CNBC– Workers who make money on digital apps and work on their own schedules can live very different lives than their traditional employee counterparts.
Niam Yaraghi
FAU Study Says Some Nursing Homes Gaming the System to Improve Their Medicare Star Ratings
PR Newswire– For families faced with the difficult decision of placing a loved one in a nursing home, a government rating system is often the only source of information to determine which facilities are the best. However, a new study of nursing homes in California, the nation’s largest system, by faculty at Florida Atlantic University and the University of Connecticut, found that some nursing homes inflate their self-assessment reporting to improve their score in the Five-Star Quality Rating System employed by Medicare to help consumers.
Some California Nursing Homes Inflated Star Ratings
Skilled Nursing News – The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has made improvements to its Five-Star Quality Rating System after questions about self-inflation, and a new study provides more evidence for why the changes were necessary.
Are Nursing Homes Inflating Their Medicare Star Ratings?
UConn Professors Find that Some Self-Reporting is Flawed
Nursing homes may be inflating their self-assessments in an effort to improve their Medicare star ratings, according to a new study by UConn OPIM professors Niam Yaraghi and Ram Gopal and their colleague, Xu Han ’17 Ph.D. Continue Reading
A Message from the Associate Dean of Research
Fall 2017 Research eNewsletter
Hello to friends and colleagues across the country and around the world!
The beginning of a new academic year is filled with energy and excitement, both for our students and our faculty. This year that momentum is augmented by a team of new faculty members who bring both extensive research accomplishments and a love of teaching to UConn. Continue Reading
Health-Care Industry Increasingly Faces Cybersecurity Breaches
Emergency Management – The scenarios are chilling: A busy hospital suddenly cannot use any of its electronic medical records or other computerized systems. The victim of a ransomware attack, the hospital will not regain access without paying those who locked down the records — if at all.
New Business Faculty for 2017

Impressive Professors Bring Strong Credentials, Added Zeal to School of Business Ranks
An expert in terror analytics, a marketer who worked for NBC, Pepsi and Disney, and a champion of the volunteer income tax program at UConn are among the newest faculty at the School of Business. Continue Reading
Want Better Interoperability? Let Vendors and Providers Charge Fees, One Researcher Says
Fierce Healthcare – As the information blocking debate rages on, one researcher is advocating for an unorthodox approach: Allow vendors and providers to charge fees for managing and exchanging health data.
HIPAA, HITECH Still Limiting Health Data Exchange Innovation
EHR Intelligence – The author of a new editorial on the Health Affairs Blog asserted that federal regulations HIPAA and HITECH— not EHR companies — are responsible for limiting interoperability improvements and obstructing health data exchange.
Op-Ed: To Foster Information Exchange, Revise HIPAA And HITECH
Health Affairs Blog – We know that when patients are provided with access to their medical records, they feel more in control of their care, understand their health conditions and their care plans better, prepare for their visits, and adhere more to their medications. Despite patient portals’ usability challenges for certain groups of patients and disadvantaged populations, they not only help patients and their care partners but also are a significant means to reducing overhead costs for providers. When physicians are provided with instant electronic access to their patients’ medical data, both quality and efficiency of care radically improve. Overall, an interoperable system across the United States that provides instant access to medical records is estimated to reduce the costs of health care services by $371 billion per year.