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Less than six weeks from an oft-delayed deadline,..Questions abound regarding the financial repercussions of the coding format conversion across the provider spectrum, but especially for small hospitals and physician clinics…biggest fear is that a blizzard of claims denials… many providers are braced for a dramatic fall-off in revenues once the deadline hits…as high as 40 percent revenue loss in the first few weeks. Uncertainty reigns throughout the provider, payer and vendor sectors..

Rivals Sarepta Therapeutics and BioMarin ​Pharmaceutical are in line to become the next recipients of an FDA coupon for a fast review, each potentially picking up a sellable asset...The two companies separately received the FDA's rare pediatric disease designation for their in-development treatments for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. And if they can win approval for the drugs next year--by no means guaranteed--each will receive a voucher that promises...a 6-month FDA review for any drug, truncating the standard 10-month process. Such vouchers can be sold to the highest bidder, and their market value has skyrocketed over the past year…

researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has found that Florida’s legislative efforts to curb opioid abuse seem to be having their desired effect… statistically significant drops in the amount of opioids being prescribed and the volume in the state… opioid prescriptions dropped about 1.4%, opioid volume fell 2.4% and there was a 5.6% decrease in the morphine milligram equivalent per transaction.

More than 100 plants in…Islamabad, and in…the Punjab province are downing tools in response to amendments by the regional government to the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan Act,… proposed changes would do away with the Out of Specification production category, which is used by international regulators for batches that do not meet pharmacopeial specifications. Instead.. new rules would mark all failed products with the…term "Spurious", a classification that..encompasses unregistered and counterfeit medicines, and products containing no active pharmaceutical ingredient…

Thousands of Nevada Medicaid patients may soon have to find new doctors…One of two managed care organizations that contract with the state..is about to lose a large network of primary care physicians and specialists…HealthCare Partners of Nevada — confirmed that it will withdraw from Amerigroup Community Care on Nov. 30,..

With revenue sliding, margins thinning and cash flow very light, these facilities lack reserves to offset market volatility…critical access hospitals will continue to earn less, Fitch Ratings this week said it does not expect the financial struggles to affect these hospitals' credit ratings due to their near 100 percent reimbursement from Medicare and political support that will stave off any attempt to cut payments...

Massachusetts Board of Registration in Pharmacy recently released its 2014 annual report on investigations and disciplinary actions against retail chain, independent community, and compounding pharmacies...regulators reported a "noticeable field presence" with an increase in investigative staff and greater interest in keeping tabs on sterile compounding pharmacies.

...when medical care providers aren’t forced to accept bundled payments…that could cost them money if the care isn’t better and costs aren’t in check, they are willing to embrace such new reimbursement…about 9% of U.S. acute care hospitals and 7% of skilled nursing facilities are voluntarily assuming financial risk by participating in the latest phase of the… Bundled Payments for Care Improvement Initiative…This means these providers have agreed — long before it’s mandated — to take on financial risk that they can provide the necessary quality medical care for one bundled fee, grouping all of the services involved in an episode.

What happens when a healthcare organization's employees are found to have been inappropriately accessing patient medical records? The actions of one health system might serve as an example….14 of its employees were found to have accessed a high-profile patient's medical records "without a legitimate patient care need,"…"Appropriate actions have been taken with each employee, up to and including termination,"

Concordia Pharmaceuticals Inc and Par Pharmaceutical Inc have settled charges they unlawfully agreed not to compete in the sale of a generic version of Kapvay (clonidine), a drug used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder,…Federal Trade Commission…alleged Concordia,…had agreed not to sell…drug in exchange for a share of Par's revenues…. settlement bars them from enforcing anticompetitive provisions of their agreement, including the profit-sharing provision..