The goal of the opioid epidemic response plan announced by President Donald Trump will be to cut opioid prescriptions by 33 percent within three years, according to POLITICO.

The number of participants in the Next Generation ACO model has shrunk to 51 after seven accountable care organizations (ACOs) announced they’ll drop out of the program in the largest departure of providers since the model was introduced.

U.S. Representative Ro Khanna, D-California, recently introduced new legislation dubbed the Health Care Workplace Violence Prevention Act, which aims to reduce the risk of workplace violence in healthcare facilities utilizing comprehensive employer-mandated workplace violence plans.

UnitedHealth Group has dropped its bid to acquire the ambulatory services unit of Envision Healthcare and isn’t interested in participating in any deals to scoop up parts or all of the company, according to Bloomberg.

Easing clinician burden under the payment tracks implemented as part of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) will be a priority for CMS in this year’s rulemaking, according to Kate Goodrich, MD, the agency’s chief medical officer. What won’t be changing, however, is requiring providers to meet the 2015 edition of certified electronic health record technology (CHERT) standards.

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission has released its March 2018 report for Congress, which includes its recommendation to eliminate the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) after only a one year of clinician reporting to the program.

A new study published in JAMA challenges some of the more common explanations for why the U.S. spends more on healthcare than other high-income countries, finding the U.S. isn’t an outlier on measures like utilization, share of primary care physicians or social services spending.

Shareholders for both CVS Health and Aetna overwhelmingly approved the proposed $69 billion deal for CVS to acquire the health insurer, bringing the merger one step closer to completion.