The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released a final procedural notice on Wednesday to expedite Medicare coverage of novel medical devices and get the devices to Medicare beneficiaries faster. The House Ways and Means Committee passed legislation in June that significantly diverges from thefinal notice. CMS proposed the Transitional Coverage for...

Artificial intelligence is often hailed as the solution to many of healthcare's pressing challenges, especially in the face of a growing workforce shortage. However, industry leaders caution against viewing AI as a quick fix. Health systems are still in the early stages of developing AI governance and integrating it safely into clinical and administrative functions. Over the next decade, AI could realize...

Lawmakers bashed the business practices of pharmacy benefit managers during a House Committee on Oversight and Accountability hearing Tuesday. When they were asked repeatedly about steering patients, increased drug prices and pharmacy closures, the company executives largely refuted claims thrown at them. The hearing coincided with the release of a new report (PDF) compiled by the committee...

As health system IT teams reported steady progress in bringing computer systems and EHR access back online after Friday’s global outage, the U.S Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) warned that cyber threat actors continue to leverage the outage to conduct malicious activity, including phishing attempts. The widespread outage was caused by a faulty software...

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) on Wednesday released theHTI-2 proposed rulethat implements provisions of the 21st Century Cures Act and introduces new standards and updates to enhance healthcare interoperability and data sharing. The rule also aims to support technical requirements included in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS')...

In Congress andvarious states, policymakers are trying to curb the involvement of private equity in healthcare. Private equity firms make money by practicing “buy low, sell high.” Using their own capital and borrowed cash, they purchase undermanaged targets with growth potential at low prices, reinvigorate them, and subsequently sell the now-healthy targets to new buyers at high prices. If a target is not...

Michigan Medicine estimated there are more than 500,000 hack attempts aimed at its systems daily. While many are less elaborate means like robocalls, Dr. Marschall Runge, the health system’s CEO, said about 60 to 80 attempts per month are “highly sophisticated.”Health care systems and their vendors have increasingly been the target of cyberattacks in recent years. When successful, these schemes can...

Crippling ransomware attacks against hospitals and health care providers are on the rise. These ruthless cyberattacks can take medical systems offline for weeks—canceling appointments and surgeries and causing harm to patients. Doctors and nurses are plunged into crisis situations where they resort to using pen and paper, while IT staff work to make systems safe and bring them back online. The recovery ...

Executives at major health plans spoke of the importance of moving the healthcare system towards value-based care. Providence Health Plan CEO Don Antonucci said the time is now for payers and providers to embrace the shift, particularly as more of the financial burden from the traditional Medicare system is pushed onto employers. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) previously set a goal...

Even as concerns continue over the sub-optimal use of artificial intelligence (AI), particularly that of generative AI, in healthcare, some healthcare leaders and researchers see tremendous opportunities for transforming the United States’ public health infrastructure using generative AI tools. In that regard, a team of experts has authored a commentary article published in the June issue of