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

Every business day, MCOL posts feature stories making news on the business of health care. Here are five we think are particularly important for this week: Top News From the Past Week as reported from key news services, and compiled by MCOL Opioid prescriptions fell 10 percent last year, study says Prescriptions for opioids fell sharply last year, the steepest drop in the amount of painkillers dispensed to patients in 25 years, according to a report from IQVIA Institute for Human Data Science, the research arm of a health-care data firm. The Washington Post Thursday, April 19, 2018 Congress Urged To Cut Medicare Payments To Many Stand-Alone ERs The woman arrived at the emergency department gasping for air, her severe emphysema causing such shortness of breath that the physician who examined her put her on a ventilator immediately to help her breathe. Kaiser Health News Tuesday, April 17, 2018 1.7 million people could be impacted by Medicaid work requirements in 10 states About 1.7 million Medicaid beneficiaries could be impacted by work requirement proposals in 10 states, according to new report released Monday from the PwC Health Research Institute. The Hill Monday, April 16, 2018 CVS Rallies After Amazon Report CVS Health Corp., along with rival drugstores and drug distributors, rallied after a report that Amazon.com Inc. had shelved plans to sell drugs to hospitals and other businesses. Bloomberg Monday, April 16, 2018 New Medicaid Requirements Signals Trump Crackdown On Public Assistance Programs Michel Martin speaks to Diane Rowland from The Kaiser Family Foundation about a new order from President Trump to establish work requirements for recipients of Medicaid and other federal benefits. NPR Sunday, April 15, 2018 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.