Providing emergency department (ED) clinicians with feedback on their opioid prescribing led to a significant decrease in future prescriptions, according to a study published April 2 in Academic Emergency Medicine.

In 2015, Medicare spent $762.1 million on imaging services in Massachusetts, with per beneficiary spending 14 percent higher than the average state. A Boston Business Journal report suggests increased imaging costs and higher utilization of imaging services are to blame.

Massachusetts doctors are quick to refer patients for expensive imaging services like MRI and CAT scanning, the Boston Business Journal reported this week—and it cost the federal government an estimated $27 million in 2015.

For outpatient surgery, those with lower health literacy experienced poorer recovery and decreased quality of life, according to an April 25 study published in JAMA Surgery.

More than one-third of readmissions within seven days of discharge—36 percent—are preventable, according to research published May 1 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Former University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) radiologist Marios D. Papachristou waived indictment and pleaded guilty May 3 to federal charges of healthcare fraud and illegally distributing controlled substances to non-patients, the U.S. Department of Justice has announced.

The Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) has received a $1 million donation from the estate of Linda Garner Riggs, a former Arkansas insurance commissioner who died in November 2017. The money will be used to fund research into triple negative breast cancer.

The absence of atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases (ASCVD) and a favorable cardiovascular modifiable risk factor (CRF) are associated with “significantly” lower costs among cancer patients, according to a study published May 1 in the Journal of the American Heart Association.