HHS Secretary Alex Azar said he wants to reduce or possibly eliminate reporting requirements for the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS), instead using claims data and patient surveys so clinicians won’t have to submit any data themselves.

For two decades, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has supposedly been blocked from conducting research into the health effects of gun violence by a budget amendment. HHS Secretary Alex Azar has a different opinion, telling members of Congress Thursday he would allow the CDC to conduct research which doesn’t veer into advocacy.

There are risks and rewards for both athenahealth and former General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt in his decision to become chairman at a company much smaller than his former employer, writes Fortune’s senior editor-at-large Geoff Colvin.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) can move forward with a lawsuit alleging UnitedHealth Group wrongly collected more than $1 billion through Medicare Advantage by finding conditions to increase a patient’s risk adjustment payment from CMS.

Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase CEO, offered some insight as to why the banking giant is getting involved in healthcare through its partnership with Amazon and Berkshire Hathaway: lowering healthcare costs and improving outcomes for its employees.

Purdue Pharma, the producer of OxyContin, recently announced it would end physician-directed marketing of all opioids. The move is a step forward in efforts to control misuse and abuse of opioids in the U.S., but, according to physicians in Maine, it comes two decades too late.

The proposed merger between Downers Grove, Illinois-based Advocate Health Care and Milwaukee’s Aurora Health Care now has the blessing of the Federal Trade Commission and regulators in Illinois, leaving regulatory approval in Wisconsin as the final hurdle for creating the 10th largest nonprofit health system in the U.S.

Providers have until March 12 to apply for CMS’s new Bundled Payments for Care Improvement (BPCI) Advanced model, though the program was only unveiled on Jan. 9. Considering the details CMS has given about the model, that’s not enough time for hospitals to decide whether to participate, according to the American Hospital Association (AHA).