cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis in 2017, a record high and 20,000 cases more than the previous year.  Read More

•  In a recent study from Pew Charitable Trusts, highly customizable EHRs that vary in design and use have been found to lead to inefficiencies that can fail to prevent patient harm or ultimately contribute to it. Organizations are encouraged to test EHR usability to evaluate system safety and identify challenges to prevent future harm.  Read More

Each Friday, Signor Goat reports the latest from the week in health care. Check back next Friday for your dose of our little medical corner of health care news. Brought to you by pMD, innovators in charge capture, secure messaging, clinical communication, MIPS registry, clinically integrated network, and care navigation software.

Here's The Latest in Health Care:

•  A recent study showed that the combination of two immunotherapy drugs given to melanoma patients shrank brain tumors and prolonged the life of the patients whose cancer had spread to the brain. Melanoma is more likely than most cancers to invade the brain.  Read More

•  Trying to navigate the risks of overlooked Internet of Things (IoT) for hospitals can be a daunting task. One expert discusses some tips on how to avoid those unintended consequences resulting from the growing use of IoT in health care, such as performing due diligence on vendors and understanding what could go wrong any technology.  Read More

•  Falling from a plane and surviving? Sounds like a plot from a James Bond movie but a handful of lucky people have actually been in similar real-life scenarios and survived. A few tips on how to survive an insanely high fall? Being small, landing on something soft, not landing on ones head, and not falling in the first place are just a few factors that can help you survive a 10,000-foot fall.  Read More

•  Care coordination apps could be the answer to mismatched patient records shared between multiple providers. As little as 50% of patient records are correctly matched when more than one provider is involved. pMD's Care Navigation software is one such solution to this problem.  Read More

Each Friday, Signor Goat reports the latest from the week in health care. Check back next Friday for your dose of our little medical corner of health care news. Brought to you by pMD, innovators in charge capture, secure messaging, clinical communication, MIPS registry, clinically integrated network, and care navigation software.

Here's The Latest in Health Care:

•  On Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration approved the first identical, generic version of the EpiPen. The device enables people who are experiencing potentially life-threatening allergic reactions to automatically inject epinephrine into the thigh. The cost and availability is said to improve significantly compared to the current EpiPen, made by Mylan.  Read More

•  Expect digital medicine to be reshaped by open APIs, FHIR, and cloud computing in the coming years. Big tech giants such as Amazon, Google, and Salesforce have publicly pledged to use HL7's FHIR and Argonaut specifications to advance health information interoperability. The biggest piece of this digital health revolution? Unleashing the power of consumerism.   Read More

•  On Thursday, NYU School of Medicine announced that it will be covering tuition for all its medical students regardless of financial need. It is the first and only top-1o ranked med school in the U.S. to offer this kind of financial assistance. The move is aimed to encourage students to pursue specialties such as family practice and pediatrics, which are much less lucrative and tend to have a shortage of physicians.  Read More

•  According to a new study, the more weight loss, the better. Study participants that were overweight or obese and who lost a higher percentage of weight presented a much lower risk for metabolic syndrome than those who maintained less than a 5 percent weight loss.  Read More

Each Friday, Signor Goat reports the latest from the week in health care. Check back next Friday for your dose of our little medical corner of health care news. Brought to you by pMD, innovators in charge capture, secure messaging, clinical communication, MIPS registry, clinically integrated network, and care navigation software.

Here's The Latest in Health Care:

•  In Q2 of 2018, there were 142 health care data breaches with over 3 million patient records compromised. The worst part about it? About a third of those breaches were caused by repeat offenders within the organizations. What does this tell us? It tells us that by not providing the proper training and reporting, an organization puts themselves at high risk of continued breaches. So how about that training manual?  Read More

•  How accurate are diagnostic health apps? As technology evolves in the health care space, more and more people are turning to websites and diagnostic health apps for answers to their health questions. The disadvantage to these frequently-accessed platforms? They're severely understudied and not as regulated as we'd expect.  Read More

•  Families of drug users have long been advised to practice tough love as a means of getting their loved ones through rehab. However, recent studies have shown that being empathetic while encouraging a voluntary treatment approach is an effective way of engaging drug users in their own recovery and keeping them alive.  Read More

•  Cockroaches, and ticks, and boxers. Oh my! How caught up are you with this week's health care news? Take this weekly health quiz to find out.  Take the Quiz

Each Friday, Signor Goat reports the latest from the week in health care. Check back next Friday for your dose of our little medical corner of health care news. Brought to you by pMD, innovators in charge capture, secure messaging, clinical communication, MIPS registry, clinically integrated network, and care navigation software.

Here's The Latest in Health Care:

•  Squirting generous globs of that alcohol-based hand sanitizer? A recent study found that some bacteria are becoming tolerant of hand sanitizers that are used in hospitals. Scary! While these type of disinfectants help with battling staph infections in patients, rates of other infections didn't drop when sanitizing stations were used. In some cases, infections actually went up.  Read More

•  In an effort to combat the ongoing opioid epidemic, the NIC announced on Wednesday that the RxGov platform will be applying machine learning to prescription drug monitoring programs. The cloud-based platform will help track opioid prescriptions, integrates with EHRs, and includes data transparency.  Read More

•  AmeriCorps' latest service line, MedServe, allows pre-med students to work in health care clinics in underserved areas. Students gain more meaningful early-career experience while providing assistance in clinics in rural communities that are often short-staffed.  Read More

•  As doctors move away from prescribing opioids for pain, patients with chronic back pain are turning to a risky treatment - an injectable drug that, if used along the spine, can be dangerous. Depo-Medrol is an anti-inflammatory meant to be injected into muscles and joints but doctors who prescribe it have long been giving these shots close to the spine.  Read More

Each Friday, Signor Goat reports the latest from the week in health care. Check back next Friday for your dose of our little medical corner of health care news. Brought to you by pMD, innovators in charge capture, secure messaging, clinical communication, MIPS registry, clinically integrated network, and care navigation software.