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When it comes to investing in IT and data security, the healthcare field has been known to lag behind other business sectors. That underspending, coupled with the massive shift from paper to digital records in recent years, has put the industry in some crosshairs.

Until we create a system that rewards investment in wellness and healthcare dollars not spent, there is reason to fear that the negative effects of healthcare excesses will continue to be borne by households, businesses, and governments.

Physicians can sometimes be hesitant to begin hosting video visits because they are weary about just how effective the technology can be when treating patients. However, once physicians start using telemedicine, they are often shocked at how versatile video technology can be as an additional tool to administering care.

Tying doctor's pay to the quality of the care rendered is called “incentive alignment,” and it is critical to achieving value and to properly balance healthcare’s cost, quality and access.

Following feedback from physicians, The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced Thursday it will allow providers to choose the level and pace at which they comply with the rules for the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA).

A loophole exists that allows a physician to avoid being reported to the NPDB if a malpractice plaintiff agrees to dismiss the practitioner from a lawsuit or claim, leaving a hospital or other corporate entity as the sole defendant.

The findings may not come as a surprise to many in the medical community like Miriam Laugesen, MD-an associate professor of the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health-but even the smallest disparities build up in the bigger picture, she explains.

This is a call to action for all doctors. Practice owners are now facing many of the challenges small retailers in America faced not too long ago. Consumer demand has shifted the landscape in favor of larger product selection with online access. Doctors are being forced to adapt to the new rules of the game or get left behind.

In what is believed to be the first such action by someone holding his post, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, MD, is sending a letter to the nation’s 2.3 million prescribing physicians urging them to help solve the growing opioid epidemic.