The federal patient privacy law known as HIPAA has not kept pace with wearable fitness trackers, mobile health apps and online patient communities, leaving a gaping hole in regulations that needs to be filled, according to a much-delayed government report released today.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee has approved the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act, which contains provisions to improve the nation’s approach to mental health care treatment. The bill, H.R. 2646, which was introduced by Reps. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., and Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas, was reported out of committee on a unanimous vote.
According to data from three federal datasets reviewed by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), workers in health care facilities experience substantially higher estimated rates of nonfatal injury due to workplace violence compared to workers overall.
America is doing a better job of preventing healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), but more work is needed – especially in fighting antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) latest Vital Signs report urges healthcare workers to use a combination of infection control recommendations to better protect patients from these infections.
Coal miners who are being stripped of medical benefits due to a string of coal company bankruptcies are furious over one firm’s plan to pay millions in bonuses to the executives who managed the company as it failed financially.
Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 173,000 in August, and the unemployment rate edged down to 5.1 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Job gains occurred in health care and social assistance and in financial activities. Manufacturing and mining lost jobs.
A coal company’s bankruptcy filing will set the stage for “a harsh future” for thousands of retired coal miners, predicts United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) International President Cecil E. Roberts.
Employers expect a 4.1% rate of increase in the cost of employer-sponsored health care benefits in 2015 — the lowest in 15 years but well above inflation, according to an annual survey by global professional services company Towers Watson (NASDAQ: TW) and the National Business Group on Health (NBGH), an association of large employers.
The first of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Patient Safety Challenges was Clean Care is Safer Care, which was launched in 2005. It targeted reducing health care-associated infections (HCAIs). HCAI is the most frequent harmful event in health-care delivery and occurs worldwide in both developed and developing countries.
