At first, the 2013 Boston Marathon was going more smoothly for hospitals in and around downtown Boston compared to the prior year’s event, when a heat wave meant more runners needed medical attention. David Reisman, MHA, senior administrative director of emergency medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, admitted he had begun to think it would be an easy day.

The Medical Group Management Association (MGMA), American Medical Association (AMA) and the American College of Physicians (ACP) are asking for changes to the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS), with a wide group of stakeholders wanting the quality reporting period reduced to 90 days and ACP releasing a study determining many MIPS measures aren’t valid.

Millions more Americans could pick Medicare as their health insurer under a bill introduced by Sens. Chris Murphy, D-Connecticut, and Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon, by making it a public insurance option on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchanges and for employers.

The wave of megamergers involving health insurers could place the greatest pressure on both not-for-profit and for-profit hospitals, according to a report from Moody’s Investors Service, if these new combinations steer patients away from hospital-owned facilities.

Procter & Gamble has announced it will acquire the consumer health business of Germany-based Merck in a $4.2 billion deal, adding more over-the-counter medications to P&G’s existing product offerings.

WalletHub, a personal finance website, ranked all 50 states and the District of Columbia in pediatric health. Vermont was No. 1 and Nevada was placed at the bottom in state-by-state rankings of children’s healthcare.

“Although medical devices provide great benefits to patients, they also present risks,” said FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD. “And we are focusing equal attention on advancing new frameworks for identifying risks and protecting consumers.”

The American College of Physicians (ACP) has published a list of recommendations aimed at ending gender disparities in medicine for compensation and career advancement, as well as calling on healthcare organizations to provide a minimum of six weeks paid leave for physicians, residents and medical students.

Amazon has reportedly shelved plans to sell and distribute pharmaceuticals to hospitals and health systems through its Amazon Business unit, a move which analysts said illustrates the difficulty outside companies face in disrupting the existing healthcare supply chain.

Critical access hospitals, ambulatory care and office-based surgical practices would be subject to new requirements for pain assessment and management under proposals released by the Joint Commission, with safe prescribing of opioids needing to be an “organizational priority” in all three settings.