News Briefs
Reconciliation Bill Could Impact State Healthcare AI Laws
Buried in the legislative text of the Energy and Commerce Committee's budget reconciliation bill is a proposal to ban states from enforcing AI laws or regulations for the next 10 years. While not a healthcare-specific proposal, it stands to impact the healthcare AI laws that have been passed in California, Colorado, and a smattering of other states in recent years.
(Source: FierceHealthcare, 2025-05-13)
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H-ISAC Says Healthcare Organizations Can Use AI for Cybersecurity
One of the many ways healthcare organizations can use AI in cybersecurity is to strengthen digital identity verification, the Health Information Sharing and Analysis Center, or H-ISAC, suggested in a new white paper. The paper sheds light on ways in which healthcare chief information security officers, or CISOs, can implement advanced technologies to combat fraud and cyberattacks.
(Source: Tech Target, 2025-05-13)
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Hospices Finding AI Implementation Difficult Amid Regulations
An evolving regulatory landscape may be complicating hospices' ability to effectively implement and use artificial intelligence technology. The top legal considerations involving AI center around protecting patient privacy and ensuring transparent innovation.
(Source: Hospice News, 2025-05-15)
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Hacking Makes Up Majority of Large Healthcare Data Breaches
Hacking and IT incidents, including ransomware, made up the majority of large healthcare data breaches reported to the HHS Office for Civil Rights in 2024, consistent with recent years. However, hacking has not always dominated healthcare data breach figures, researchers noted in a letter published in JAMA Network Open that analyzed breaches reported to OCR between 2010 and 2024.
(Source: Tech Target, 2025-05-16)
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Judge Rules Against Drug Companies in 340B Pricing Program
Drugmakers have to continue paying hospitals upfront discounts for drugs in the 340B program -- at least in the near term -- after a federal court ruled against major manufacturers that wanted to issue rebates for 340B drugs instead. However, the D.C. district court didn't entirely rule out drugmakers' paying after-the-fact rebates in the future, instead determining that the companies would need to get prior approval from the Health Resources and Services Administration, the HHS subagency that oversees 340B.
(Source: Healthcare Dive, 2025-05-19)
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Pharmacists Prepare for High Costs, Shortages Due to Tariffs
Squeezed by insurers and middlemen, independent pharmacists find themselves on the front lines of a tariff storm. Slashing drug imports could trigger widespread shortages, experts said, because of America's dependence on Chinese- and Indian-made chemical ingredients, which form the critical building blocks of many medicines, and industry officials caution that steep tariffs on raw materials and finished pharmaceuticals could make drugs more expensive.
(Source: KFF Health News, 2025-05-16)
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Report Says 300 Rural Hospitals at 'Immediate Risk of Closure'
More than 300 struggling rural hospitals are at "immediate risk of closure," a new report says. The report, from the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform, said the proposed cuts threaten to upend healthcare in some of the nation's most vulnerable communities.
(Source: Patch, 2025-05-14)
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Lawmakers Introduce Bill Creating Minimum Nurse-to-Patient Ratios
U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), co-chair of the House Democratic Caucus Task Force on Aging and Families, have reintroduced a bill that would create minimum nurse-to-patient staffing ratios across the nation's hospitals. The Nurse Staffing Standards for Hospital Patient Safety and Quality Care Act would set those minimum staffing requirements, study best practices for nurse staffing, and provide whistleblower protections to protect the right of nurses to advocate for the safety of their patients.
(Source: Healthcare Finance News, 2025-05-15)
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Millions Have No Access to Telehealth Due to Broadband Dead Zones
Years of Republican and Democratic administrations have tried to fix the nation's broadband woes, through flawed attempts. Bad mapping, weak standards, and flimsy oversight have left nearly three million rural Americans in dead zones -- with eroded healthcare services and where telehealth doesn't reach.
(Source: KFF Health News, 2025-05-14)
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Healthcare Organizations Expected to See Higher Revenue from VBC
More than 6 in 10 survey respondents say they expect their healthcare organizations to see higher revenue from value-based care arrangements this year than in 2024, according to a joint report from the National Association of Accountable ACOs and health tech company Innovaccer. A significant segment, 30 percent, of organizations said a quarter of their revenue is tied to VBC contracts.
(Source: FierceHealthcare, 2025-05-16)
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75% of Physicians Satisfied with Jobs, But 41% Consider Leaving
Three-quarters of surveyed physicians and advanced practice providers (APPs) say they're satisfied with their current jobs, but that doesn't mean they're planning to stick around. A new national workforce report from LocumTenens.com, a healthcare staffing solutions company, and the Advisory Board, a healthcare research and advisory firm, revealed that 41 percent of clinicians are considering switching jobs within the next two years -- including 28 percent of those who say they're already satisfied where they are.
(Source: Medical Economics, 2025-05-15)
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