Healthcare News and Headlines
Healthcare News and Headlines
Healthcare Pulse
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Every morning
Weekly
Tuesday recap
Jennifer Sheets, the new CEO of the National Alliance for Care at Home, is making home‑health program integrity her top priority after CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz highlighted fraud, waste and abuse in the sector. She has urged CMS to form a dedicated task force and pledged the Alliance’s participation, emphasizing a targeted approach that spares compliant providers. Sheets also flagged steep Medicare payment cuts and a deepening workforce crisis as critical challenges, noting that roughly 25% of agencies have already closed. Her agenda blends advocacy for higher reimbursement, immigration‑based staffing solutions, and a unified industry voice across home health, hospice and palliative care.
Antares Vision Group will showcase its new CY Series automatic visual inspection and leak detection system for prefilled syringes at Interphex NYC 2026. The CY Series can inspect up to 200 syringes per minute, handling glass or plastic containers up...
Patient financial experience has shifted from a back‑office billing function to a strategic, end‑to‑end service that directly impacts revenue integrity and brand trust. Research shows that transparent cost estimates and digital, omni‑channel payment options improve patient engagement, reduce disputes, and...
The U.S. Department of Government Efficiency is pushing CMS to replace the decades‑old COBOL‑based Medicare claims system with a real‑time, cloud‑native platform. CMS issued an RFI in January seeking vendors capable of supporting at least two million members and processing...
Menopausal women experience a sharp rise in insomnia, with up to two‑thirds reporting sleep disturbances during the transition. Hormonal declines—especially estrogen, progesterone, and melatonin—trigger night sweats, cortisol spikes, and heightened anxiety that fragment sleep. Recent studies show cognitive‑behavioral therapy for...
Cassling has opened applications for its 2026 Imaging for Impact Award, a national program recognizing imaging professionals and healthcare teams that improve patient outcomes and expand access to care. Submissions are accepted through April 1, 2026, and the award, now in its...
A new observational study of nearly 22,000 chronic‑migraine patients found that those who started GLP‑1 receptor agonists for diabetes or obesity experienced fewer severe migraine events than peers on the preventive drug topiramide. Over a 12‑month follow‑up, GLP‑1 users had...
Healthcare AI startups are moving from traditional SaaS subscriptions to transaction‑based pricing, charging per successfully completed task such as scheduling or intake workflows. Companies like Prosper AI, MedCalls.ai and Intelliclinic tie fees to usage, promising alignment with customer ROI. Investors...
Google Cloud announced a suite of Gemini‑powered AI agents at HIMSS26, partnering with major health players including Humana, CVS Health, Highmark, Waystar and Quest Diagnostics. The agents target patient engagement, workflow automation, revenue‑cycle management and lab‑result interpretation, leveraging the Vertex...
Baroreflex activation therapy (BAT) using the Barostim implant demonstrated sustained improvements in left‑ventricular ejection fraction and NYHA functional class in the real‑world REBALANCE registry of 435 advanced HFrEF patients. Six‑month data showed LVEF rising from 26.8 % to 29.9 % and 34 %...
On March 5, the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services and Education unveiled a joint initiative to embed nutrition education into medical school curricula beginning the 2024‑25 academic year. The program secured commitments from 53 medical schools to deliver at...
The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) announced a new public‑health data consortium, partnering with Veritas Data Research and HealthVerity to create a secure data exchange for state and territorial health agencies. The effort seeks to integrate real‑world...
On March 5, the American Hospital Association (AHA) unveiled a digital toolkit and a line of merchandise ahead of National Hospital Week, scheduled for May 10‑16. The toolkit provides social‑media graphics, sample messaging, and event ideas, while new apparel and gifts enable...
A new University of Pennsylvania Annenberg poll of 1,650 U.S. adults finds that 67% trust scientists at federal health agencies while only 43% trust the agencies’ political leaders. Trust in the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association...
The FDA issued a Request for Information (RFI) on March 5, 2026, asking for public input about new standards for in‑home opioid disposal products. The agency is evaluating whether opioid manufacturers should be required to supply disposal systems directly through dispensers....
A new RACE‑IT study of 32,609 chest‑pain patients shows that a high‑sensitivity troponin protocol enables far faster discharge in freestanding emergency departments than in hospital EDs. Using an accelerated one‑hour rule‑out pathway, 95 % of low‑risk patients left freestanding sites safely,...
Scientists delivered naked Cldn11 messenger RNA directly into the testes of genetically infertile male mice, restoring Sertoli cell function and enabling spermatogenesis. The treatment produced viable sperm that generated healthy offspring via in‑vitro fertilization, without permanent germline alteration. The approach...
Columbia University cardiologists unveiled EchoNext, an AI algorithm that analyzes standard electrocardiograms to screen for structural heart disease such as severe aortic stenosis, mitral regurgitation and heart failure. In a published JACC case report, the tool flagged an asymptomatic 84‑year‑old...
The FDA’s FY 2025 Generic Drug Program report details progress on abbreviated new drug applications (ANDAs) under priority review and competitive generic therapy (CGT) designations. By the fourth quarter, pending priority‑review ANDAs fell to 40, while CGT ANDAs awaiting FDA action...
The FDA released a comprehensive Patient‑Focused Drug Development (PFDD) glossary to standardize terminology across its guidance documents mandated by the 21st Century Cures Act and PDUFA VI. The glossary defines key concepts such as attributes, benefit‑risk assessment, clinical outcome assessments, patient‑reported...
Cognito Therapeutics closed an oversubscribed $105 million Series C round, led by Morningside Ventures with new investors such as Apollo Health Ventures. The capital will fund the readout of its HOPE pivotal study, FDA submission preparation, and commercialization of its Spectris neurostimulation...
The FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) launched its Data Standards Program in 2010 to streamline the massive influx of drug submissions—over 300,000 annually—by enforcing electronic data formats. The initiative aligns with PDUFA commitments, mandating standards such as...
The Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, the largest U.S. Department of Defense hospital overseas, has suspended its labor and delivery services to concentrate on combat casualty care amid the escalating U.S.-Iran conflict. A memorandum directs patients to local German hospitals while...
Lunit will showcase 21 AI imaging studies at the European Congress of Radiology 2026 in Vienna, including oral and poster presentations of its INSIGHT MMG, Scorecard and INSIGHT CXR solutions. A breast‑cancer risk‑assessment trial of 67,686 women showed risk scores...
Researchers have developed a deep‑learning algorithm that reads retinal photographs taken during routine retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) screenings to flag serious lung and heart conditions in preterm infants. In a study of 493 infants across seven NICUs, the model achieved...
New York Assembly Bill A.B. 10413 would codify the right of injured workers to fill workers‑comp prescriptions at pharmacies outside employer or insurer networks when delays, authorization gaps, or emergencies arise. The measure mirrors regulations the Workers’ Compensation Board adopted...
Microsoft unveiled Dragon Copilot, an AI‑driven assistant designed to slash clinicians’ administrative workload. The tool integrates with leading electronic health record systems, using natural‑language processing to auto‑populate charts, orders, and billing codes. Demonstrated at HIMSS25, Dragon Copilot promises up to...
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Arbiter’s chief product officer Anjali Jameson highlighted systemic misalignment between hospitals and payers, emphasizing how fragmentation undermines referral efficiency. She outlined core components for building effective referral networks, including data standardization and shared accountability. Meanwhile, Clever Care Health Plan’s CIO...
A recent study of nearly one million U.S. hospitalizations shows in‑hospital deaths from first‑time heart attacks are climbing among adults 54 and younger. The increase is evident for both STEMI and NSTEMI cases, with women experiencing slightly higher mortality than men....
Health leaders are adopting a holistic, whole‑person strategy that treats hospital functions as an interconnected ecosystem. The article highlights three flagship initiatives: City of Hope’s AI‑driven documentation platform, UMass Memorial Health’s smart‑room virtual‑care hub, and Catholic Health’s new Patient Care...
Autonomize AI announced a partnership with ServiceNow to co‑develop AI‑driven solutions for health‑plan payers. The collaboration will embed Autonomize’s healthcare‑specific AI agents into ServiceNow’s AI Control Tower, targeting claims processing, fraud detection, care management, and utilization management. By leveraging ServiceNow’s...
Empassion Health’s CEO Robin Hefferman says palliative‑care visits are excluded from CMS star‑rating calculations, a practice that can lift Medicare Advantage plans’ scores and protect hundreds of millions of dollars in payments. He explains that while exclusion improves ratings, effective...
Poland enacted a law that curtails social benefits for Ukrainian refugees, restricting healthcare to minors, workers, victims of torture or rape, and other vulnerable groups. Food, housing aid and school transport subsidies will only continue for the most vulnerable and...
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals has signed a deal with Tenaya Therapeutics, providing $10 million upfront and the potential for up to $1.13 billion in milestones to discover up to 15 new genetic targets for heart disease. Tenaya will apply its modality‑agnostic platform to validate...
The UK Covid‑19 public inquiry, chaired by Lady Heather Hallett, has finished its hearing phase, hearing 380 witnesses and gathering 58,000 online testimonies. It has examined over 600,000 documents—about five million pages—and released two comprehensive reports, with eight further modules...
Cloud‑based electronic health records (EHR) are replacing costly on‑premises systems, as illustrated by Franciscan Health’s migration to Azure. The shift enables pay‑as‑you‑go pricing, continuous vendor‑managed software updates, and built‑in backup and disaster‑recovery capabilities. Security is now designed from the ground...
Ambient AI entered healthcare as a digital scribe, delivering 20‑40% documentation time reductions and easing clinician burnout. As pilots grew into enterprise rollouts, finance leaders began demanding returns beyond reclaimed hours. The technology’s next phase—real‑time autonomous coding and integrated denial...
Almost half of U.S. adults have hypertension, a known risk factor for cognitive decline. A systematic review of 14 studies involving roughly 13,000 participants found that ACE inhibitors and angiotensin‑receptor blockers (ARBs) reduce the risk of mild cognitive impairment by...
The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will convene March 18‑19, 2026 to review COVID‑19 vaccine safety, long COVID, and potential revisions to its recommendation framework. Data show myocarditis rates among 12‑39‑year‑olds dropped from 38 per million after the original...
The U.S. Department of Justice secured a $556 million settlement with Kaiser Permanente for allegedly submitting unsupported diagnosis codes to boost risk‑adjusted Medicare Advantage payments. The case, covering nearly a decade of overcoding, underscores the systemic pressure on clinicians to add...
The Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) has added a cybersecurity module to its Risk Identification and Site Criticality (RISC) 2.0 Toolkit, giving health systems a standardized way to assess cyber risk. The module uses a questionnaire scored against the...
Sword Health announced that its Bloom product is evolving from a pelvic‑care solution into a comprehensive AI‑driven women’s health platform covering the entire life‑stage continuum. The expansion introduces a first‑of‑its‑kind menopause program that leverages “clinical memory” to create adaptive care...
Salesforce has launched Agentforce Health, a suite of six autonomous AI agents designed to relieve the administrative load on clinicians, payers, and public‑health agencies. The platform embeds deep integrations with HealthEx, Verily, Viz.ai, Informatica, MuleSoft and adheres to FHIR/TEFCA standards,...
CVS Health and Google announced a joint venture to launch Health100, an AI‑powered consumer health platform built on Google Cloud. The service will fuse CVS’s pharmacy, insurance and PBM data with Google’s Gemini models, Cloud Healthcare API and BigQuery to...
The CNBC Cures Summit opened with Becky Quick urging families and innovators to accelerate rare‑disease research. Speakers highlighted a widening gap between rapid scientific breakthroughs—gene therapies, AI‑driven diagnostics, and modular “nodal biology”—and an aging regulatory framework. Leaders from Biogen, the...
PointClickCare unveiled Discharge Intel at HIMSS26, an AI‑driven tool that delivers clinical intelligence to health plans within 24 hours of a patient’s hospital discharge. The solution leverages the company’s nationwide network of over 30,000 providers and major U.S. health plans...
PepGen’s Phase 2 FREEDOM2 trial in myotonic dystrophy type 1 received a partial FDA clinical hold due to concerns over a sub‑chronic mouse study that showed blood‑pressure changes. The agency did not question the Phase 1 human data, and the company continues dosing...
Randomized trials for non‑small cell lung cancer often miss real‑world nuances that affect patients' quality of life. Real‑world data (RWD) and social determinants of health (SDOH) expose hidden barriers such as transportation gaps and limited molecular testing access. Pharma can...
NIH‑funded researchers at Stanford introduced Merlin, a foundation model that interprets 3D abdominal CT scans for a broad spectrum of clinical tasks. Trained on more than 15,000 scans paired with radiology reports and nearly one million diagnostic codes, Merlin outperformed specialist...
Roche announced a $480 million, five‑year investment in South Korea to build a national clinical‑trial ecosystem, fund R&D infrastructure, and train specialized personnel. The pledge also includes support for domestic biotech startups aiming for global markets. This move aligns with a...
