President Donald J. Trump has issued an Executive Order to enhance healthcare price transparency, requiring the Departments of the Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services to enforce regulations that compel hospitals and insurers to disclose actual prices. This initiative seeks to provide patients with clear pricing information, enabling them to make informed healthcare decisions and potentially lower costs, with projections suggesting savings of up to $80 billion by 2025. The administration also aims to hold health plans accountable for transparency in prescription drug pricing, continuing its focus on consumer empowerment in healthcare.

Trump's Executive Order Boosts Healthcare Price Transparency for Patients whitehouse.gov

Researchers are investigating the reliability of large language models (LLMs) in healthcare due to their propensity for generating inaccurate or misleading information, commonly referred to as "hallucinations." A study in *Nature* examined various LLMs, revealing that models like Technology Innovation Institute Falcon 7B-instruct and Google Gemini 1.1-2B-it had high hallucination rates of nearly 30%, while OpenAI's ChatGPT-4 performed better. Furthermore, diagnostic capabilities varied among models, with some effectively addressing diagnostic puzzles while others showed significant weaknesses, highlighting the need for careful utilization of LLMs in clinical settings. Specialized models like PhenoBrain are being developed to enhance the diagnosis of rare diseases.

AI in Healthcare: Researchers Uncover Hallucination Risks in Language Models Mayo Clinic Platform

Sara Vaezy, chief transformation officer at Providence, discusses the surge in digital health initiatives and the integration of AI in healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic on the "Shift AI" podcast. She describes how Providence adapted to virtual care demands using tools like DexCare, which scaled their services as in-person visits declined. As the organization continues to innovate, Vaezy highlights AI solutions aimed at reducing clinician workloads, such as the Conversation and Navigation Platform and the Nuance DAX CoPilot, which automates tasks like patient inquiries and clinical documentation. She also underscores Providence's commitment to responsible AI use, emphasizing resource allocation for monitoring operations and ensuring data privacy.

Providence's Sara Vaezy on AI's Transformative Role in Healthcare Innovation GeekWire

UnitedHealth Group is notifying patients about a data breach linked to its subsidiary, Change Healthcare, a year after a cyberattack that affected approximately half of the U.S. population. Recent letters suggest that patient data, including contact details, health plan IDs, diagnoses, and Social Security numbers, may have been compromised. To address concerns, the company is offering free credit monitoring and identity protection services. Following the breach, which was detected in February 2024, the attack disrupted pharmacies and healthcare operations, leading to the shutdown of a key data clearinghouse for medical claims processing. While the company has claimed to have repaired the impacted systems, the long-term effects of the incident continue to be felt.

UnitedHealth Group Sends Ongoing Data Breach Alerts One Year Later Star Tribune