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Experts, politicians warn of privacy threats to MIDAS warehouse of Healthcare.gov consumer information. The alarming frequency of data breaches among health insurers has led some to wonder whether a massive data warehouse of Healthcare.gov customers' personal information is vulnerable to a cyberattack.

"Further consolidation in the retail setting means pharmacy services are increasingly available only from a fewer number of larger entities. The CVS-Target deal reinforces the need and strengthens the case for allowing patients to use 'any willing pharmacy' that accepts a drug plan's terms and conditions, such as reimbursement. "Patients in underserved rural and inner-city areas rely on access to independent community pharmacies for prescription medication and counseling. For these and some other patients national pharmacy chains are not a practical option.

....testing promising ways to improve how healthcare consumers, otherwise known as patients, shop for healthcare services. ......has shown that healthcare markets can be whipped into shape through the power of reference pricing.......patients are given a maximum number of dollars from insurance to cover a given healthcare procedure with the understanding that if they choose to receive care from a more expensive provider, they will be responsible for any charges exceeding that limit..

Brius Healthcare Services has 81 facilities stretching from San Diego to Roseville to Eureka. In the past year, some of the facilities have become the target of police scrutiny, lawsuits, stiff regulatory fines and state and federal investigations that have uncovered numerous alleged violations......

Nearly three in four Americans say the costs of prescription drugs are "unreasonable" — and most blame drugmakers for those prices, according to a poll released Tuesday. The survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation found 74 percent of those taking prescription drugs find the costs unreasonable, as do 72 percent of those not taking such drugs.

Mostashari, ......he founded Aledade to help doctor practices, as small as one, band together in so-called accountable care organizations. The shift from fee for service to payment based on keeping patients healthy and out of the hospital demands a level of technological and financial sophistication that small practices can rarely afford.

Remember when participating in a community brown bag consult was mandatory in pharmacy school? Students would arrived prepared with drug references in hand, ready to go through all of the medications that patients brought with them. Focusing more on the patient than the drugs can potentially make a bigger impact on outcomes and quality of life.

Good: Convenience, convenience, convenience. More locations means more places to get treatment and possibly less waiting times. Bad: Cost. Will less competition in the market mean higher prices?

High costs associated with new chronic hepatitis C virus treatments should prompt pharmacists to reconsider their formula for determining the drugs’ worth....“incredibly innovative drugs” that “almost across the board have price tags associated with them that are challenging,”.... Because of the high cure rates associated with Sovaldi and Harvoni, pharmacists should “look at the total cost of health” with respect to the drugs’ potential to impact patient outcomes......

Like many professionals, physicians take time off to raise children, care for sick family members or to recover from their own illnesses. Some want to return from retirement or switch from non-clinical jobs back to seeing patients. But picking up where they left off is more difficult in medicine than in most careers........ change occurs quickly. Drugs, devices and surgical techniques that were standard a decade ago may now be obsolete.