Study: Physicians who 'fit in' feel less burned out | EFF sues CMS over AI-automated Medicare prior authorizations

Three-fifths of 14,000 physicians surveyed, 60%, enjoy a strong sense of belonging within their organization. Better yet, four-fifths, 80%, feel their teammates have their back.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit digital civil rights advocacy group, said it filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking more information about the “WISeR” pilot program, which effectively adds a prior-authorization process to traditional Medicare in six states. To date, it’s received no response. 

In a complaint filed in federal court, the U.S. Department of Justice claims NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital uses its power of “scale, breadth and configuration” to control payer contracts, making it difficult for insurers to develop low-cost plans. The health system denies any wrongdoing.

The disturbing case highlights a series of process errors and cost-cutting measures that ultimately led to the “never event” accident. 

Led by a Quebec-based faith organization, a coalition of investors is asking a court to force UnitedHealth to provide details on the social impacts of its history of mergers and acquisitions. The lawsuit comes after the plaintiffs, all company shareholders, failed to get the proposal passed through internal channels. The Securities and Exchange Commission has also opted not to intervene. 

The request to the court comes a month after the agency settled with Express Scripts, under the condition the company change its wholesale buying practices, pass on manufacturer rebates and support TrumpRx.gov. Now it's up to CVS Caremark and UnitedHealth’s Optum Rx to make deals of their own. 

Teflyon Cameron’s sentence was announced on Monday. She pleaded guilty for her role in a scheme that sent kickbacks to doctors for medically unnecessary orders. The U.S. Department of Justice said the conspiracy went on for “several years."

Authorities claim NewYork-Presbyterian wielded plan restrictions to stop one insurer from steering beneficiaries to other imaging options. 

A new embolic protection device from Emboline was noninferior to the FDA-approved Sentinel device in terms of safety and efficacy. In addition, it captured much more TAVR-generated debris and was linked to an improved technical success rate.