Business Intelligence

Providers utilize business intelligence to monitor referral patterns and collaborate with clinicians who order their services. Such analytics tools have also been deployed in the specialty to improve productivity, track patient satisfaction and bolster quality.

CMS pauses new Medicare hospice and home health provider entries for six months
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said it’s issuing a nationwide moratorium on new providers entering the spaces until it has a chance to look into allegations of fraud, waste and abuse. It confirmed investigations of various organizations are pending.
Consolidation of physician practices proceeds apace, corporatizing medicine one acquisition at a time
The days when most doctors worked in independent practice settings are fading from memory like old photoprints in a musty scrapbook.
Investor-bought PCPs carry on like nothing much has changed—with caveats
Private-equity acquisitions of primary-care provider practices neither alter hospitalization rates nor affect acute-care outcomes, according to new research out of Brown University.
12 of the top technology vendors serving children’s hospitals
Epic makes the list with its enterprise inpatient EHR and related platforms. So does PCC, aka Physician’s Computer Company, which supplies pediatric-specific ambulatory EHR and practice-management products and services.
Weight loss drugs are hiking employer healthcare prices, with 87% saying they expect costs to only go up
In a survey, employers told the Business Group on Health that they aren’t yet seeing evidence of long-term health benefits from taking GLP-1s for weight loss, leaving them unsure how to manage costs while continuing to cover them.

Sen. Warren fears $10B private equity buyout of Walgreens will create ‘pharmacy deserts’

The Massachusetts senator is asking buyer Sycamore Partners for certain assurances, including that it won’t saddle the struggling pharmacy chain with even more debt and indiscriminately close retail locations.

UPS Healthcare acquires Canadian supply chain company for $1.6B

Ontario-based Andlauer Healthcare Group ships sensitive temperature-controlled products necessary for healthcare manufacturing and research. It has agreed to be acquired by the world’s largest courier, with the all-cash deal expected to close later this year.

Newswatch: AI for Medicare folk, AI uncertainty at the FDA, generative ghosts, more

AI is making patient financial advisors of hospital administrators who used to work in revenue cycle management.

Newswatch: AI-eager doctors, AI-reticent buyers, AI cost worriers, more

In medicine’s next chapter, AI literacy will separate physician leaders from peer followers.

Vintage neon drug sign at the Walgreens pharmacy on Canal Street in downtown New Orleans.

Walgreens settles DOJ opioid crisis case for $300M

The pharmacy chain was accused of filling “millions” of unlawful prescriptions for opioids and other controlled substances. Despite agreeing to the payout, the company does not admit wrongdoing.

artificial intelligence AI in healthcare news

AI newswatch: Lifecyle AI oversight, data matters, AI vs. animals, more

AI may finally end the paper chase caused by prior authorization. Or it may worsen it.

UnitedHealth, Amedisys enter mediation with DOJ over block on $3.3B merger

The two companies have been unable to assuage antitrust concerns raised by the Department of Justice. A magistrate will attempt to hammer out acceptable terms for the home healthcare merger at a conference scheduled for August.

Newswatch: AI researchers weigh in, AI humanizes healthcare, ‘the worst AI will ever be,’ more

Contrary to popular misgivings, AI may be improving the human touch in healthcare.

Business Intelligence

CMS pauses new Medicare hospice and home health provider entries for six months

Consolidation of physician practices proceeds apace, corporatizing medicine one acquisition at a time

Investor-bought PCPs carry on like nothing much has changed—with caveats

12 of the top technology vendors serving children’s hospitals

Weight loss drugs are hiking employer healthcare prices, with 87% saying they expect costs to only go up