Some of the most-used drugs in the U.S. are thousands of dollars more expensive in this country than they are in other countries, according to Vox. 

After reversing a five-year-old ban on healthcare organizations sending orders in May, the Joint Commission has changed plans again, announcing in its June newsletter the previous ban won’t be lifted until September.

The final version of legislation to combat opioid abuse and addiction didn’t include a requirement for prescribers to check their state’s prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP), but a new bill in the U.S. Senate would change that.

Three of the 21 participants in CMS’s newest accountable care organization (ACO) model have dropped out in the program’s first year, according to data released by the agency.

Here’s a roundup of the state healthcare news, including: a proposal in Connecticut to consolidate health agencies, a Michigan hospital telling Pokémon Go players to stay away, a patient-dumping lawsuit in California, a $2.7 million settlement over patient data breaches in Oregon and the end of a Colorado court case involving a surgery tech who could have exposed thousands to HIV.

Members of Congress left Washington, D.C., for a seven-week recess without settling disputes over emergency funding to combat the Zika virus, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said has been documented spreading from a woman to a man for the first time.

Amid growing public health concerns about antibiotic resistance, the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) said July 14 that gonorrhea could be the next infection to see significantly decreased treatability.  

HealthExec spoke with Deloitte managing director Sarah Thomas about a recent survey that showed only half non-pediatric physicians were aware of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA), despite the fact it will dramatically change Medicare reporting in 2017.