Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
AI Deepfakes Are Using Doctors' Likenesses To Promote Dubious Products, Misinformation
Axios: Doctors' Growing AI Deepfakes Problem
AI is helping make doctors the unwitting stars of deepfake videos that hawk questionable products or spread misinformation, prompting calls from clinicians for more privacy and transparency laws. (Reed, 5/6)
AP: Lawsuit Accuses Chatbot Company Of Impersonating Doctors
Pennsylvania has sued an artificial intelligence chatbot maker, saying its chatbots illegally hold themselves out as doctors and are deceiving the system’s users into thinking they are getting medical advice from a licensed professional. The lawsuit, filed Friday, asks the statewide Commonwealth Court to order Character Technologies Inc., the company behind Character. AI, to stop its chatbots “from engaging in the unlawful practice of medicine and surgery.” The lawsuit could raise the question as to whether artificial intelligence can be accused of practicing medicine, as opposed to regurgitating material on the internet. (Levy, 5/5)
More about AI in health care —
Stat: OpenAI's Policy Blueprint For Unleashing AI's Full Potential In Health Care
So far, artificial intelligence company OpenAI’s work in health care has been largely limited to nonregulated areas. In January, the company released ChatGPT Health for consumers. Then, it launched ChatGPT for Healthcare for hospitals, followed by ChatGPT for Clinicians. (Trang, 5/6)
Modern Healthcare: How Hippocratic AI Collaborated With Hospitals On Nurse Co-Pilot
When Hippocratic AI wanted input on the design of a new tool to streamline nurses’ work, it called in the experts — health systems and their nursing leaders. Nurse executives from Cleveland Clinic, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and OhioHealth played a key role in the generative artificial intelligence company’s Nurse Co-Pilot tool released last month, helping determine the use cases, the app’s design, the work flow and agent conversations. The company said the result is a tool that allows nurses to deploy AI voice agents to help with admissions, patient and family education and discharge preparation. (Famakinwa, 5/5)
Fierce Healthcare: A Deeper Dive Into CMMI's Tech-Enabled ACCESS Model
The Trump administration is testing out a new 10-year program for value-based chronic condition management that leans heavily on technology and artificial intelligence to scale to large populations of patients. Many of the 150 digital health companies tapped to participate in the first cohort of the tech-enabled chronic care model are bullish that it marks an inflection point for connected care and a way to prove out that AI-enabled medical services can move the needle on cost and quality. (Landi, 5/4)
The Baltimore Sun: Medical AI Finds Deadly Pancreatic Cancers 3 Years Earlier
A new artificial intelligence model developed by the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, can help specialists detect pancreatic cancer up to three years before most clinical diagnoses, allowing curative treatment. (Hille, 5/5)
In other news from the healthcare industry —
MedPage Today: Hospital Shootings Became More Common Over 25 Years
The number of hospital-based shootings rose steadily over the past quarter-century, a systematic review showed. From 2000 to 2024, shootings increased from 6 to 34 events per year, representing a 6.4% increase each year, Sarayna McGuire, MD, MS, of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and colleagues reported in JAMA Network Open. "We recognize that although hospital-related shootings constitute a small fraction of national firearm violence, their impact could be profound," McGuire and colleagues wrote, noting there were more than 48,000 firearm-related deaths in 2022, per CDC data. (Henderson, 5/5)
Modern Healthcare: California Hospitals Sue To Block Elevance Out-Of-Network Penalty
A California hospital trade group sued to stop Elevance Health from implementing a policy that would cut payments to hospitals that refer some members to out-of-network providers. In a complaint filed Monday in the state Superior Court of Los Angeles County, the California Hospital Association contended the policy allegedly violates state consumer protection and healthcare laws. The 400-member hospital lobbying group seeks an injunction to block the penalty in California, along with declaratory relief. (Tepper, 5/5)
The Colorado Sun: Aurora Mental Health Cuts 111 Jobs, Blames State Funding Model
Aurora Mental Health & Recovery is the latest community mental health center to drastically cut its workforce, eliminating 111 positions and reviving a conversation about the state’s funding model shake-up that centers warned would cause them problems. (Brown, 5/5)
KFF Health News: A New Medicare Option For Weight Loss Drugs: What Older Americans Should Know
Starting in July, Medicare beneficiaries may be able to get a GLP-1 prescription for weight loss for $50 a month. It’s a notable shift for Medicare, which has long been barred from covering weight loss treatments. The drugs, such as Wegovy and Zepbound, are effective but can be expensive without insurance coverage. They’re available in injection or pill form. Even with discounts, current cash prices typically range from $149 to $699 per month. About half of GLP-1 users say these drugs were difficult for them to afford, according to KFF polling. A quarter said they were “very difficult” to afford. (Fortiér, 5/6)
