Partners HealthCare lost money on operations for the first time since 1999 due to financial losses from its insurance arm, reports The Boston Globe.

Washington, D.C.-based Specialty Hospital is close to finalizing a $5.2 million bankruptcy deal that paves the way for a sale to its hedge fund suitor, Silver Point Capital, reports Washington Business Journal.

The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston School of Biomedical Informatics has obtained a $7.3 million grant to enhance healthcare and biomedical discovery through health IT.

The population health market is seeing some satisfied customers. Seventy percent of providers report tangible benefits to patient care when using certain population health vendors, according to a report published by KLAS, a global research firm.   

The Institute of Medicine Committee on Social and Behavioral Domains and Measures for EHRs formally presented recommendations to the Health IT Policy Committee calling for the inclusion of certain standard measures for social and behavioral domains in federal certification and incentive programs.

Data released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services at the Health IT Policy Committee reveal only marginal gains in the numbers of eligible professionals and hospitals attesting to Meaningful Use Stage 2, reports Clinical Innovation + Technology.

While quality reporting helps stimulate improvement initiatives, hospital executives see little correlation with clinical outcomes, according to a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Massachusetts health officials barred hospitals from opening new cardiac catheterization units within 30 minutes of similar services, but regulators exempted Steward Health Care from this ban over the summer. Now rival healthcare systems are crying foul, reports the Boston Globe.