Claire Ernst, director of government affairs for the Medical Group Management Association, talked to us about why extending the federal COVID-19 health emergency was so important for healthcare providers.

Instead of concluding Dec. 31, 2023, the Bundled Payments for Care Improvement Advanced (BPCI Advanced) Model is scheduled to end Dec. 31, 2025.

The new meta-analysis, published in Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine, included data from 58 million patients. “We hope our findings will help mitigate vaccine hesitancy and increase vaccine uptake," one researcher said. 

COVID-19 vaccines were very effective at preventing serious illness and excess deaths in 2021, according to new data from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The vaccines were also linked to considerable cost savings. 

Stamatia Destounis, MD, FACR, a radiologist and managing partner at Elizabeth Wende Breast Care in Rochester, New York, and chair of the ACR Breast Commission, discusses post-COVID-19 economic issues facing breast imaging centers, including staffing problems from the "Great Resignation" and lower reimbursements. 

The healthcare industry is facing a tight labor market forcing organizations to increase wages. However, filling vacancies is also taking longer, according to a recent report on the healthcare labor environment.

Researchers involved in a new study said it is unclear whether the virus infection itself was a factor, or if it was environmental factors such as a move to remote learning or the shutdown of sports and school activities that may have caused the increased risk.
 

Despite higher rates of burnout and stress among healthcare workers during the pandemic, the healthcare industry has reported lower unemployment rates than other fields.