In the latest acquisition by health IT vendor Allscripts, it has purchased HealthGrid, a mobile patient engagement platform, for $60 million in cash and adding its capabilities to the Allscripts FollowMyHealth portfolio.

The Commonwealth Fund’s 2018 scorecard on state health system performance saw the five highest-ranked states maintain their exact rankings from the last report, with Hawaii again claiming the No. 1 spot. The most striking finding was the surge in deaths from suicide, alcohol and overdoses from opioids and other drugs since 2005.

“Repealing the individual mandate was exactly the right thing to do. Forcing Americans to buy something they don’t want undermines individual liberty as well as free markets,” Price said in a statement released through the Job Creators Network, a pro-business group for which he is a healthcare fellow.

If participants in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) are required to move into a track which involves downside risk for their organization, they’re likely to leave the program altogether, according to the results of a survey from the National Association of Accountable Care Organizations (NAACOS).

Moody’s Investors Service maintained its stable outlook for the for-profit hospital industry, predicting some small growth in same-facility revenues and patient volumes while margins would remain flat. Looking ahead, however, it advises facilities to pay more attention to value-based care concepts and new technologies like telemedicine and artificial intelligence.

Ascension, the largest nonprofit health system in the U.S., has announced a new joint venture with Australia-based hospital operator Ramsay Health Care Limited to create a global supply chain to reduce costs for Ascension’s 2,600 sites of care and the more than 230 facilities Ramsay operates in six countries.

Years of gains in insurance coverage since the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are beginning to reverse, according to a new report from the Commonwealth Fund which found 15.5 percent of working age adults are uninsured, an increase of about four million people since 2016.

Median earned base-to-bonus ratio—measuring what proportion of compensation comes from incentives beyond base salary—rose for several job titles in 2017.

Maine became the first state to approve Medicaid expansion at the ballot box. Despite 59 percent of voters approved of expansion, Gov. Paul LePage has taken several steps which have stalled its implementation.

Envision had sued the insurer in March, alleging UnitedHealthcare “unilaterally” negotiated payment rates and failed to add Envision physicians to its network after the acquisition of AmSurg in 2016. UnitedHealthcare argued Envision’s emergency room billing practices were “egregious,” but also said the lawsuit itself was a violation of the arbitration provision in their contract.