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.

Steward Health Care deployed spy outfits to thwart critics

The failing health system allegedly hired intelligence firms that put a tracking device on a car, accessed a personal smartphone to find lurid information on an executive and attempted to frame a politician for bribery.

6 priorities for a national healthcare AI strategy from our friends in the UK

The U.S. is far from alone in the world in its wranglings across public and private sectors to adopt propitious healthcare AI innovations quickly yet safely.

ChatGPT large language AI radiology patient information

Image-interpretation market scoreboard: Radiologists 72%, others 28%

Radiologists interpret almost all imaging studies generated in hospital settings for indications other than cardiac concerns.

Walmart sells virtual care business to Fabric

MeMD offers on-demand telehealth services to more than 5 million patients. Fabric said the buyout will be a smooth transition with no impact on patient care.

lantheus acquires rights from life molecular imaging

Lantheus lands rights to budding radiopharmaceuticals for initial outlay of $35M

One of the largest radiopharma companies in the world is acquiring global rights to a pair of novel therapeutic and diagnostic drugs used to target a peptide receptor overexpressed in prostate and breast cancers.

Walgreens closing stores as 25% continue to struggle

The company said a “significant” number of its 8,700 stores will be shuttered over the next three years as it struggles to remain profitable.

17 short-term strategies to address the national radiologist shortage

"This article will serve as a landmark reference for navigating short-term labor challenges in radiology," explains one editorial about the suggestions.

Industry Watcher’s Digest

Buzzworthy developments of the past few days.

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