TGIF

Fierce Healthcare explains why a CVS-Aetna merger makes good business sense. 

Federal News Radio reports that "President Trump named David Kautter to serve as interim leader of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) when John Koskinen steps down as commissioner next month. The White House said Kautter will add the new job to his current duties as assistant secretary for tax policy at the Treasury Department."  The IRS is part of the triumvirate of ACA regulators along with the Department of Labor and the Department of Health and Human Services.  

Modern Healthcare reports that

MS launched an initiative Thursday to help it determine what provider regulations it should junk or revamp, citing growing concerns that its regulations are reducing the time providers spend with patients.
As part of the Patient over Paperwork initiative, CMS officials will travel the country to gather information on the impact their regulations have on physicians. Those conversations have been taking place informally for weeks.
The outreach effort comes at a time that primary-care physicians are spending 27% of their time on clinical activities and 49% on administrative activities, according to a 2016 Annals of Internal Medicine study. The CMS now releases around 58 rules, or 11,000 pages of regulation, each year. 

Kudos to CMS for this initiative but what is CMS is doing for Medicare Advantage and Prescription Drug plans or OPM doing for FEHB plans in this regard? The ACA after all put the greatest administrative and financial burden on health insurers.

The FEHBlog mentioned the rising use blockchains as a defense against cyberattacks, in particular distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks a week or two ago. PC Magazine has a good article that explains the blockchain defense for the layperson.