About healthcare IT
Google runs into data fears over $2.1bn Fitbit deal:Privacy concerns over access to non-regulated health information on 27m users (Financial Times, subscription required): Not long after Google announced its deal to buy Fitbit, legislators are calling for the deal to be called off because of privacy fears.
About healthcare professionals
Lawmakers introduce bill to fund more medical residency slots to combat physician shortage, opioid crisis: “Senate and House lawmakers introduced a bill that would fund 1,000 additional medical residency positions in the next five years to address an anticipated physician shortage and to combat the ongoing opioid crisis.
The Opioid Workforce Act of 2019 (S. 2892/H.R. 3414) would fund additional Medicare-supported graduate medical education positions in hospitals that have or are in the process of establishing approved residency programs in addiction medicine, addiction psychiatry or pain management.”
About hospitals and health systems
Hospitals' uncompensated care continues to rise: “Large hospitals with more than 250 beds saw their uncompensated/unreimbursed costs increase to $39.7 million in 2018, up from $33.2 million in 2015, growing at an average annual rate of 6.2%, according to Definitive data. Meanwhile, the average for hospitals with less than 25 beds reached $2.3 million in 2018, up from $1.8 million in 2015, increasing at an average annual rate of 8.5% a year.
Uncompensated/unreimbursed costs at system-owned hospitals reached $15.6 million in 2018, up from $13.7 million in 2015. That compared to independent hospitals' average of $5.8 million in 2018, rising from $4.9 million in 2015. The average annual increase at system-owned hospitals was 4.6%, compared to 6% at independent facilities.”
Uncompensated care should not be confused with free or charitable care. Analysis of the reasons for the rise in these amounts revealed a major cause is increasing individual out-of-pocket expenses, like deductibles.
About the public’s health
Most Intended Home Births in the US Are Not Low Risk: 2016-2018: Although “natural” home births are sometimes preferred, this research provides some caution for the practice in the US. “Our study shows that well over 60% of all intended home births in the US are not low risk and have at least a single or several combined obstetric risk factors.”