Friday Five: Top 5 healthcare business news items from the MCOL Weekend edition

By Claire Thayer, November 18, 2016

1. Study Finds Nearby Retail Clinics Don’t Drive Down ER Visits
Kaiser Health News Reports: Even if there’s a retail health clinic less than a 10-minute drive away, consumers are just as likely to go to the emergency department for low-level problems like bronchitis or urinary tract infections, a recent study found.
Kaiser Health News, November 18, 2016

2. The ultimate Q&A about health care under a Trump presidency
The Washington Post reports: While it's pretty much a given that the Affordable Care Act won't survive a Trump presidency and Republican Congress in its current form, there are sweeping implications of reversing a law that has reached in so many ways into our health care system.
The Washington Post, November 17, 2016

3. Former Valeant and Philidor Executives Charged in Kickback Scheme
The New York Times reports: A secret relationship had made the two men rich: one, the head of a mail-order pharmacy, the other, an executive at a major pharmaceutical company who had promised to funnel millions of dollars to his partner in exchange for receiving millions of his own.
The New York Times, November 17, 2016

4. Landmark report by Surgeon General calls drug crisis ‘a moral test for America’
The Washington Post reports: A landmark report released Thursday by U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy places drug and alcohol addiction alongside smoking, AIDS and other public health crises of the past half-century, calling the current epidemic “a moral test for America.”
The Washington Post, November 17, 2016

5. More than 1 million sign up for ObamaCare, HHS says
The Hill reports: More than 1 million people have registered for ObamaCare coverage for 2017 since the sign-up period began Nov. 1, the Obama administration announced Wednesday.
The Hill, November 16, 2016

These and more weekly news items on the business of healthcare are featured in the MCOL Weekend edition, along with the MCOL Tidbits, and more, for MCOL Premium level members.