Editor's Note Understanding the impact of value-based care on the surgical suite (VBC) will be essential for hospitals to understand as payers begin to seek partners in new payment models. In a conference session yesterday, Lauren Cricchi, associate principal, financial services at Avalere Healthcare and Katie Sullivan, senior vice president,…

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Editor's Note How will healthcare regulators deal with artificial intelligence? How will malpractice law change, and who will be liable for harm derived from AI diagnosis and treatment recommendations? What can be done about bias in AI? Even amid a surge in algorithms cleared by the FDA, all of these…

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Editor's Note Nearly 100 house and senate staff attended a January 30 briefing on the Safety from Violence for Healthcare Employees (SAVE) Act, a bill under congressional consideration that aims to protect healthcare workers from assault or intimidation while on the job. In addition to criminalizing these acts, the bill…

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Editor's Note:  The U.S. Justice Department is investigating how the healthcare industry is using artificial intelligence (AI) tools to analyze and make decisions using patients’ electronic health records (EHRs), Bloomberg Law reported January 29. So far, DOJ has served subpoenas related to EHRs to at least three major pharma companies:…

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I was fresh out of the OR when I received a formal job offer from OR Manager. Although still hazy from an emergency laparoscopic appendectomy, I knew I would accept, reasoning the universe must be trying to tell me something. I also had no doubts about the other, very different…

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Editor's Note: Non-monetary compensation to physicians is limited to no more than $507 for calendar year 2024, according to a report on the federal Stark Law published December 27 in Lexology. The Stark Law applies to non-cash or cash-equivalent payments from hospitals, physician groups, labs and other provider entities. The…

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Editor's Note Nearly 200 members of Congress co-signed a letter urging House and Senate leaders to act quickly in order to prevent a 3.37% cut to Medicare reimbursement payments that was scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2024. The American Medical Association, which supports the effort, reported the news…

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Editor's Note Published December 21, a year-long investigation by KFF Health News into medical device malfunctions found that the FDA allows the sale of most medical devices, including many implants, without requiring tests for safety or effectiveness. Instead, manufacturers need to show only that they have “substantial equivalence” to an…

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Initially, the massive nursing credentials scam—disclosed by federal prosecutors early last year—involved three once legitimate, now-shuttered, Florida nurses’ training institutions. Some two dozen criminal operators and recruiters have been arrested and indicted; an as-of-yet unknown number face decades behind bars. According to multiple indictments, most for wire fraud, the scammers…

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Editor’s Note US hospitals charge approximately 55% higher average fees than ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs) for colonoscopies covered by private health insurance. The findings, from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, appeared as a research letter in JAMA Health Forum on December 15. The analysis is one of…

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