Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Medicaid Work Rule Will Cause Distress And Suffering For Cancer Patients; Pope's Encyclical Will Help Hospitals Steer The Focus Back To Humans
Stat: New Medicaid Work Requirements Are Catastrophic For Cancer Patients
One of the cancer community’s worst fears — which we were assured repeatedly would never happen — is coming to pass. ... The rule narrows the “medical frailty exemption,” a mechanism that allows patients with cancer and other serious health conditions to be exempt from work reporting requirements. In effect, it means that cancer patients, including those in active treatment, could be forced to work the same number of hours as a healthy person — regardless of whether that’s physically possible, just to keep the health insurance coverage that they rely on to stay alive. (Gwen Nichols, 6/4)
Stat: What The Pope’s Encyclical On AI Means For Catholic Hospitals, Health Care
I spoke to Nick Kockler, the vice president for theology and ethics at Providence, the 51-hospital health system based in the western U.S., about his thoughts on the encyclical. He told me that it is “going to be a real benefit to Catholic health care in particular, but health care in general, to have such a cogent statement on the centrality of the human person and the common good in how we conceive, design, develop, and deploy artificial intelligence and the use of data.” And he emphasized — as the pope did — that the encyclical shouldn’t be the only voice weighing in on this topic. (Brittany Trang, 6/3)
The New York Times: The Government Is Finally Taking A.I. Seriously
The window between discovering a vulnerability and weaponizing it is rapidly compressing. That matters because the United States does not have a cybersecurity problem so much as a software quality problem. Much of the multibillion-dollar cybersecurity industry exists to compensate for technology built for speed, convenience and features — not security. The software underpinning banks, hospitals, telecommunications networks, water systems and government services remains riddled with flaws and defects. (Jen Easterly, 6/4)
The Washington Post: Newark’s Detention Center Requires Real Accountability
The federal government has an obligation to ensure that immigrant detainees are not subjected to cruel conditions. (6/3)
The New York Times: Melinda French Gates: Women, We Deserve Better Than This
Too many women walk out of their doctors’ office with no diagnosis, no treatment and no plan. (Melinda French Gates, 6/4)
