Doctors should consider universal screening in communities that have high rates of drug use, the author of a new study says. Go to Source

Patient care is impacted as practices report laying off staff and reducing services in response to Medicare’s new policy. Go to Source

Researchers find current systems to be inaccurate and unlikely to lower health system costs. Go to Source

Physicians running the state’s regional care networks think their care management system could work for other Medicaid programs that are about to become much larger. Go to Source

Tens of millions of health plan patients still may be subject to co-pays, but that figure will decrease over time. Go to Source

Some improvements in the “meaningful use” final rule sought by the AMA were accepted, but the Association says many practices still face barriers to adoption. Go to Source

Lawmakers are questioning why the FDA hasn’t regulated the industry more aggressively. Go to Source

Of the 385 organizations hit with data breaches so far this year, 113 were in health care, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center’s report for July 28. Just 39 breaches have been reported in banking and finance according to the ITRC. Experts cite a lack of compliance and improper data access by insiders as culprits. – A total of 113 health care facilities have been hit with [...]

On July 26 Oracle launched its Pedigree and Serialization Manager to limit counterfeit products in the pharmaceutical supply chain and to boost patient safety. It satisfies the requirements of a California drug pedigree law that takes effect in 2015. – On July 26, Oracle rolled out Oracle Pedigree and Serialization Manager, an application that allows pharmaceutical manufacturers to track drugs [...]

IT service provider CSC’s online forum lets health care IT professionals share notes on how to achieve meaningful use of electronic records to qualify for incentives under the Obama administration’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. IBM’s Initiate software arm is also focused on providing software for health care information exchanges to help them adhere to the federal mandate [...]