Insurance data show a surge in spending on opioid treatment and testing | National Public Radio
A report set to be released Tuesday shows a more than thirteenfold increase in spending by health insurers in a four-year period on patients with a diagnosis of opioid dependence or abuse. The study builds on one Fair Health released in early August that found a thirtyfold increase in the volume of insurance claims related to opioid dependence diagnoses between 2007 and 2014.
Cyberattacks have yet to hurt healthcare's bottom line | Politico
Although health care is hurting from cyberattackers — with at least 12 distinct ransomware attacks on American providers and hospital chains this year — the industry’s pocketbooks appear no lighter as a result.
Massachusetts hospitals, advocates resist Medicaid reforms | Salem (Mass.) News
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker’s overhaul of the state’s Medicaid program faces opposition from hospitals and health care advocates who say cuts will hurt the state’s most vulnerable citizens. Baker, a Republican and former CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, is pushing the biggest overhaul of MassHealth in two decades, warning that the program is consuming growth in state revenues and has become “unsustainable.”
Allina, nurses were so close, yet far from deal | Minneapolis Star Tribune
Bleary-eyed from 22 hours of contract talks, leaders for Allina Health and its union hospital nurses appeared to be just one big issue away from agreement when they halted negotiations at 6 a.m. on Sept. 3. Forty-eight hours later the nurses hit the picket lines. Now, as the strike enters its second week, the question is: Will they still be that close when they return to bargaining after having slept, restrategized and traded bitter accusations for days?
Increase in cancer survivorship could catch healthcare ill-prepared | Forbes
A looming challenge: 73 percent of cancer survivors in the future will be over 65, compared with just 62 percent today, the National Cancer Institute says. Their risk of age-related diseases might be exacerbated by long-term toxic effects of cancer treatments. The NCI cites a dearth of data on this group.
Too-clean childhoods blamed for rise in food allergies | CNBC
Studies indicate that food allergies in children increased approximately 50 percent between 1997 and 2011. The "hygiene hypothesis" posits that an obsession with germ-fighting and a lack of exposure to infectious agents early in childhood have miscued the immune system to treat food proteins as invading germs.
Independent Vermont doctors locked in regulatory battle with hospitals | VTDigger.org
Doctors have been seeking state approval for the Green Mountain Surgical Center for more than a year without success. That’s because the independent physician group is deadlocked in a regulatory battle with the Vermont Association of Hospitals and Health Systems and Northwestern Medical Center in St. Albans.
Crazed Kansas hospital employee sets boss on fire, slashes her with scissors before being tackled by co-workers | New York Daily News
Frantic doctors and service members at a Fort Leavenworth hospital in Kansas tackled a crazed employee to the ground after he doused his boss with gasoline and set her ablaze.
