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Electronic health record adoption in US hospitals has progressed well, but small and rural hospitals remain behind and face financial penalties.

Another hearing on Horizon BCBS of New Jersey's OMNIA plan reveals how the Christie Administration's failure to keep pace with a changing healthcare market left regulators ill-equipped to address a far-reaching plan that has upset urban mayors, legislators, and safety net hospitals.

What we're reading, December 3, 2015: health spending in the US topped $3 trillion in 2014; experts debate the true impact of proposed health insurer mega-mergers; and a survey finds ICD-10 transition has been mostly without trouble.

An exhaustive study published by Kaiser Permanente in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute has confirmed that antidepressants do not cause recurrence in breast cancer patients treated with tamoxifen.

This year's measures include 60 that will be part of the new Merit-Based Incentive Payment System or MIPS, which was created under legislation that eliminated the Sustainable Growth Rate.

Critics of the Global Energy Balance Network had compared its work to the tactics of big tobacco, which decades ago had sponsored studies to dissuade Americans that cigarettes were dangerous.

Targets for savings needed to cover retirees' healthcare expenses are rising.

Hospitals are facing hundreds of millions in penalties for readmissions, and they are trying coding gimmicks to avoid these. Instead, it's time send a nurse home with every discharge.

A study published in the journal Breast Cancer Research and Treatment cognitive-behavioral stress management introduced early in care management can improve breast cancer outcomes.

What we're reading, December 2, 2015: Gilead priced Sovaldi knowing the high cost would be a challenge for patients and payers; Senate Republicans will vote Thursday on Obamacare repeal and expect to get the needed votes; and a report calls for a better focus on women's health.

Compared with patients who had clinical encounters involving low computer use, those who experienced high computer use by their physicians were less likely to rate their care as excellent, a study reports.

Entering into the Affordable Care Act health insurance marketplaces was a bad decision, according to the CEO of UnitedHealth Group Inc, which is considering pulling back from participation in 2017.

Financial and communication barriers are major impediments to quality end-of-life care for ethnic minorities.

Despite the good news, experts warn against being complacent, because new cases are still high among minorities and those with little education.

A new study suggests that a poor response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy-frequently administered to black, Hispanic, and Asian women-could dictate survival rates in breast cancer.

Anthony S. Fauci, MD, of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, co-authors an article that calls for broader use of ART to bring about the end of AIDS, more than 30 years after the dawn of the pandemic.

What we're reading, December 1, 2015: $1 alternative to Daraprim being made available; over-the-counter medications are convenient and affordable but have their own dangers; and an analysis looks at the reasons why prescription drugs are so much more expensive in the US.

In California, a class action lawsuit has been filed on behalf of thousands of Blue Cross beneficiaries living with hepatitis C who were denied treatment.

Two separate lawsuits have challenged the health insurance plan, which seeks to give some hospitals lower reimbursements in exchange for directing large numbers of patients their way. After business hours, the attorney for a group of hospitals said regulators declined to stay their approval of the tiered network.

Following the approval of daratumumab earlier this month, multiple myeloma patients now have another opportunity to combat the disease: elotuzumab.

Relaxed direct-to-consumer advertising restrictions for drugs by the FDA in 1997 has precipitated an increase in prescription drug utilization, not just among Medicare enrollees, but also among non-elderly users.

What we're reading, November 30, 2015: the Spanish language HealthCare.gov is lagging in sign-ups; the overall federal insurance exchange has fewer preferred provider organizations; and many Americans don't understand why they need the flu vaccine.

The link between low testosterone and decreased insulin sensitivity had been shown in previous research.

A small majority (51%) of US adults now believe that the federal government has a responsibility to ensure all Americans have health insurance coverage.

A new study finds that the use of proton pump inhibitors, used for many patients admitted to the hospital, may actually cause more harm to hospitalized patients than good.

This week in managed care, CMS proposed changes to the health insurance marketplaces for 2017, AJMC highlights 5 takeaways from the HHS Pharmaceutical Forum, CVS chose to cover just 1 PCSK9, and industry reacts to FDA regulating diagnostic tests.

The largest health insurance carriers in each Affordable care Act marketplace had a 75% higher premium increase from 2014 to 2015 compared with other same-state carriers.

The Nationwide Inpatient Sample has been critically underreporting certain health information for its database, according to a recent study by Johns Hopkins researchers.

A new study suggests that financial incentives shared by both doctors and patients work best at improving medication compliance among patients.

Preventing hospital readmissions has long been an important general focus in the healthcare field-and this importance increases tenfold when it comes to children's health.