If a scientific survey of 788 representative Americans conducted in July is a reliable bellwether, the country could fall short of getting to the 70% vaccination rate needed to achieve community, or “herd,” immunity.

Analyzing timestamped EHR data from more than 21 million primary care visits in 2017, researchers have ascertained average lengths of visit and other metrics useful to assessing care quality.

Coronavirus chaos notwithstanding, more than 80% of penalty-eligible hospitals will feel the pain of readmission reductions during the current fiscal year.

It will be more than a year for the U.S. healthcare industry to return to normal, with physicians expecting the new normal to be sometime around August 2021—once a vaccine for COVID-19 has been distributed.

Locking down childcare over COVID-19 in a state whose programs serve more than half a million children a day would force 75% of families to work less and 59% to quit a job outright.

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) is combining forces with two other groups to challenge the FDA final rule allowing broad, state-by-state importation of drugs from Canada.

Somewhat suddenly, Boston University’s school of medicine has in hand 12,024 applications from students hoping to become MDs. It only has 110 seats. Across the country, Stanford has 11,000 applicants for 90 openings.

Will the public be braced enough for the expected side effects of shot No. 1 that they’ll follow through with the essential second round?

Millennials are feeling the pain of surprise medical bills more acutely than the generations that preceded them.

People tend to perceive themselves as less swayed than others by COVID-19 misinformation, and the gap helps explain why some people are more open than others to governmental interventions.

Early on in the COVID crisis, many hospital-based healthcare workers moved around to serve in COVID hotspots hurting for staff. They did so at scale and at will. Those were the good old days.

Mask wearers are no better defended against COVID-19 than their mask-shunning counterparts, according to a Danish study of almost 5,000 people, roughly half of whom wore face masks as COVID-19 protection in April and May.

In the American Northwest and upper Midwest, a digitally progressive health system that operates 24 hospitals is moving to merge with one that specializes in rural care delivery and operates in 24 states and 10 countries.

In the heat of the present pandemic, the findings are fascinating even when they’re not startling—although in at least one instance they’re both. 

There’s good news and bad news from the COVID-19 beat. For the bad news, look anywhere news is disseminated. For the good, start with this compact but formidable roundup.  

The honor roll, which recognizes 20 hospitals that excel in numerous care concentrations, is only part of a “Best Hospitals” package the publication has retooled for this, the year of the pandemic. 

The American Medical Association has adopted new telehealth policy positions, the organization announced upon the Tuesday closing of a special five-day virtual meeting. 

The Mayo Clinic has had better outcomes with COVID-19 patients than the national average, achieving a mortality rate of 1.1% vs. approximately 3% for the U.S. as a whole.

Official mandates to social distance during the COVID-conscious holidays are going to fall on many a deaf ear if they fail to respect a ubiquitous human impulse at the core of such annual celebrations. 

Until this week, the least densely populated continent was the only one of the world’s seven that looked like it might escape the COVID crisis unscathed. Now there are none.