Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Former Virginia NICU Nurse Charged With Abusing Babies In Her Care
The Washington Post: Virginia Nurse Arrested After Babies In NICU Suffer Unexplained Injuries
The Virginia hospital first noticed newborns were suffering mysterious injuries in the summer of 2023. Then, roughly a month ago, three babies in the neonatal intensive care unit experienced “unexplainable fractures,” according to a statement from the Henrico Doctors’ Hospital. The hospital grew so concerned that last week, it announced it would stop admitting babies into the NICU until they discovered what was breaking their bones. Now, a registered nurse has been arrested and charged with malicious wounding and felony child abuse. (Uber, 1/5)
News Service of Florida: Orlando OB-GYN Fined $10,000 By The State Medical Board In Abortion Case
After the state Department of Health called for revoking the doctor’s license, the Florida Board of Medicine this week imposed a $10,000 fine and reprimand for a physician who did not comply in 2022 with a law requiring 24-hour waiting periods before abortions can be performed. The final order came after the board decided last month to approve penalties for Dr. Candace Sue Cooley that were less severe than what the Department of Health wanted. (Saunders, 1/6)
KFF Health News: Health Insurers Limit Coverage Of Prosthetic Limbs, Questioning Their Medical Necessity
When Michael Adams was researching health insurance options in 2023, he had one very specific requirement: coverage for prosthetic limbs. Adams, 51, lost his right leg to cancer 40 years ago, and he has worn out more legs than he can count. He picked a gold plan on the Colorado health insurance marketplace that covered prosthetics, including microprocessor-controlled knees like the one he has used for many years. That function adds stability and helps prevent falls. But when his leg needed replacing last January after about five years of everyday use, his new marketplace health plan wouldn’t authorize it. (Andrews, 1/6)
Stat: What Health AI Developers Must Disclose Under New Federal Rule
Clinicians clacking away at workstations in hospitals know what the ones and zeroes humming away in the background are up to, right? In fact, doctors and health systems often don’t know important details about the algorithms they rely on for purposes like predicting the onset of dangerous medical conditions. But in what advocates call a step forward, federal regulators now require electronic health record (EHR) companies to disclose to customers a broad swath of information about artificial intelligence tools in their software. (Aguilar, 1/6)
North Carolina Health News and The Charlotte Ledger: AI May Listen In On Your Next MD's Appointment
When pediatrician Jocelyn Wilson sees patients at Atrium Health Levine Children’s Charlotte Pediatrics, she begins each visit with a simple request: for permission to record the conversation. The reason isn’t surveillance — it’s efficiency. (Crouch, 1/6)
Also —
MedPage Today: What Happened With The USMLE Cheating Scandal?
In February, we reported on a cheating scandal that resulted in U.S. Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) scores being invalidated for hundreds of Nepali test takers, some of whom later filed a class action lawsuit. In this report, we follow up on what has happened since. (Robertson, 1/4)
KFF Health News: Listen: NPR And KFF Health News Explore How Racism And Violence Hurt Health
KFF Health News Midwest correspondent Cara Anthony and Emily Kwong, host of NPR’s podcast “Shortwave,” talk about Black families living in the aftermath of lynchings and police killings in their communities. Anthony shares her southeastern Missouri-based reporting from “Silence in Sikeston,” a documentary film, podcast, and print reporting project. She discusses the latest research on the health effects of racism and violence, including the emerging, controversial field of epigenetics. (Anthony, 1/6)
