Bill would force PBMs to sell pharmacies | FDA recalls 233K bottles of antidepressant | Christmas ransomware hits 300K

The Patients Before Monopolies Act, introduced in both the House and Senate, gives parent companies of PBMs three years to divest from pharmacies or face penalties. 

Bottles of duloxetine manufactured by Rising Pharmaceuticals are being recalled due to higher-than-normal levels of nitrosamine contaminants. The recall is classified as Class II, the second most serious type.

Last Christmas, Anna Jaques Hospital in Massachusetts suffered a ransomware attack. Now, nearly a year later, it confirms hackers stole personal information on 316,342 patients. 

The Federal Trade Commission did not accuse the companies of wrongdoing. However, it advised them to stay out of trouble by not deploying robocalls, impersonating the government or other common illegal marketing strategies. 

Luigi Mangione, 26, has been officially charged with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. He awaits extradition to New York after being arrested in Pennsylvania, where he was found carrying a gun, fake IDs and a handwritten document. 

FDA Commissioner Robert Califf, MD, explains the need for hospitals to perform quality assurance checks on clinical artificial intelligence to ensure these technologies don't "drift" from what was originally cleared by the FDA.
 

The struggling pharmacy chain is reportedly in talks for a sale to Sycamore Partners, a New York-based firm that specializes in consumer retail companies. 

Atrium Health Carolina Rehabilitation is partnering with Unbroken, an organization working to improve rehabilitation services in war-torn Ukraine. The series of visits to North Carolina will begin next year.

HATco, part of General Catalyst, is set to purchase the Ohio-based health system, which currently has roughly $850 million in debt on its balance sheet. 

Sens. John Boozman and Ben Ray Luján on Thursday reintroduced the Medicare Access to Radiology Care Act (MARCA). 

Remote patient monitoring helps clinicians track heart patients as they recover from major operations. One surgeon described the technology as a "game-changer," highlighting the confidence patients feel when they have "an extra set of eyes on them."