Prime Medical, the exclusive manufacturer of chlorine-shielded privacy curtains, apparel and bed linens for healthcare, announced today it has joined the Illucient Purchasing Alliance, and will now be available to the 44 member hospitals throughout North Carolina and South Carolina that utilize the aggregated purchasing power of the Illucient Portfolio for negotiated discounts for their facility's supply chain needs.

Nonprofit medical boards reported a $23 million surplus in 2013, more than triple what was recorded a decade earlier. Most of that revenue comes from charging physicians for certification exams.

The Candida auris fungus had just one reported U.S. case as of July 2016. A year later, there have been 98 reported cases in hospitals in nine states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Trauma center accreditation status has been granted to two additional hospitals in Pennsylvania starting September 1, 2017.

Researchers found no evidence that efforts to drop hospital readmissions rates have increased the risk of recently discharged patients dying—in fact, those efforts seem to have reduced post-hospitalization mortality.

The annual hospital rankings from U.S. News and World Report will now be released a week later than scheduled after errors were discovered in data which affected 12 “data-driven specialty rankings.”

The U.S. Department of Justice charged 412 people, including 56 doctors, for allegedly participated in false billing schemes netting $1.3 billion, with many cases involving prescriptions of opioids or other narcotics.

Pharmaceutical companies appear to be embracing contracts where they return money if patient outcomes don’t meet goals, but similar approaches haven’t lowered costs.