CareFinders Total Care LLC (“CareFinders”), a leading home healthcare company based in New Jersey, announced that it has completed the acquisition of Sovereign Home Health of Connecticut, LLC (“Sovereign”). Sovereign provides personal care and companion services to its clients in their homes and other facilities. CareFinders also provides non-skilled home care services to more than 8000 patients throughout New Jersey with 16 offices in the state.  Click for more

Currently, Chicago holds than 26,000 healthcare-related companies and over 600,000 healthcare-related employees, according to a report from the Health Care Council of Chicago (HC3).

 

“Chicago’s healthcare industry — mirroring the rest of the U.S. — comprises an estimated 12.2 percent of Chicago’s total economic production, or $69.7 billion in combined healthcare services-related Gross Regional Products in 2016,” it adds. This includes 140 medical research centers, such as Abbott and Takeda. AbbVie, another such company, teamed up with the University of Chicago in 2016 to launch the Cancer Research Alliance, a five-year collaboration focused on advancing oncology efforts.  Click for more

The committee will hear testimony on providing states greater flexibility in managing health insurance and healthcare issues. Those scheduled to testify are: Michael Leavitt, former Utah Governor and Secretary of Health and Human Services; Allison Leigh O’Toole, Chief Executive Officer, MNsure; Tarren Bragdon, CEO, Foundation for Government Accountability; Bernard J. Tyson, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Health Plan, Inc.; and Tammy Tomczyk, a Senior Principal and Consulting Actuary.

Cybersecurity is not part of a hospital's core competency. Executives would much rather be spending money on what hospitals are in the business of doing. University of California Irvine Health CIO Chuck Podesta knew this when he joined the health system three years ago after working in a similar capacity in Vermont. So getting the medium-sized academic medical center to invest $7 to $8 million the first year came down to telling the CEO, and other executives, that it would cost them a lot more if the system suffered a data breach.  Click for more

 

A coalition of powerful health industry and business groups asked Congress on Tuesday to finance federal subsidies to insurers for at least two years, a stance that defies President Donald Trump's threats to halt the payments. The money — which cost taxpayers $7 billion
this year — reimburses insurance companies for trimming out-of-pocket costs for millions of lower-earning customers. Those cost reductions and the subsidies are required by President Barack Obama's health care law, but a federal judge has said Congress didn't legally authorize the money.  Click for more

According to August 2017 Altarum Institute Center Health Sector Trend report, spending grew by only 4.6 percent in 2016 and estimates based on new data have the downward trend continuing with growth for the first half of 2017 at 4.4 percent. Altarum said the estimates illustrate the impact of expanded coverage, and its subsequent leveling off, on healthcare utilization. Coverage expansion was concentrated in 2014 and 2015, leading to a jump in health services utilization. That peaked at at 5.1 percent in 2015.  Click for more

Through their partnership, Baxter’s strategy and product development teams will work with Matter’s entrepreneurs to improve healthcare quality and value via new ideas and products. More specifically, Baxter will supply Matter startups with the tools they need to advance their innovations. In turn, Matter will introduce Baxter to its member companies and provide exclusive access to technologies in development.  Click for more

Fidelity National Financial to acquire T-System for $200 million
Fidelity National Financial will grow T-System by helping it with acquisitions, said Fidelity National Financial Chairman William Foley II in a release. The company's investment arm, FNFV Group, will pay cash for the Dallas-based vendor.  Click for more

"For entry-level cybersecurity roles, candidates need to understand networks, applications, devices and how to secure them," said Bret Fund, co-founder of SecureSet Academy, a cybersecurity education organization. "Differences will come once they're in a role. In finance, for example, you're looking through transactions and reviewing payment gateways. In healthcare, your focus changes to ransomware, exfiltration of data, and device security on a large scale."  Click for more

 

 

 

The list accentuates innovative players in the Healthcare Solution arena who have proven their efficiencies in contributing uniquely and significantly to this critical sector of life-saving services and solutions.  Click for more

As of Sept. 1, Anthem will no longer pay hospitals in five states for outpatient imaging services for MRIs or CT scans. Hospitals in New York, Ohio, Colorado, Nevada and Georgia will be affected starting Friday. Hospitals in Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri and Wisconsin have been under the policy since July 1, when Anthem started what it calls its Imaging Clinical Site of Care program.  Click for more

A new analysis from Fidelity Investments estimates that a healthy, 65-year-old couple retiring this year will need $275,000 to cover their health-care costs in retirement. That's up 6 percent from the $260,000 estimate last year. Fidelity's calculations include premiums, cost-sharing provisions and out-of-pocket costs associated with Medicare parts A, B and D — but does not include other health expenses such as over-the-counter medications, dental services and long-term care.  Click for more

One of the most effective weapons against cyber-attacks such as ransomware is the blockchain, which is rapidly adopted by technology and financial companies. Besides guarding against new and evolving cyber-attacks, blockchain acts as a cost-saver across industries. The implication for the healthcare and pharma industry is simple: experiment with and adopt blockchain if there is a need for better security, more efficient infrastructure and lower costs.  Click for more

Backers of Issue 2, primarily the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, calculate that savings on prescription drugs for a little more than a third of Ohioans could range from $164 million to $536 million if voters approve the issue on Nov. 7, according to an analysis released this week. Those not insured through publicly administered programs probably would not see savings.  Click for more

 

 

U.S. nonprofit and public healthcare medians "reversed trajectory" in 2016, according to a new Moody's Investors Service report, as annual expense growth outpaced annual revenue growth even in the face of increased volumes. Moody's looked at audited fiscal 2016 financial statements for 323 freestanding hospitals, single-state health systems, and multi-state healthcare systems, representing 81 percent of all rated healthcare entities. Click for more

 

Gov. John Kasich (R) and Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D), members of opposing parties, have been doing a series of interviews calling for a bipartisan approach on healthcare to stabilize insurance markets. They hope to present their plan to the Senate Health Committee, which is hoping to finalize a stabilization bill by mid-September and will be holding hearings early in the month. Click for more

 

“Unless Congress acts by September 27—when insurance companies must sign contracts with the federal government to sell insurance on the federal exchange in 2018— 9 million Americans in the individual market who receive no government help purchasing health insurance and whose premiums have already skyrocketed may see their premiums go up even more,” Senate Health Committee chair Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn) said in a statement on Monday. Click for more

 

The federal deficit will soar by $194 billion over the next nine years and gross premiums for silver plans, the most popular, would spike 20 percent higher in 2018 and 25 percent higher by 2020 if President Trump follows through a proposal to eliminate the cost-sharing subsidies that allow low-income consumers to purchase and afford health plans on the individual ACA insurance exchanges, a report from the Congressional Budget Office said. Click for more

A bipartisan group of healthcare policy experts is pushing Congress and the Trump administration to take steps to shore up the Affordable Care Act’s exchanges after the collapse of the Senate’s efforts to repeal the law. Their suggestions include funding cost-sharing reduction (CSR) payments and continuing to push for more people to sign up through the exchanges, according to a copy of the report obtained by the Associated Press. Click for more

There are two kinds of health care innovators: Those that understand the importance and value of marketing — and those that don’t. The successful innovators, the people that have made a telling difference in the health care universe with a new medical device, a therapeutic advance, or a scientific discovery, mostly come from group number one. Click for more

MYnd Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:MYND), a predictive analytics company which brings objective physical findings to psychiatric treatment, announced today a four-way collaboration on a clinical study for the treatment of patients with depression. The joint clinical study, with Horizon Healthcare Services, Inc., New Jersey's oldest and largest health insurer, Cota, Inc., and Hackensack Meridian Health a not-for-profit comprehensive and integrated health care network in New Jersey, is to confirm improvement in clinical outcomes and deliver enhanced value to the healthcare system. Click for more

 

In its 28th year, U.S. News and World Report have revealed their 2017-18 Best Hospitals. The
rankings are formulated by analyzing objective measures such as risk-adjusted survival and readmission rates, volume, patient experience, patient safety and quality of nursing, among other care-related indicators."  Click for more

Along with McKesson’s revenue cycle tools, Allscripts recently paid $185 million for McKesson’s EHR and revenue cycle tools. Allscripts plans to continue using its own Sunrise for larger hospital systems. Allscripts gains the product portfolio McKesson calls Enterprise Information Solutions consisting of the Paragon EHR, Star and HealthQuest revenue cycle technologies, OneContent content management tools as well as Lab Analytics and Blood Bank.  Click for more

Nautilus Medical announced today that is has been selected as a finalist in this year's Fierce Innovation Awards: Healthcare Edition 2017, an awards program from the publisher of FierceHealthcare. Nautilus Medical was recognized as a finalist in the category of Clinical Information Management. Nautilus Medical was selected as a finalist for its innovative, industry leading product, MatrixRay. Finalists were selected by a distinguished panel of judges from renowned U.S. hospitals and healthcare systems. Click for more

Advantech, an industry-leading computing platform, service and solution provider, recently acquired a 60 percent stake in South Korea’s dominant medical monitor company, Kostec. Leveraging the company’s strategic assets and utilizing its own renowned industrial experience and professional imaging techniques, the combined entity, Advantech Kostec is pleased to launch its first KT-Series of medical grade monitors, specifically manufactured for healthcare professionals and medical applications. Click for more

 

 

 

 

The White House's opioid commission is recommending that President Trump declare a federal state of emergency over the epidemic, which has struck dozens of states. "The first and most urgent recommendation of this Commission is direct and completely within your control. Declare a national emergency under either the Public Health Service Act or the Stafford Act," the commission wrote in its interim report. "Your declaration would empower your cabinet to take bold steps and would force Congress to focus on funding and empowering the Executive Branch even further to deal with this loss of life."  Click for more

Alexa can order your groceries, hail you a ride and tell you how many teaspoons are in a tablespoon (it's three). Now, the Amazon virtual assistant can also give you medical advice and look up and recite clinical information. Although technological and HIPAA-related hurdles lie ahead, those types of changes stand to transform the way we interact with health information, making it more accessible and less onerous to use.  Click for more

The CMS next year will change an enrollment policy that prevented hospices around the country from receiving Medicare reimbursements for beneficiaries' end-of-life care. Starting Jan. 1, the CMS will accept Medicare beneficiaries' hospice-care election statements electronically. Industry members have urged the agency for months to make this change, as hospices currently have to submit paper notices or manually type them into a federal database.  Click for more

 

 

 

Home health providers object to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' proposed rule that would reduce Medicare payments by 0.4 percent, or $80 million, in 2018, and up to $950 million in 2019.

 

The Partnership for Quality Home Healthcare is especially concerned about a groupings model proposal starting in 2019 that would change the unit of payment from 60-day episodes of care to 30-day periods of care and places patients in payment groups based on how they fit in six clinical categories. Click for more

Rolling out new electronic health record systems puts hospitals at a significant risk of financial losses, according to a new report by credit rating firm Moody's. "Hospitals run the risk of incurring operating losses, lower patient volumes, and receivables write-offs if there are problems with adoption of a new EMR system," Moody's said in its Monday report. Add to that the operational and financial disruptions that typically accompany complex IT projects, and hospitals could find themselves walking an even thinner financial margin than they are used to, Moody's said.  Click for more

Amazon is on a mission to disrupt everything from retail to data storage to entertainment media, so it should come as no surprise that the Seattle tech titan has a secret team dedicated to innovations in healthcare.

 

A new report, from CNBC’s Eugene Kim and Christina Farr, reveals details about the team, which is code-named 1492, after the year Columbus discovered America. Two sources familiar with the matter told CNBC that 1492 is researching new opportunities in health-related hardware and software, developing projects like electronic medical records and medical treatment delivered remotely.  Click for more

Jacob Hacker, the Stanley B. Resor Professor of Political Science, is an expert on healthcare policy whose work was influential in crafting the ACA. Hacker, the director of Yale’s Institution for Social and Policy Studies, spoke with YaleNews about the current debate in Congress over health policy and his ideas for improving the nation’s healthcare system. Click for more

 

 

17% of Americans see healthcare costs as their biggest financial concern, according to a June 7-11 Gallup poll. This is up seven percentage points from 2013, and the number has steadily risen in the past four years. The regularly conducted poll showcases a high of 19% in 2008, and the drop to 9% in 2009 is attributed to the financial recession.

 

There is contradictory speculation about the rising concerns of Americans on healthcare. Some believe the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has caused steady financial worry since its implementation, while others believe the rising concerns come with news of the proposed ACA replacement bill currently being deliberated by Congress.  Click for more

 

A 2014 nation-wide study conducted by CMS’ Office of the Actuary and published by Health Affairs shows Alaska as the biggest spender in healthcare per capita at $11,064. Utah spent the least per capita at $5,982.

 

Higher spending states often have a greater population that rely on Medicare or Medicaid or may have higher levels of personal income along with greater accessibility to healthcare. Lower-spending states tend to have fewer insured residents.  Click for more

 

Is healthcare the most innovative industry? According to a Klick Health consumer survey, only 17% of respondents believe so, but 40% believe that healthcare should be at the forefront of innovation.

 

The survey highlights several requests and perspectives: desire for increased innovation, belief that innovation will improve the patient-provider experience, and how technology will play a bigger part in personal health management.  Click for more

 

The recent American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin’s (AAPI) CEO Forum looked to the future. The 35th annual convention’s president brought nearly 1000 healthcare experts together to discuss "Healthcare Beyond 2020" in a united front intended to recommend a course of action to US legislators.

 

Topics discussed included changing healthcare trends and their impact on all involved in the industry, emerging medical technology, telemedicine, and the AAPI's stance on an ever-changing healthcare policy – highlighting portability of insurance from state-to-state as well as increased number of medicals schools and residency slots.  Click for more

 

 

 

The U.S. health-care system is full of things that don't make much sense. A lot of them are extremely profitable. One of these, recently highlighted by legendary short-seller Jim Chanos, is dialysis, a market largely split in the U.S. between two large firms, DaVita Inc. and Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co KGaA. If the Senate passes a health-care bill similar to one the House of Representatives passed last month, then it may become easier for private insurance plans to stop covering dialysis, cutting off a big source of profit for these companies.  Click for more

 

The rise of high-deductible health plans is driving one Missouri hospital to completely revamp patient registration, billing and collection. In the past five years, health insurers went from paying 90% of patient-care costs to only about 70% and that's causing massive headaches for providers. Click for more