Practice Management News

ORLANDO — Starting Monday, October 16, Healio Gastroenterology and Liver Disease will provide live coverage as the exclusive media partner of the World Congress of Gastroenterology at ACG2017.

Although 60% of patients and family members were satisfied with communication-and-resolution programs after medical injury, their need to be heard and to know about efforts to prevent recurrences often were unmet, according to findings published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Last month, dieticians, gastroenterologists, and other health care providers from across the world gathered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, for a 3-day program focused on the role of nutrition and lifestyle interventions in the management of patients with digestive and liver diseases.

The deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history recently took place at an open-air concert in Las Vegas on October 1, giving a horrific reminder of the growing health care epidemic of firearm injury and death, and leading many health care professionals to contemplate their role in addressing and preventing such crises.

Although daily allowable dosing of prescription opioids was increasingly restricted between 2006 and 2015 under Medicare Part D formularies, unrestricted coverage of many opioids, especially at high doses, persisted, according to research published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Research published in the Journal of Addiction Medicine indicated concurrent use of opioids and benzodiazepines among approximately 25% of patients who were prescribed at least one drug and tested for both.

More than 200 data breaches have been reported at hospitals across the United States during the last 7 years, highlighting the increasing frequency of cybersecurity attacks nationwide.

In a new policy paper, the American College of Physicians encouraged Medicare Advantage to increase transparency and better align plans to diminish excessive and burdensome administrative tasks on clinicians, as well as confusion among patients.

Congress has allowed the Children’s Health Insurance Program to expire effective Sept. 30, leaving physicians and the nearly 9 million patients covered by the program concerned for the future of childhood health care.

Communication-and-resolution programs that encourage clinicians to explain facts and offer apologies for the medical error in patient injury cases did not increase lawsuits and may help prevent medical malpractice litigation, according to findings published in Health Affairs.