With both Moderna and Pfizer reporting that their vaccine candidates are close to 95 percent effective, and Pfizer planning to submit an application for emergency authorization for its vaccine in the next few days, health systems across the country are finalizing plans to distribute a COVID-19 vaccine.

Ten hospitals and health systems posted job listings for supply chain expertise in the last week:

Penn Foundation, a behavioral health provider serving 20,000 patients a year, said it's making plans to join the St. Luke's University Health Network in Bethlehem, Pa.

Novant Health and UNC Health are planning a UNC School of Medicine branch campus in Charlotte, N.C., the health systems said Nov. 19.

Alexa Kimball, MD, CEO of Harvard Medical Faculty Physicians at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, oversaw the rapid deployment of telehealth and data analytics during the pandemic. Now her team is focused on refining the digital patient experience and predictive analytics.

Optum Ventures, Optum's venture capital arm, has grown significantly over the past four years, from investing $7.5 million in 2016 to $654 million so far in 2020.

Postponing Thanksgiving travel and celebrating virtually or only with those from the same household is the best way to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the CDC said Nov. 19 as cases continue to soar. 

Although recent protocols have aimed to improve the care standard for severe heart attack patients, people living in minority communities aren't benefiting much as much as those in  non-minority communities, according to a recent study published in JAMA Network Open.

Baptist Health is recruiting 250 patient access coordinators to work in its call centers, the Louisville, Ky.-based health system said Nov. 18. 

HHS Secretary Alex Azar said Nov. 18 that the department is seeing "tremendous uptake" of a program between HHS, CVS and Walgreens to deliver COVID-19 vaccines to long-term care facilities, with 99% of facilities signed up for the program, CNBC reported. 

Health insurers will have to disclose customers' estimated out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs as well as the negotiated prices they pay for drugs under a new rule passed by the Trump administration, Kaiser Health News reported. 

Incorrect billing at Edward W. Sparrow Hospital led to Medicare overpaying the Lansing, Mich.-based hospital $550,917, according to an audit from HHS' Office of Inspector General. 

Six health system CIOs have retired this year.

The following hospital lawsuits and settlements were reported in the past month, beginning with the most recent.

Private equity firm Clearlake Capital has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the technology division of nThrive, a healthcare revenue cycle management company, according to a Nov. 19 news release. 

Here are six recent contract agreements and conflicts between payers and providers: 

HHS has launched a pilot program in five states to test the portable COVID-19 molecular test used by the NBA to control the virus in its "bubble" this season. 

Gundersen Health System in La Crosse, Wis., has launched a mobile app. 

Flash radiation therapy was used to treat the first patient in the world earlier this week during the start of a clinical trial at the Proton Therapy Center at Cincinnati Children's Hospital, according to a Nov. 19 news release.

Out of 10,265 students at Duke University in Durham, N.C., just 84 tested positive for COVID-19 between Aug. 2 and Oct. 11, the result of a comprehensive surveillance testing program, according to the CDC's Nov. 17 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.