A leaked HHS budget document includes proposals to stop publishing the CDC's Emerging Infectious Diseases and Preventing Chronic Disease, but publication of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report would continue. The document also proposes eliminating the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion and all associated programs, and eliminating funding for the CDC's Global Health Center as well as HIV eradication efforts, zoonotic disease programs and some public health funding, among other cuts.

Epic is piloting AI tools with Microsoft and Abridge to enhance nursing workflows and reduce documentation burdens. The tools, being tested at health systems including Baptist Health and Stanford Health Care, use ambient AI on smartphones to record and document relevant conversation data in EHRs. Meditech is also working on ambient documentation for nurses as well as therapists and home care providers.

Lumos Diagnostics has secured Medicare reimbursement for its FebriDx test, which differentiates between bacterial and nonbacterial acute respiratory infections. Two Medicare Administrative Contractors have agreed to a reimbursement rate of $41.38 per test, effective this month. Lumos is in advanced negotiations with three more contractors.

Twenty-six rural hospitals have joined together to form the Ohio High Value Network, a clinically integrated network to improve health care in rural communities. The network will serve more than 2.5 million patients across 37 Ohio counties and parts of West Virginia, with a focus on quality, care coordination and cost control.

Corewell Health's AI Center of Excellence started as an informal coalition of clinicians, technologists and other stakeholders exploring AI, and although it has evolved into a formalized unit led by a director, it is not a centralized division for executing AI projects, says Chief Digital and Information Officer Jason Joseph. Corewell has broadened its approach to enterprise data and reconsidered AI development, frequently bringing it closer to workflow automation teams, Joseph says.

AI-connected sensors, wearable devices and Agentic AI are among the technological advances bringing telemedicine to the next level, say Joe Kvedar, senior adviser at the American Telemedicine Association, and Shannon Germain Farraher, a senior analyst at Forrester. AI is enabling automated patient triage, producing patient record summaries before visits and, along with wearable devices, enabling remote patient monitoring in real time. Future advances include AI agents that ask patients questions, analyze the answers and recommend treatments before consultations.

Indiana lawmakers have approved legislation to reform prior authorization and have sent the bill to Gov. Eric Holcomb to sign. The bill mandates that insurers' prior authorization reviews are conducted by clinical peers with equivalent training and certification as the prescribing clinician and prohibits insurers from requiring prior authorization before covering the first dozen physical therapy or chiropractic visits for new injuries or episodes of care.