More than half of all patients have been offered online access to their medical records in 2017, an increase from 42 percent in 2014, according to a survey conducted by the HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC).

CMS has begun sending out new cards for Medicare beneficiaries that don’t include information about the patient’s Social Security number. Most beneficiaries, however, don’t know about the new cards, leaving them vulnerable to scams.

Phoenix’s Banner Health has agreed to pay more than $18 million to settle a whistleblower lawsuit alleging it overcharged Medicare by admitting patients at hospitals for brief, inpatient services when they could’ve been treated in less expensive outpatient settings.

Prices across the healthcare sector rose 2.2 percent year-over-year in March 2018, the highest annual growth rate recorded by Altarum since January 2012, with the report warning rapid price growth is likely to continue.

Researchers from the University of Adelaide have developed a microscopic probe capable of measuring temperatures while viewing the inside of the body. Study findings were published in the upcoming April 15 Optics Letters.

A machine learning, real-time hand hygiene notification system improved participant adherence to 100 percent, according to a study published April 9 in the Journal of Hospital Infection.

Only 50 percent of physicians are very or extremely satisfied with their access to patient information, according to a survey conducted by Surescripts.

The Rush hospital system based in Chicago has ended plans to acquire Little Company of Mary of Evergreen Park, Illinois, which would’ve merged 12 facilities with Rush University Medical Center and its 2,500-student health sciences college.

Johnny Delashaw, MD, the former chief of the Swedish Neuroscience Institute (SNI), is suing the Seattle Times over what he alleges was a “false and defamatory” investigative article that damaged his reputation and led to his resignation and the suspension of his medical license.

The report from the Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI) examined claims for people with multiple sclerosis (MS) from 2009 to 2015 covered by individual market, employer-sponsored or Medicare Advantage plans. It found total spending per MS patient rose from around $23,900 to $39,628 by 2015. During the same time period, the share of spending spent towards injectable and oral disease modifying therapies (DMTs) rose from 39 percent to 53 percent.