The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) says sexual harassment probes should be kept as private as possible, while the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) argues workers' "concerted activity" right includes the freedom to talk to each other about job-related complaints, reports Bloomberg Law . "By keeping victims in the shadows and not letting them know that there may be other victims out there, the Weinsteins of the world are able to thrive," says Chicago attorney Brenda Feis. Both agencies have held preliminary discussions about reaching a middle ground on their clashing decisions, in the hope of providing businesses a better idea of when they can force investigations to be confidential. "The board's decision is problematic because it makes it incredibly difficult to conduct investigations with the confidentiality that you need to protect the integrity of the investigation and protect the people involved," says Philadelphia lawyer Jonathan Segal. The EEOC enforces a federal ban on sex harassment in the workplace, while the NLRB enforces a separate labor law granting workers the right to unionize and "to engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection." NLRB General Counsel Peter Robb has expressed a desire to revisit the board's approach to the confidentiality issue. Feis notes the NLRB acknowledges that a business may have a legitimate interest in shielding confidentiality in certain cases, while critics say the board is forcing human resources officers to make difficult legal decisions based on the circumstances of each particular situation.

A new study from the Great Place to Work consulting firm found enterprises that welcome ideas from all employees have better potential for growth than less inclusive companies, reports the Wall Street Journal . The analysts surveyed about 500,000 U.S. employees at nearly 800 public and privately owned companies, most of them in the United States. Firms where more workers said they felt their ideas were solicited and valued tended to have higher revenue growth and employee productivity. Companies that scored in the top quartile on those metrics produced, on average, more than five times the revenue growth of companies in the bottom quartile. The study determined workers at companies in the most inclusive group were 14 percent more likely to say they want to stay at their company in the long term than those in the least inclusive group. Those workers also were 32 percent more likely to describe themselves as willing to put additional effort into work, compared with the least inclusive group. Many high-scoring firms had implemented special structures or practices to encourage employees to brainstorm and contribute business ideas. Great Place to Work's Marcus Erb recommends companies "open up their mindset" about what workers can offer in the way of innovation. "Leaders that don't see that are going to miss out," he warns.

Security concerns related to the growing use of apps and devices connected to the Internet of Things (IoT) in healthcare could dampen consumer participation, and developers and provider organizations are ramping up initiatives to address these issues, reports Health Data Management . Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center's John Halamka says an app or IoT device program should not be implemented until appropriate intrusion detection tools, malware protection, and auditing processes are set up. "Having medical and engineering training makes creating healthcare IoT applications much easier," he notes. Guaranteeing the security and proper handling of medical information is critical to the future growth of these tools, and developers are striving to bolster protections. A mobile app from Beth Israel helps medically vulnerable persons collect medical device data in-home and transmit the information securely to appropriate care teams. There are many ways that IoT can help providers understand which remote beneficiaries are fine and which ones require aid, says CareBand CEO Adam Sobol. CareBand software on smartphones lets a beneficiary press a button to call for help, and the location immediately pops up for responders. Analyzing the movement of someone with sensors on the smartphone can provide clues as to how likely they may fall, based on location, level of exercise they do, the presence of others in the home, or assisted living communities and compliance with a care regime.

A study published in The Gerontologist found the wording of questions that healthcare providers and researchers often use to screen for people who may be at risk for developing Alzheimer's and other aging-related problems can be confusing or trigger emotional responses, reports EurekAlert . In one example, when asked "Have you had problems with your memory recently?" one person may interpret "recently" as within the same week while another may interpret it as within the last month, or a third may be frightened by problems with their memory and disregard the question. The researchers enrolled 49 older adults in central Pennsylvania without dementia. Each participant was asked a variety of questions commonly used to screen for Alzheimer's. The researchers then asked follow-up questions about how and why they answered the way they did to help identify possible problems with the screening questions. The investigators found 13 different types of problems in the questions, with vagueness and the assumption that participants' behavior or experience is always consistent being the two biggest problems. Furthermore, some questions tended to provoke an emotional response. "If we really want to understand how people are experiencing early symptoms and what is influencing their reporting of symptoms, we need to get at more of that individual experience, and our questions that we currently use aren't capturing it," says Pennsylvania State University Professor Nikki Hill.

The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced Tuesday that, for the first time, it will give Medicare Advantage plans the option of negotiating for Part B drugs in a way that both reduces costs and increases the quality of care. For Medicare Advantage plans that also offer a Part D benefit, they will be able to cross-manage across Parts B and D, enabling patients to receive the best medicine whether it is physician-administered or self-administered. Additionally, CMS noted it is working to ensure that Medicare Advantage plans negotiate in a manner that guarantees patient choice and offers patient protections with guardrails, including that step therapy can only be applied to new prescriptions for individuals who are not actively receiving a particular medicine. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said, "As soon as next year, drug prices can start coming down for many of the 20 million seniors on Medicare Advantage, with more than half of the savings going to patients. Consumers will always retain the power to choose the plan that works for them: If they don't like their plan, they don't have to keep it. We look forward to seeing the results of tougher negotiation within Medicare, and expanding successful negotiation tools throughout our programs."

Proponents of artificial intelligence (AI) claim the technology can eliminate hiring biases, and companies such as Stella IO are using machine learning to identify skills needed for certain jobs, with the AI matching candidates possessing those skills with open positions, reports Bloomberg . Stella IO founder Rich Joffe says the company's algorithm is "only allowed to look at skills, it's only allowed to look at industries, it's only allowed to look at tiers of companies." AI also is being used to help develop internal talent, an example being CorpU's partnership with the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business to organize an online course that uses machine learning to identify high-potential employees. CorpU CEO Alan Todd says those ranked highest are typically not the individuals who were already on the promotion track, and often display qualities such as introversion that are overlooked during the recruitment process. Cornell University Professor Solon Borocas has learned that machine learning in hiring can lead to unintentional discrimination, with algorithms carrying their programmers' implicit biases, or being skewed to prefer certain qualities and skills that are overwhelmingly present in a given dataset. Companies such as Pymetrics are trying to ameliorate these biases by having coders audit the algorithms to see if they are favoring any gender or ethnic group.

Republicans on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) have requested briefs in a case that revives a debate over employee use of corporate email to discuss union-related activity, reports the National Law Journal . Management-side attorneys argue that employers should not be forced to support electronic forums that permit messages they conflict with. There are indications that such a policy could go beyond email. In a notice requesting input, the NLRB stated it was "inviting comments on the standard it should apply to evaluate policies governing the use of employer-owned computer resources other than email." AFL-CIO Associate General Counsel Matthew Ginsburg contends email communication on corporate systems should be safeguarded under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act. "Whatever rule the board sets should apply to any employer-provided communication forum employees use to communicate about nonwork topics," he says. Ginsburg also warns any attempt by the NLRB to curb union discussions on work email platforms "will invite a slew of discrimination cases. Having to litigate in every case whether the employer permits email discussion of nonwork topics other than unions isn't good for anyone. That's why the current bright-line rule with its exception allowing an employer to show that the rule shouldn't apply to it makes such good sense."

A study published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research suggests resistance training may help minimize long-term hip bone loss in older obese adults who are striving to lose weight, reports EurekAlert . "Our results suggest that resistance exercise may need to be coupled with other intervention strategies to maximize skeletal benefit," says Wake Forest University's Kristen Beavers. The team also notes additional research should attempt to work out the mechanisms underlying weight-loss-induced bone loss, so that safe and effective strategies can be conceived to preserve all aspects of bone health in dieting older individuals.

A study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association found older adults, especially women, who spend more time engaged in light to vigorous physical activity can improve their cardiovascular health, reports Medical Xpress . "The 60 to 64 age range represents an important transition between work and retirement, when lifestyle behaviors tend to change," says the University of Bristol's Ahmed Elhakeem. "It may, therefore, be an opportunity to promote increased physical activity." The team studied more than 1,600 volunteers, 60 to 64, who wore heart rate and movement monitors for five days. Each additional 10 minutes they spent in moderate-to-vigorous intensity activity was associated with leptin levels that were 3.7 percent lower in men and 6.6 percent lower in women. Moreover, every additional 10 minutes spent sedentary was associated with 0.6 percent higher IL-6 levels in men and 1.4 percent higher IL-6 levels in women. In addition, each extra 10 minutes spent in light intensity activity was associated with about 0.8 percent lower t-PA levels in both men and women, while less sedentary time and greater time in low-intensity activity were beneficially related to IL-6 and t-PA. Subjects with better cardiorespiratory fitness had a healthier biomarker profile, although this effect largely went away after controlling for related differences in body fat. Total activity volume appeared connected to these biomarkers regardless of underlying cardiorespiratory fitness.

A study published in Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association found a connection between three degenerative eye diseases — age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and glaucoma — and Alzheimer's, reports EurekAlert . Analysis of 3,877 randomly selected individuals, age 65 and older, who did not have Alzheimer's disease at the time of enrollment determined those with age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, or glaucoma were at a 40 percent to 50 percent higher risk of developing the disorder compared to similar people without these eye conditions. "This study solidifies that there are mechanistic things we can learn from the brain by looking at the eye," says University of Washington (UW) School of Medicine Professor Paul Crane. The investigators note several variables suggest the effects they found were specific to ophthalmic conditions and not just age-related phenomena. "The main message from this study is that ophthalmologists should be more aware of the risks of developing dementia for people with these eye conditions and primary care doctors seeing people with these eye conditions might be more careful on checking on possible dementia or memory loss," says UW School of Medicine Professor Cecilia Lee.