One of the many harmful effects of the Great Recession was wage deflation in certain sectors. Is it possible that an economic drag has reached into highly skilled professions such as medicine?

In a survey on physician income and job satisfaction, 45 percent of respondents reported their compensation dropped between 2013 and 2014 and another 43 percent saw no change in income.

Expanding a demonstration that bundled hospital and physician payments for several cardiac and orthopedic procedures would have a significant impact on Medicare, wrote authors of a viewpoint that appeared online July 7 in JAMA Internal Medicine. They offered several options going forward.

It pays to invest in continuing medical education (CME), according to a predictive model applied to cardiac and thoracic surgeries. Costs averted from bleeding-related complications and reoperation for bleeding were substantial, even when a modest number of surgeons incorporated lessons into practice.

Senators submitted bipartisan legislature on June 19 to change Medicare’s policy of withholding payments for high rates of readmission to provide better coverage to hospitals working with populations of underserved, disadvantaged and at-risk patients. If put into law, it would change policies outlined in the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program.

While heart failure length of stay is dropping, the cost of an emergency room visit is growing, a study published in the June issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Heart Failure found. Heart failure is the top reason for Medicare hospital readmissions and 1 million hospital stays occur each year.

Medtronic has agreed to pay nearly $43 billion to acquire Covidien, a move that will allow the Minneapolis company to shift its headquarters to Ireland and lower its tax burden.

The price of a lipid panel can vary by as much as $328 in Dallas and by as little as $16 in Birmingham, Ala. An analysis by the health services company Castlight Health also found Fresno, Calif., to be a relative bargain for a head CT scan, a lower back MRI and a visit with a primary care physician.