Holiday week update

Congress is out of town this week for the Fourth of July holiday. The Supreme Court wrapped up its October 2017 term last week. Of course, the Supreme Court remains in the news because Justice Kennedy announced his retirement from the bench. 

Fierce Healthcare offers a report on healthcare provider views on lowering costs in the healthcare system. The panel consensus is to lower regulatory burdens on providers while forcing private sector payers to increase their benefit payments due to the public payer cost shift.  In this regard, AJMC.com reports that "A new study from the Healthcare Financial Management Association, Leavitt Partners, and McManis Consulting found that the penetration of value-based payment (VBP) models is not yet enough to generate cost savings and is also not affecting clinical quality outcomes at the market level."  But's it still early in the process. 

HHS's Office for Civil Rights issued its June 2017 healthcare security report which focuses on the importance of vulnerability scanning and the remedial task of patching.