Missouri creates new painkiller prescription guidelines; Montana patients often foot the bill for emergency medical transport services;

News From Around the Web

> Missouri healthcare providers have created new guidelines for painkiller prescriptions, KSDK.com reports. Article

> Montana patients who need emergency medical transport are often left footing the bill because many hospitals can't afford to offer their own air ambulance services. As a result, the Missoulian reports, hospitals contract with independent providers that often aren't part of an insurance network. Article

Health IT News

> Despite the time and effort required to transition to ICD-10, nearly 80 percent of healthcare organizations responding to a new survey from KPMG say the switch has been successful. Article

> Two-factor authentication is on the rise at hospitals and health systems, according to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, which points out in a recently published data brief that the number of organizations able to support such security processes grew by 53 percent from 2010 to 2014. Article

Physician Practice News

> In the face of proposed changes to link U.S. Department of Health and Human Services payments to quality measures by 2018, more than half the respondents in a recent study indicated they were actively pursuing or developing capabilities around value-based payments for their practices. Article

And Finally… Not raised very WELL, apparently. Article