Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Google Leverages AI Tech To Help With Medicaid Reenrollments
Modern Healthcare: Google Search Update Aims To Ease Medicaid Redeterminations
Google is helping people navigate Medicaid redeterminations with the latest update to its search product, the tech giant said Tuesday morning. Google announced several new healthcare initiatives at its annual Check Up event on Tuesday. The updates were related to search, artificial intelligence and interoperability. (Turner, 3/14)
Axios: Google Flexes Its Health Care AI Muscle
Google showed off an array of new artificial intelligence (AI)-driven health care tools on Tuesday, from a souped-up chatbot that can shed light on your medical symptoms to enhanced search features that tell you if a doctor takes Medicaid. (Kingson, 3/15)
Bloomberg: Google To Integrate Artificial Intelligence Into Health-Care Services, Products
Alphabet Inc.’s Google unveiled plans to integrate artificial intelligence into health-related initiatives, including an update on the use of language-generating technology in medical exams and AI-assisted research, ways to help consumers find information faster via internet searches, and tools to help developers build health apps around the world. (Alba and Love, 3/14)
More on AI in health care —
Stat: Researchers Explore How To Audit Health AI Models On Patient Level
As hospitals and companies continue to leverage artificial intelligence in medicine, researchers are also grappling with how to check the AI systems to protect patient safety. “Risk management is a tricky business,” said Gyorgy Simon, scientific co-director for the University of Minnesota’s clinical AI program. “Treatment models are changing, the population is changing. So a model [from] two years ago that was working perfectly may not be working perfectly today for a particular patient.” (Castillo, 3/15)
In other health care industry developments —
AP: Catholic System Pulls Out Of Connecticut Hospital Merger
A Catholic-run health care system has withdrawn its application to affiliate with Day Kimball Healthcare, an independent, financially struggling hospital and health care system in northeastern Connecticut. Covenant Health’s decision to terminate its agreement with Day Kimball in Putnam comes weeks before the state’s Office of Health Strategy was scheduled to hold a public hearing on the planned merger. ... The proposed merger had raised concerns among residents and Attorney General William Tong about the fate of reproductive health and other services in the mostly rural region of Connecticut that may be at odds with the Ethical and Religious Directives set by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, an issue that has come to light in other states as well. (3/15)
Politico: Health + Hospitals Advances New Strategy To House Homeless Patients
NYC Health + Hospitals plans to hire an outside organization to help its homeless patients find housing, a $14 million investment that officials said would improve health outcomes and slash costly emergency room visits. The municipal health system has proposed contracting with Coordinated Behavioral Care, a not-for-profit consortium of behavioral health organizations, to work with about 600 unhoused patients annually on finding a permanent home. (Kaufman, 3/14)
Crain's Chicago Business: Outcome Health Fraud Trial: Goldman Sachs Investor Testifies
A Goldman Sachs fund manager knew there was going to be trouble when he read a Wall Street Journal story that accused Outcome Health of overbilling drug companies and misleading them about the effectiveness of their advertising on prescription sales. (Pletz, 3/14)
The CT Mirror: AG Tong: Plaintiffs Have Standing In Hartford HealthCare Antitrust Case
On Monday, Attorney General William Tong’s office urged the court to reject the basis of part of Hartford HealthCare’s argument to dismiss an antitrust case filed against the hospital system. The original proposed class-action lawsuit filed in February 2022 alleged the network uses its market dominance to charge higher prices to the state’s commercially insured residents. (Golvala, 3/14)
Bay Area News Group: Bay Area Health Care Worker Stole Patient's Medical Records, Posted About Her STD On Phony Social Media Page, Hospital Says
A healthcare contractor at an East Bay county hospital stole medical records and used them to impersonate the patient on social media, according to records and hospital officials. The hospital contractor working at Martinez’s Contra Costa Regional Medical Center accessed the patient’s records after she tested positive for a sexually transmitted disease, according to a claim letter an attorney representing the patient sent to the county. (Heimann Mercader, 3/14)
KHN and CBS News: FDA Looks Into Dental Device After KHN-CBS News Investigation Of Patient Harm
In the wake of a joint investigation by KHN and CBS News into a dental appliance that multiple lawsuits allege caused grievous harm to patients, the FDA has begun looking into the product, the Anterior Growth Guidance Appliance, or AGGA, according to a former agency official. Additionally, KHN and CBS News have learned that the Las Vegas Institute, a training company that previously taught dentists to use the AGGA, now trains dentists to use another device it has described as “almost exactly the same appliance.” That one is called the Anterior Remodeling Appliance, or ARA. (Kelman and Werner, 3/15)
KHN: Two Counties Square Off With California Over Mental Health Duties
Sacramento and Solano counties are in a standoff with the state over mental health coverage for a portion of Medicaid patients in those counties — a dispute that threatens to disrupt care for nearly 50,000 low-income residents receiving treatment for severe mental illness. The Department of Health Care Services, which administers Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program, says Sacramento and Solano counties must take over managing and providing specialty mental health care for thousands of Medi-Cal patients enrolled in Kaiser Permanente plans. It insists on shifting the responsibility because California’s remaining 56 counties already operate this way. State officials argue the switch would simplify the state’s disjointed mental health system and is needed to implement a larger transformation of Medi-Cal, an initiative known as CalAIM. (Hart, 3/15)
Also —
Stat: Report: Change Use Of Race, Ethnicity In Genetics Research
Saying genetics researchers inconsistently and inappropriately use racial and ethnic labels that fail to capture the complex patterns of human genetic variation, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine issued a report Tuesday calling for a transformation in how such descriptors are used. (McFarling, 3/14)
