The PMD Critical List: Physician is America's Highest-Paid CEO

America’s highest-paid CEO is a physician you’ve probably never heard of. That story tops this week’s PMD Critical List. Also making the list: the FDA considers mandating more training for opioid prescribers, and Harvard opens a center looking at the impact of happiness on health.

• Physician is America's Highest-Paid CEO (Fortune)

The American CEO who likely earned the highest pay in 2015 leads a relatively unknown Los Angeles-based cancer research firm, NantKwest. “Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, a 63-year-old former surgeon, earned a whopping $147.6 million last year.”

• Why are England's Hospital Doctors So Angry? (CNN)

An update on the three-year-long labor dispute between British doctors and the government: “The imposition of this contract is tremendously damaging to the morale of junior doctors and medical students and has resulted in a complete breakdown of trust between doctors and the government.”

• More Training for Doctors Before Prescribing Painkillers (Business Insider)

“The FDA is reconsidering whether doctors who prescribe painkillers should be required to take safety training courses, according to federal documents.” The FDA also disclosed that “the number of doctors who completed voluntary training programs is less than half that targeted by the agency.”

• Pick a Number: The Cost of Healthcare in America (NBC News)

Healthcare prices are all over the map across the nation, according to a new Health Care Cost Institute study. The report “digs deeply into the crazy pattern of health costs” around the country and shows “there is very little consistency.” For example, a Cataracts procedure costs $8,000 in Alaska; $2,300 in Florida.

• Why So Many Doctors Are Advising Startups (Fast Company)

“It is now fairly common for well-funded health-tech startups to have medical directors, physician founders, or chief medical/health officers on their team.” Many “new online communities have popped up to cater to doctors with an interest in health tech, and they shine a light on some of the problems in the medical field.”

• FAQs on Medicare’s New Doctor’s Pay Plan (Kaiser Health News)

“Federal officials have unveiled their roadmap to a revamped Medicare physician payment system designed to reward doctors for the quality of care delivered, rather than the quantity. Here are some questions and answers about the newest phase of this effort.”

• Losing the “Hearts and Minds” of Physicians (Boston Globe)

Andy Slavitt, the acting administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, has been called the “most important person in health care.” He spoke at a recent forum: quality engagement with physicians requires “more freedom, less control, less burden.”

• Physicians Are Developing Alternative Payment Models (AMA)

“It’s important that physicians are involved and leading the way now in the design of APMs to ensure they work for both their patients and their practices. Learn how one physician got involved with his specialty society (Radiation Oncology) to develop new payment models.”

• Medical Center Looks Like Apple Store (STAT)

The University of Minnesota Health Clinics and Surgery Center in Minneapolis: “a $165 million risk.” The bet is that the approach will increase patient satisfaction and staff efficiency, all with a design footprint that’s smaller than other academic medical centers with similar patient loads and staffing levels.”

• Harvard Happiness: $21 million For “Positive Psychological Wellbeing” (The Atlantic)

Harvard University’s new Center for Health and Happiness “will focus on how to cultivate lives that are not simply free of disease, but are imbued with purpose, meaning, and optimism. Do that, the logic holds, and physical health should follow.”