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First Medicare ExRad study reveals wide variation in CT radiation

The first study to examine how imaging facilities perform on the new Medicare "ExRad" measure shows that radiation doses used for the same type of CT scan vary widely from one facility to the next.

3 Nov 2026

Private equity hospice buyouts drive up Medicare spending

A study of for-profit hospices acquired by private equity firms found that Medicare spending rose by 5.9 percent per hospice stay after acquisition, compared with similar for-profit hospices that weren't acquired.

3 Nov 2026

New FAIR Health platform maps chronic disease prevalence across the United States

Today, FAIR Health launches FAIR Health Atlas, a free epidemiological reporting platform incorporating data on the commercially insured population.

30 Oct 2026

AI tool reads abdominal ultrasounds and accelerates emergency diagnoses

When a patient arrives in the emergency department with severe abdominal pain, every minute counts. Researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine are investigating ways to streamline the work of radiologists and make it more efficient.

29 Oct 2026

UC San Diego receives major grant to secure healthcare cybersecurity

The University of California San Diego Center for Healthcare Cybersecurity has received an award from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) to lead the Preventative Assessment and Network Analysis of Cyber Essential Abilities for Health (PANACEA-H) project in collaboration with the American Hospital Association (AHA), the University of Maryland and the University of Minnesota.

27 Oct 2026

High-scoring endocrinologists are more likely to prescribe key diabetes drugs

Endocrinologists who scored highest on the American Board of Internal Medicine's Longitudinal Knowledge Assessment (LKA®) were more likely to prescribe a key diabetes drug class following a treatment guidelines update compared to doctors with lower scores.

27 Oct 2026

Noninvasive focused ultrasound offers hope for treating advanced Parkinson's

As Stan Au's Parkinson's disease symptoms progressed, everyday activities became daily battles. His hands shook so badly that he struggled to hold utensils and couldn't sign his name.

27 Oct 2026

Medicare is more broken than we thought

By Oct. 1, at least 2 million seniors will have received alarming notices: Their health plans — which they get through Medicare Advantage, the version of Medicare run by private health insurance companies — will disappear at the end of the year.

23 Oct 2026

Hurricanes pose long-term health risks for vulnerable older adults

New research in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society indicates that older adults who rely on electricity-dependent medical devices-such as ventilators, respirators, and dialysis machines-may face substantial health risks during and after hurricanes, especially in communities experiencing severe flooding.

21 Oct 2026

Most frail breast cancer survivors lack Medicare home care

For the increasing number of women that survive breast cancer, many older, long-term survivors remain frail. A new study out today in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute shows that in a given year over half of these highly frail survivors had no Medicare home health care.

20 Oct 2026

Poll: Most older adults rush Medicare choices despite major policy changes

It's one of the biggest decisions they might make all year, affecting their wallets and their healthcare for the full year to come.

15 Oct 2026

Opioid use disorder diagnoses spike among commercially insured Americans

Commercially insured patients with diagnoses of opioid use disorder increased 32.7 percent nationally from 2022 to 2025, according to FAIR Health's Opioid Tracker.

14 Oct 2026

Insurance hurdles and costs hinder access to blood cancer drugs

Patients with blood cancers often face major insurance hurdles and significant out-of-pocket costs when trying to access specialty oral anticancer medications, according to a new nationwide study led by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

30 Sep 2026

Veterinary sedative in fentanyl supply spikes severe withdrawal cases

A powerful veterinary sedative, medetomidine, is increasingly infiltrating the street supplies of the already deadly opioid fentanyl, with patients suffering from its withdrawal quadrupling in recent years, according to a new analysis by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

29 Sep 2026

Millions of Americans live in counties without a general surgeon

More than 15 million Americans live in one of the 1,180 US counties with no general surgeon, and 951 counties have no surgeon in any of 12 surgical specialties, according to a new national analysis announced today at the ACS Clinical Congress 2026 in Washington, D.C., and simultaneously published today in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons (JACS).

28 Sep 2026

Long-term endocrine therapy adherence remains low after breast cancer surgery

Many patients with early-stage breast cancer do not consistently maintain the long-term hormone therapy prescribed after lumpectomy, a large U.S. insurance claims analysis indicates.

27 Sep 2026

Rush earns top national ranking for high-quality academic patient care

Rush University Medical Center is ranked as the fifth highest-performing academic medical center in the U.S. by Vizient, the country's largest health care performance improvement company.

25 Sep 2026

Diabetes medication adherence remains low among disadvantaged patients

A new study led by UCLA Health found that a large percentage of disadvantaged patients are not taking their diabetes medications consistently.

23 Sep 2026

Blood test detects more cancers when added to standard screening

A single blood draw that screens for more than 50 cancers substantially increased cancer detection when added to standard screening, identifying cancers that otherwise might have gone undetected until later stages, according to a new study from the Oregon Health & Science University Knight Cancer Institute.

22 Sep 2026

Wildfire smoke may be more harmful than other air pollution, two Mount Sinai studies find

As climate change drives more frequent and intense wildfires, researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have published two large-scale studies showing that wildfire smoke may pose greater health risks than other sources of air pollution, with higher risks of hospitalization for cardiovascular and respiratory disease and poorer survival among patients with lung cancer.

18 Sep 2026