Bob Karl is a veteran healthcare leader with about 20 years of accounting and physician practice management experience.

Here are the five most-read workforce stories reported by Becker's Hospital Review so far this year, starting with the most popular:

Senate health committee leaders released bipartisan discussion draft legislation May 23 aimed at improving healthcare price transparency, ending surprise medical bills and lowering prescription medication costs, according to The Wall Street Journal.

ACOs connected by a single EHR were more successful at care coordination, though most also supplement their EHR platform with other tools and technology, according to a report from HHS' Office of Inspector General.

The Department of Veterans Affairs and Microsoft are partnering to extend broadband internet connectivity in rural areas, improving access to services like telemedicine for 4.7 million veterans.

Aegerion Pharmaceuticals filed for bankruptcy, the Cambridge, Mass.-based drugmaker said May 21.

Parkview Medical Center, one of the largest hospitals in southern Colorado, may soon be considered out of network for Cigna members, according to local TV station KRDO.

The outline of a forthcoming House proposal to end surprise medical bills has drawn mixed reactions from healthcare groups.

Eight recent partnerships between health systems and telehealth vendors:

Opioid prescription intelligence software that is designed to integrate data from prescription drug monitoring programs into EHR systems is helping healthcare providers identify opioid-use disorder and improve prescribing practices, according to a KLAS Research report.

Baltimore-based LifeBridge Health and CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield named six digital health startups as finalists in the companies' first-ever joint innovation challenge.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is partnering with HealthHIE Nevada, the state's health information exchange, to improve EHRs sharing among  providers and VA medical facilities, Las Vegas Sun reports.

Charleston-based Medical University of South Carolina will begin providing telehealth services to Hampton Regional Medical Center in Varnville, S.C., The Augusta Chronicle reports.

Zipline, a Half Moon Bay, Calif.-based startup using drones to deliver urgently needed medical supplies, is valued at $1.2 billion after raising $190 million from backers including Katalyst Ventures, Alphabet's investment arm GV and TPG's The Rise Fund, according to CNBC.

About three in 10 patients who were offered access to view their medical records online did so, but only one or two times in 2018, according to an ONC analysis.

Within the next decade, healthcare will see emerging technologies including artificial intelligence, cloud computing, predictive analytics and blockchain spurring billions of dollars in value increases, according to a new McKinsey & Company report on this tech-driven "era of exponential growth."

The advancement of technologies such as robotics, blockchain and artificial intelligence in healthcare could promote value increases of up to $410 billion by 2025, with improvements in clinical productivity making up nearly half of that value creation, according to a new report from McKinsey & Company.

IBM Research's U.K. lab has teamed up with British home care startup Cera Care to begin testing a system combining LiDAR sensors and artificial intelligence to encourage the independence and wellbeing of senior citizens.

Fairfield, Calif.-based David Grant USAF Medical Center at Travis will go live on the Department of Defense's new Cerner-supported EHR in September.  

Inadequate disinfection of ophthalmology devices could spread infections like adenovirus and hepatitis C among patients, The Joint Commission warned in a May 21 safety notice.