Prosecutors To Seek Death Penalty For Mangione In UnitedHealthcare Slaying

CNBC: DOJ To Seek Death Penalty For Luigi Mangione In CEO Murder Case
Attorney General Pam Bondi on Tuesday said she had ordered federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty against Luigi Mangione, who is charged with murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City in December. (Mangan, 4/1)

In other health care industry news —

The New York Times: More Americans Cannot Afford Medical Care: Gallup Poll
Health care remains stubbornly unaffordable for millions of people, according to a new survey released Wednesday that underscores the struggle many people have in paying for a doctor’s visit or a prescription drug — even before any talk of cutting government coverage. In the survey, 11 percent of people said they could not afford medication and care within the past three months, the highest level in the four years the survey has been conducted. More than a third of those surveyed, representing some 91 million adults, said if they were to need medical care, they would not be able to pay for it. (Abelson, 4/2)

Becker's Hospital Review: Stanford Taps AI To Reshape Billing: What Were The Results?
Palo Alto, Calif.-based Stanford Health Care incorporates an intentional process for evaluating, implementing and monitoring new technologies, particularly artificial intelligence. To this end, a new AI tool has led to meaningful results in billing practices, Aditya Bhasin, vice president of software, technology and digital solutions at SHC, told Becker’s. SHC, which has long leveraged AI to solve clinical issues, developed the new tool to streamline billing practices while improving staff wellness and the patient experience. (Gooch, 4/1)

KFF Health News: How Much Will That Surgery Cost? 🤷 Hospital Prices Remain Largely Unhelpful. 
It’s a holy grail of health care: forcing the industry to reveal prices negotiated between health plans and hospitals — information that had long been treated as a trade secret. And among the flurry of executive orders President Donald Trump signed during his first five weeks back in office was a promise to “Make America Healthy Again” by giving patients accurate health care prices. The goal is to force hospitals and health insurance companies to make it easier for consumers to compare the actual prices of medical procedures and prescription drugs. Trump gave his administration until the end of May to come up with a standard and a mechanism to make sure the health care industry complies. (Chang, 4/2)

Fierce Healthcare: Health Tech Lobbying Orgs Join Forces To Expand Policy Reach
The American Telemedicine Association’s lobbying arm, ATA Action, acquired the Digital Therapeutics Alliance in a bid to beef up its digital health presence and advocate for health technology further upstream in the regulatory process. While ATA Action mainly focuses on extending already-enacted Medicare telehealth flexibilities in Congress and at the agencies, the Digital Therapeutics Alliance has been waging policy battles for payment of novel medical devices that Medicare says it doesn’t have the authority to cover. (Beavins, 4/1)