A hospital’s degree of electronic health record (EHR) implementation was not associated with improved outcomes in heart failure patients, according to a study published March 30 in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Microsoft has filed a lawsuit against for-profit hospital giant Community Health Systems (CHS), claiming CHS unlawfully helped hospitals it was selling to continue using Microsoft software.

In Democrat-dominated California, an intraparty fight is brewing over how to remake the state’s healthcare system. In one corner, advocates are trying to achieve universal healthcare by expanding the Affordable Care Act’s gains in insurance coverage. In the other, there are diehard supporters of moving to a single-payer system.

A 2017 CDC network of laboratories to hasten the identification of and response to so-called “nightmare bacteria" was successful in providing health officials with additional information about control and treatment measures.

In 2017, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found 221 instances of “unusual resistance germs” which can cause infections untreatable by antibiotics and spread that resistance to other germs. This “nightmare bacteria,” as the CDC called it, means hospitals and other healthcare facilities need to take “early and aggressive” action whenever a single case is found within their walls.

In its final report on the 2018 open enrollment period on the Affordable Care Act (AC) exchanges, CMS said 11.8 million people selected or were re-enrolled in a plan. While the final tally combining enrollment from the federal and state exchanges represents a 3 percent decline from the prior year, supporters of the ACA painted it as a positive, considering cuts in outreach and advertising and the push to repeal the law by the Trump administration.

Every year, physician offices may deal with as much as $54 billion in revenue being challenged by insurers, with fee-for-service (FFS) Medicaid being “the most challenging type” of payer to bill, according to a study published in Health Affairs.

Social network sites (SNSs) facilitate efficient communication between healthcare professionals but are limited in protecting data, according to a study published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.

Although electronic health records (EHRs) were designed to improve care and streamline data sharing, rates of burnout have increased as EHR-related tasks produced are placed on physicians' shoulders. An article by Harvard Business Journal examines which improvement to EHRs could have the biggest impact in reducing burnout.

A smartphone application utilizing a camera to assess blood flow in the wrist artery in patients undergoing coronary angiography was able to outperform traditional physical examination, according to a study published April 3 in Canadian Medical Association Journal.