E-prescriber company moves into mobile; Apple deploys new feature to help users sleep better;

News From Around the Web

> Apple is striving to help device users get a restful night's sleep via a new feature, Night Shift, which adjusts an iPad or iPhone screen color balance in relation to time of day, according to The Guardian. At sunset, for example, the OS taps geolocation and a device's internal clock to shift the display color scheme to something warmer, using more red and orange tones. "Many studies have shown that exposure to bright blue light in the evening can affect your circadian rhythms and make it harder to fall asleep," Apple said the report. Article


> DrFirst is acquiring iPrescribe.net to expand its electronic prescribing and secure texting portfolio with a mobile e-prescribe application. "As we head into 2016, we are committed to further expanding our footprint in key areas of our operations, including e-prescribing, medication management and care collaboration, particularly on mobile platforms," according to G. Cameron Deemer, DrFirst president. Announcement

Health Insurance News

> Since the start of the current open enrollment period, nearly 8.7 million consumers have signed up for health coverage through the Healthcare.gov platform or had their coverage automatically renewed, according to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). For both the federal exchange and state exchanges, the most recent data show 11.3 million customers have signed up for plans. Article

> For 2017, the federal government wants to encourage more standardized health plan designs on the Affordable Care Act exchanges, which could reduce out-of-pocket costs for consumers and increase coverage of certain services and drugs, according to a new analysis by Avalere. This could include a standardized benefit in which all cost-sharing features are the same for each metal level. Article

Health IT News

> State policies on telemedicine use under Medicare can have a great impact on adoption of the technology, according to a report published in Telemedicine and e-Health. For example, the paper's authors found that after Michigan enacted commercial payer telemedicine parity in 2012, a jump in Medicare telemedicine use was seen just a year later; an increase of 77.5 percent for encounters and 118.4 percent increase in Medicare fees. Article

And Finally… Why Californians may be thinking twice about swimming in the ocean. Article