Daily Briefing

Writing in Medscape, Lee Goldsmith, a physician and a malpractice attorney, shares the five most common reasons why patients sue doctors. More

More people die each year from alcohol than opioids, and the number of alcohol-related deaths in the United States is rising—especially among women, Jayne O'Donnell writes for USA Today. More

People often dismiss temporary mental lapses as 'senior moments'—but neurologist William Shankle in KevinDM writes that seemingly harmless 'dismissive phrase ... leads to devastating, debilitating disease.' More

CVS Health and Aetna on Wednesday closed a $69 billion deal for CVS to acquire the country's third-largest insurer. More

Thousands of breast implant surgeries are performed every year, and from 2008 to 2015, FDA saw around 200 complaints associated with the implants each year—but that number has skyrocketed in the last two years thanks to changes in incident reporting that patient advocates say help expose cases that were previously buried. More

Telemedicine use is growing slowly, especially in mental health and primary care, but telemedicine users are more likely to live in cities rather than rural areas, according to a study published in JAMA. More

HHS' Office of the Inspector General in a new report identifies "material inaccuracies" in data CMS used to calculate the Medicare Area Wage Index, which the agency uses to adjust hospitals' Medicare payments. More

Three more cases of adenovirus have been diagnosed at the University of Maryland in College Park, marking nine total confirmed cases of the virus at the university in recent weeks, in today's bite-sized hospital and health industry news from Maryland, Michigan, and Minnesota. More

CMS plans to survey home health agencies on quality measures, an upcoming Advisory Board webconference will break down cancer care reimbursement in 2019, and more. More