Practice Management News

Exposure to prescription opioids in the household was associated with an increased likelihood of prescription opioid use, according to findings published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Lawmakers are trying to reconcile the differences between the Senate tax bill passed Saturday and the House bill passed Nov. 16, leaving many unanswered questions about the future of health care.

Earlier this year, hackers executed a worldwide ransomware attack that has impacted more than 100 countries and infected tens of thousands of computers. More than 30 hospitals, doctors’ offices and ambulance companies across the United Kingdom’s National Health Service were affected by the cyberattack. Doctors and nurses were unable to access patients’ records and patients had to be turned away from treatment on occasion.

In this guest commentary, Zuly Gonzalez, co-founder and CEO of Light Point Security and former cybersecurity expert at the National Security Agency, discusses what physicians and private practices could do to help prevent hackers from gaining access to patients’ valuable health information. The Baltimore-based cybersecurity company developed the concept of “remote browser isolation” to prevent ransomware and other web-based malware from infecting an organization.

CVS agreed to acquire Aetna for $69 billion over the weekend in a proposed deal that The Washington Post said is the biggest health-care merger announced in more than a year. CVS announced that as part of this merger, it planned to turn CVS stores into community medical hubs for basic procedures and primary care.

Medical manufacturing facilities in Puerto Rico continue to struggle after Hurricane Maria tore through the island in September and knocked out the power grid, according to FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD.

In the early hours of Saturday morning, the Senate voted 51-to-49 to pass the final version of its tax bill.

The FDA has taken several steps recently in the ongoing battle to combat the opioid crisis.

The Senate will debate and may vote on the Republican tax reform proposal today, with several critical health care components still undefined, possibly affecting millions of people and billions of dollars.

The FDA approved Sublocade, the first buprenorphine injection taken monthly for moderate-to-severe opioid use disorder in adult patients who have begun treatment with a transmucosal buprenorphine-containing product and have been on a stable dose of buprenorphine treatment for at least 7 days, according to a press release.