Is the 30-day readmissions metric for PCI fair or fatally flawed? The answer could have considerable financial, clinical and reputational impact for hospitals and physicians.

Friends and family often tell me their stories about encounters with the healthcare system, maybe because people know my interest in healthcare. Or perhaps they’re venting because healthcare has a PR problem that is in part caused by its affordability problem. Patients and families are annoyed, frustrated and worried that the care they are receiving might not be necessary or that they might not be able to afford their growing portion of the price.

Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) failed to improve access to care for minorities and low-income patients with complex surgical needs, researchers reported in the Sept. 13 online edition of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.

The FDA is launching “the largest coordinated tobacco compliance effort” in the agency’s history, according to a 3,493-word statement from Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD, released on Sept. 12.

It is legal to resell unexpired strips as long as they weren’t fraudulently purchased through Medicare or Medicaid. This has led to cash offers for unused testing strips online and on social media, as well as resell operations popping up in garages and basements, the Chicago-Sun Times reported.

A Fresno, California, cardiologist has been placed on five years probation following accusations that he sent inappropriate, “annoying” text messages to a teenage girl in 2017, the Fresno Bee has reported.

The 20-year-old Jackson Heart Study—the largest long-term study of cardiovascular health in a defined population of African-Americans—has received another six years of funding from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

Just weeks after Senate bill 3388 was introduced to Congress, major U.S. health organizations like the American Heart Association are warning that despite legislative efforts to ensure equal access to healthcare, the bill wouldn’t adequately protect patients with pre-existing conditions.