Best Practices

Concerning New Challenge for Behavioral Healthcare Providers

In the intricate world of behavioral healthcare, where reimbursement policies and insurance claims are critical to operational success, a new and concerning trend has emerged, potentially impacting how providers manage their financial operations. This silent contracting trend involves Florida Blue’s recent policy changes regarding laboratory service claims and their significant implications....

read more

When ribosomes go rogue

Unusual variations in the cellular protein factory can skew development, help cancer spread and more. But ribosome variety may also play biological roles, scientists say. In the 1940s, scientists at the recently established National Cancer Institute were trying to breed mice that could inform our understanding of cancer, either because they predictably developed certain cancers or were...

read more

Drug prices improved under Biden-Harris and Trump − but not for everyone, and not enough

Negotiations to reduce drug prices can sometimes shift costs onto consumers. rudisill/iStock via Getty Images Plus ~~~~~ When it comes to drug pricing, the Trump and Biden-Harris administrations both have some very modest wins to tout. As director of the Health Outcomes, Policy, and Evidence Synthesis group at the University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy, I teach and study about the ethics...

read more

At Catholic Hospitals, a Mission of Charity Runs Up Against High Care Costs for Patients

When Jessica Staten’s kidney stones wouldn’t pass, she said, her doctor suggested a procedure to “blow ’em up.” She went to have it done last November at St. Joseph Medical Center in Bellingham, Washington, one of nine hospitals that the Catholic health system PeaceHealth operates in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. “I was probably there a total of 3½ hours, and everything went well,” said...

read more

Business Considerations for Starting a Medical Practice

Medical school equips physicians with the skills to care for patients but often leaves them unprepared for the business side of running a medical practice. Here are some crucial considerations for physicians before opening their own practice. Business Expectations Most healthcare professionals think if they’re amazingly good at what they do, patients will flock to them. Not true at all,...

read more

Traveling To Die: The Latest Form of Medical Tourism

In the 18 months after Francine Milano was diagnosed with a recurrence of the ovarian cancer she thought she’d beaten 20 years ago, she traveled twice from her home in Pennsylvania to Vermont. She went not to ski, hike, or leaf-peep, but to arrange to die. “I really wanted to take control over how I left this world,” said the 61-year-old who lives in Lancaster. “I decided that this was an option...

read more