Life is hectic, we know, so here’s a recap of the Healthcare Weekly Hot Topics you can’t afford to miss:
1) How healthcare merger-mania hurts competition, care access. FierceHealthcare, August 19, 2015.
The current healthcare merger trend is bad for care access, competition and patient choice.
2) Health insurance rate hikes approved for 2016: 1% rise for Michigan small businesses. Crain’s, August 19, 2015.
Small business customers will face an average of 1% increases in health insurance rates, while individuals will pay 6.5% more.
3) NIH funds new tools to crack genomic big data. GCN, August 19, 2015.
The National Institutes of Health recently awarded grants for the development of software tools to handle data compression, visualization, provenance and wrangling.
4) FDA’s infusion pump warning sends ‘powerful message’ on risk management. FierceHealthcare, August 19, 2015.
The FDA has warned against a line of infusion pumps because of cybersecurity flaws.
5) Wal-Mart’s drug problem: pharmacy business drags on profit. Reuters, August 18, 2015.
Wal-Mart said that it is seeing lower margins as it is paid less by drug plan managers.
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