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With an end-of-year deadline and a presidential election approaching, payment rules that fueled rapid expansion of telehealth in the United States face a last-minute congressional decision.
With artificial intelligence in health care on the rise, eye screenings for diabetic retinopathy are emerging as one of the first proven use cases of AI-based diagnostics in a clinical setting.
Demand for help monitoring patients’ vital signs remotely has taken off since a Medicare change in 2019. Dozens of companies now push the service to help overburdened primary care doctors — and as a revenue stream. But some policy experts say its growth has outpaced oversight and evidence of effectiveness.
Health care wasn’t expected to be a major theme for this year’s elections. But as President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump secured their respective party nominations this week, the future of both Medicare and the Affordable Care Act appears to be up for debate. Meanwhile, the cyberattack of the UnitedHealth Group subsidiary Change Healthcare continues to do damage to the companies’ finances with no quick end in sight. Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, and Joanne Kenen of Johns Hopkins University and Politico Magazine join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews Kelly Henning of Bloomberg Philanthropies about a new, four-part documentary series on the history of public health, “The Invisible Shield.” Plus, for “extra credit” the panelists suggest health policy stories they read this week that they think you should read, too.
The cyberattack on a unit of UnitedHealth Group’s Optum division is the worst on the health care industry in U.S. history, hospitals say. Providers struggling to get paid for care say the response by the insurer and the Biden administration has been inadequate.
A mathematical model designed to direct spending of opioid settlement funds is at the center of a debate over whether to invest in technology to guide long-term decisions or focus on the immediate needs of people in addiction.
Lawmakers in Congress and state legislatures are scrambling to react to the ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court that frozen embryos created for in vitro fertilization are legally children. Abortion opponents are divided among themselves, with some supporting full “personhood” for fertilized eggs, while others support IVF as a moral way to have children. Rachel Cohrs of Stat, Riley Griffin of Bloomberg News, and Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins University schools of nursing and public health and Politico Magazine join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews University of Pittsburgh law professor Greer Donley, who explains how a 150-year-old anti-vice law that’s still on the books could be used to ban abortion nationwide. Plus, for “extra credit,” the panelists suggest health policy stories they read this week that they think you should read, too.
Change Healthcare, a firm recently bought by insurance giant UnitedHealth Group, reportedly suffered a cyberattack. The company processes 14 billion transactions annually, including payments and requests for insurance authorizations.
Lawmakers and regulators are trying to understand how AI is changing health care and how it should be regulated. The industry fears overreach.
When bankers and investors flocked to San Francisco for the largest gathering of health care industry investors, the buzz was all about artificial intelligence, the next hit weight-loss drug, and new opportunities to make money through nonprofit hospitals.
Artificial intelligence software to aid radiologists in detecting problems or diagnosing cancer has been moving rapidly into clinical use, where it shows great promise. But it’s a turnoff for some patients asked to pay out-of-pocket for technology that’s not quite ready for prime time.
For the patient, it was a quick and inexpensive virtual appointment. Why it cost 10 times what she expected became a mystery.
A rural South Dakota medic said using an ambulance video system to communicate with a doctor gave him peace of mind as he treated a patient who was seriously injured when gored by a bison.
Software sifts through millions of medical records to match patients with similar diagnoses and characteristics and then predicts what kind of care an individual will need and for how long. New federal rules will ensure human experts are part of the process.
Doctors say billing for email consultations reduces message volume and gives them more free time. The increasingly prevalent practice has also raised fears about negative impacts to patient care.
To contain the opioid crisis, health and law enforcement agencies have turned to technology to monitor doctor and patient prescription data. Experts have raised questions about how these systems work and worry about their accuracy and potential biases. Some patients and doctors say they’re being unfairly targeted.
Consumers should know that this type of fraud can happen, whether from a large-scale breach or theft of an individual’s data. The result could be thousands of dollars in medical bills.
U.S. hospitals have seen a record number of cyberattacks over the past few years. Getting hacked can cost a hospital millions of dollars, expose patient data, and even jeopardize patient care.
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