Editor's Note Moody’s Ratings has shifted the health insurance industry’s credit outlook from stable to negative, according to a February 3 article in Fierce Healthcare. According to the article, the downgrade is due to escalating medical costs that outpace reimbursement rates. Analysts project an 8% rise in commercial market spending…

Read More

Editor's Note Treating unintended anesthesia errors as criminal acts could exacerbate workforce shortages, increase malpractice costs, and drive clinicians to defensive medicine, according to experts quoted in a January 15 report from Anesthesiology News. Instead, fostering a culture of safety and learning could more effectively reduce errors and improve patient…

Read More

Editor's Note The FDA has approved Journavx (suzetrigine), a first-in-class non-opioid analgesic, for the treatment of moderate to severe acute pain in adults. According to the agency’s January 30 announcement, the drug targets sodium channels in the peripheral nervous system to block pain signals before they reach the brain, representing…

Read More

Editor's Note A January 31 statement from the American Medical Association (AMA) announces the organization’s support for bipartisan legislation aiming to reverse steep Medicare reimbursement reductions threatening physician practices and patient care access. Introduced by a coalition of 10 House members, the "Medicare Patient Access and Practice Stabilization Act" would…

Read More

Editor's Note As part of a larger initiative to ease access to care, insurance giant Cigna is tying compensation for senior leadership directly to customer satisfaction. Modern Healthcare reported the news February 3. The shift is part of a multi-pronged approach that also includes overhauling prior authorization requirements and limiting…

Read More

Editor's Note Bipartisan legislation seeks to combat nursing shortages by financially incentivizing experienced nurses to train the next generation of healthcare professionals, Becker’s Clinical Leadership reported January 31. The Precept Nurses Act, introduced by Rep. Jen Kiggans, would offer a $2,000 tax credit to nurses who become preceptors in health…

Read More

Editor's Note The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) designated Class 1 Recalls—the most severe category indicating serious risk of injury or death—for multiple devices over the past few days, including pressure monitoring systems, emergency resuscitators, fluid delivery sets, extracorporeal blood circuits, endoscope accessories, infusion pumps, and glucose/Ketone meters. These…

Read More

Takeaways • Interdepartmental collaboration and standardized communication are essential to quickly identifying and addressing supply chain challenges. • Just-in-time inventory strategies have gained traction since the pandemic. Successful strategies involve leveraging data, rethinking preference card management, and shifting to a demand-planning model. • Resiliency is essential to cope with the…

Read More

Ensuring safe, quality care requires precise alignment among inventory levels, delivery schedules, storage solutions, and every other element of the supply chain. A single missing piece of this puzzle—say, a delayed shipment or a storage issue—can disrupt the entire picture. Making the pieces fit can be difficult for any healthcare…

Read More

Editor’s Note Entities covered by the HIPAA security rule may soon need to adapt to more prescriptive requirements, new compliance mandates, and significantly higher costs, according to a January 24 report from TechTarget. As outlined in a December notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM), the proposal by the Department of Health…

Read More