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President Donald Trump has reportedly canceled the annual White House Christmas party for the press.
The annual, decades-old event has previously been a peace-making exercise after a year of tension.
The news comes amid Trump’s repeated attacks on the press and a reduction in the number of White House press briefings.
Last year’s party was marked by tension: CNN boycotted the event while Trump and the first lady reportedly broke tradition and did not pose for photographs.

President Donald Trump has reportedly canceled the decades-old annual White House Christmas party for the media.

Fox News reported on Thursday morning that Trump had canceled the event. It said the White House didn’t announce the cancelation. Fox didn’t explain where the information came from.

The event is intended for members of the press and White House officials to socialize and act as a peace-making exercise after a year of tension. The party is usually held in early to mid-December and is off the record, though it offers the opportunity for journalists to mix with each other and with White House officials.

The Washington Post reported on December 8 that the fate of the party was unclear as nobody in the White House had scheduled the event, despite Christmas getting close.

The news comes amid Trump’s hostility to the press, and his frequent claim of “fake news.”

He has repeatedly called the media the “enemy of the people” and frequently spars both with individual journalists and with outlets including CNN, The New York Times and the Washington Post.

CNN boycotted the party in 2017, due to President Donald Trump’s “continued attacks” on journalists. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders responded with a dig at the network, tweeting: “Christmas comes early! Finally, good news from @CNN.”

CNN contributor April Ryan was left off the 2017 guest list, the Washington Post …read more

Source:: Business Insider

This is a preview of a research report from Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider’s premium research service. To learn more about Business Insider Intelligence, click here.

Relative to many other sectors around the globe, the US healthcare industry has been notoriously slow to embrace new payment systems and processes.

For example, approximately 77% of healthcare providers still use paper-based patient billing methods, according to an MGMA and Navicure survey. The lack of urgency to innovate has resulted in confusion, inefficiencies, and security issues among stakeholders.

However, this stagnation is enabling payments firms to capitalize on two key trends to disrupt — and capture a piece of — the $3 trillion healthcare industry:

The consumerization of healthcare. Consumers are increasingly being urged to play a more prominent role in managing and paying for their own health. In effect, they’ve become better informed and more critical of the quality of health services. Considering that the billing process is typically the first and last interaction a patient has with a provider, a negative experience could directly impact a healthcare firm’s bottom line — only 15% of patients who reported a less than satisfactory billing experience would recommend the hospital to others, according to Becker’s Hospital Review.

The digitization of healthcare. Healthcare legislation, rising costs, and a shift from fee-for-service care to value-based care are incentivizing payers and providers to seek out digital solutions that drive down costs and improve services.

Now is the time for payments hardware, software, and processing firms to introduce specific solutions that accommodate the shifting landscape. These could include digital payment options, such as online checkouts or point-of-service mobile wallet acceptance, or value-added services that enhance the overall payments and billing experience. However, before payments companies introduce new solutions, they must navigate the …read more

Source:: Business Insider