Practice

The COVID-19 pandemic spurred massive disruptions to the economy and labor market that have yet to abate. It also particularly underscored the plight of workers in one of the widest-held occupations in the country — nurses. Over the past year, those on the front lines have reported increasing rates of burnout, declining mental health and

There’s broad industry support for revamping the U.S.’ decades-old health privacy law to encourage patient access and care coordination, but provider groups are deeply worried about unintended consequences on the privacy and security of sensitive medical information if it becomes more widely available, implementing the changes during COVID-19 and squaring them with other data blocking

Labor unions have staged protests, gone on strike and even organized new members throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. National Nurses United is no exception — as the country’s largest nurses’ union with 170,000 members across the country, NNU notched two major election wins in the past year. About 2,000 registered nurses at Maine Medical Center voted to

Dive Brief: Healthcare lost about 4,000 jobs overall in April, an unwelcome sign as the economy continues recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nursing home losses (-19,000) were offset by notable gains (+21,000) in ambulatory service jobs. In March, healthcare employment changed little. The industry is

Dive Brief: Last year marked a historic shift in the organization of medicine, with fewer than half of U.S. doctors working in a private practice, according to the latest American Medical Association Physician Practice Benchmark Survey. And among those private practices that continue to operate, many are trending toward a larger size. According to the

Dive Brief: More than 22% of nurses say they may leave their current position within the year, with many planning to leave for another job outside of nursing or retire, according to a McKinsey report published Thursday. Nurses in long-term care settings were more likely to consider leaving their roles than those in inpatient settings, and

Dive Brief: More than 700 nurses at Tenet’s St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts, remain on strike after the two sides sat down to their first bargaining session since the work stoppage began March 8. The Monday meeting was futile, and another session has not yet been scheduled. The Massachusetts Nurses Association, which represents the

Dive Brief: Primary care practices are playing a significant role in vaccinating people in the U.S. for COVID-19, according to a new survey from the Primary Care Collaborative and the Larry A. Green Center. The PCC surveyed more than 650 primary care physicians, nurse practitioners and pharmacists in 48 states, the District of Columbia and

Dive Brief: The Association for Molecular Pathology and the Infectious Diseases Society of America are cautioning healthcare providers against using certain data generated by some COVID-19 PCR tests to make patient care decisions. Some tests generate data known as cycle threshold (Ct) values that have the potential to help determine a patient’s prognosis and risk

Dive Brief: A new report by Forrester Research on wearables in healthcare concludes such devices assist consumers rather than clinicians, and that their shortcomings are numerous. The report was based on interviews with more than 40 patients and physicians. “These products neither promise nor deliver healthcare. Why? They offer data, not answers to consumer questions,

Dive Brief: Healthcare employment is rebounding from the job losses created by COVID-19, but the overall numbers still trail pre-pandemic levels, according to new data released by the Altarum Institute. Overall sector employment at the end of the first quarter of 2021 was down by 44,000 compared to the end of last year. Hospital employment

This article is part of a series on what the healthcare industry looks like one year after the novel coronavirus was declared a pandemic and life in the United States began to drastically change. The U.S. has grappled with the coronavirus pandemic for one year now, a year that saw major health systems and community

Many milestones could be considered to mark the one year point into the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. The first known coronavirus patient in the country was seen at Providence Medical Center on Jan. 21, 2020. The federal government declared the public health emergency 10 days later. The World Health Organization said the novel

Dive Brief: Amazon is expanding its virtual care pilot program, Amazon Care, to employees and outside companies nationwide beginning this summer in a major evolution of its telehealth initiative, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to drive unprecedented demand for virtual care. Amazon will also offer its on-demand primary care service to other Washington state-based companies

This article is part of a series on what the healthcare industry looks like one year after the novel coronavirus was declared a pandemic and life in the United States began to drastically change. Healthcare workers have been pushed to their limits during the COVID-19 crisis, and some are considering a change in profession or

Xavier Becerra was confirmed as HHS secretary Thursday afternoon by a razor-thin margin. The former California attorney general now takes the helm as the country attempts to improve the distribution of coronavirus vaccines and the Biden administration works on building up the Affordable Care Act. The 50-49 vote in the Senate was almost entirely along

This article is part of a series on what the healthcare industry looks like one year after the novel coronavirus was declared a pandemic and life in the United States began to drastically change. As the editor-in-chief of Health Affairs, Alan Weil has had a front-row seat to the latest in research and thoughts from

Dive Brief: More than 60% of frontline healthcare workers say the pandemic has negatively impacted their mental health, according to a national survey published Tuesday from the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Washington Post. About 13% of those surveyed reported accessing mental health services or medications while 18% said they needed such services but didn’t get

Dive Brief: Black adults are significantly more likely to encounter discrimination when receiving healthcare than White patients, according to a new study by the Urban Institute underwritten by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. While 10.6% of Black adults said they had experienced some form of discrimination based on race, ethnicity, disability, gender, sexual orientation or

Dive Brief: The price providers pay to insure themselves and their practices against medical liability claims is on the rise, according to an analysis from the American Medical Association. After holding mostly steady over the past decade, more than 30% of premiums reported by a survey of liability insurers increased from 2019 to 2020, the

Researchers in Germany, Norway and Austria have put forward a hypothesis for why in some very rare cases the coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford seems to trigger an abnormal and potentially life-threatening combination of blood clotting and low platelet counts. The apparent side effect has been documented in a little