The information technology system at MedStar Health was attacked by a virus early Monday morning that prevents certain users from logging in to the system, officials with the health company said in a statement. The health system quickly shut down all system interfaces to prevent the virus from spreading throughout the organization and said it had no evidence that any information was compromised.
Anthem Inc.’s proposed $54 billion acquisition of Cigna Corp., which would create the country’s largest health insurer, faces scrutiny Tuesday as state regulators hold a public hearing in San Francisco to address concerns about the megamerger. The hearing comes a week after state regulators approved the merger of HealthNet and Missouri’s Centene Corp. That significantly smaller, $7 billion deal went largely unopposed.The same can’t be said of the Anthem-Cigna acquisition.
The nation's top health officials are stepping up calls to require doctors to log in to pill-tracking databases before prescribing painkillers and other high-risk drugs. The move is part of a multi-pronged strategy by the Obama administration to tame an epidemic of abuse and death tied to opioid painkillers like Vicodin and OxyContin. But physician groups see a requirement to check databases before prescribing popular drugs for pain, anxiety and other ailments as being overly burdensome.
Broward Health keeps going from bad to worse. In the two months since CEO Nabil El Sanadi killed himself, the public hospital district has been hammered by investigations, inquiries, infighting, demotions and suspensions. Patient care is at risk. Staff morale is low. Doctor retention is in jeopardy. Gov. Rick Scott and Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi have been piling on, causing more disarray and increasing financial pressure on a system still reeling from a $70 million settlement with the federal government last summer.
To combat what health professionals say is a nationwide epidemic, St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center in Paterson, NJ has been using opioid alternative protocols in its emergency room since January. The goal of the Alternatives to Opiates (ALTO) program is to try to treat most patients without opioids before considering using them. In the first two months, 75 percent of the 300 patients that have gone through the program did not need opioids, Rosenberg said. Patients with cancer or those with chronic pain who are already dependent on opioids aren't part of the program.
Hospitals are creating special clinics to coordinate care for the close to three million U.S. children—about one in 25—who suffer from complex medical conditions and will in many cases require a lifetime of care. Children with medical complexity, known as CMC, are the sickest and most fragile children; an estimated one-third to one-half of all U.S. spending on children’s health care goes to filling their medical needs.