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Foreign national accused of operating fake company that billed Medicare for $90M—and now he’s on the run
Healthcare educators: Want to stabilize nurse staffing for years to come? Stand up for the Nurse Faculty Loan Program
FTC homes in on healthcare
AI-powered CCTA assessments show ‘close agreement’ with IVUS
Former ACA Marketplace enrollee: ‘This is ridiculous—$1,200 and an $8,000 deductible for a healthy person. Really?’
patient experience
More than 80% of clinicians have had to correct AI-supplied misinformation during patient visits: New patient + provider survey

Meanwhile members of Gen Z are twice as likely as other generations to get sneaky about their use of medical AI. 

Fax
CMS leaves the ’80s behind with shift away from snail mail correspondence, fax machines

In a Final Rule revealed last week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services outlined its plan to exchange medical records, diagnostic images and clinical notes electronically using secure protocols. Once the rule is published in the Federal Register, any HIPAA-covered entity that interacts with Medicare will have two years to follow CMS into the modern age.

U.S. FDA Sign
Drugmaker’s stock tumbles 20% after FDA issues formal warning to executives

ImmunityBio, the developer of bladder cancer treatment Anktiva, is accused by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration of disseminating “false or misleading information” about the drug's efficacy in an advertisement and podcast. The FDA said it’s not the first time it's sent a warning letter to the company’s executives over allegedly inaccurate claims.

Bobby Kennedy Jr
ACIP meeting postponed after judge pauses RFK’s new vaccine recommendations

Judge Brian Murphy with the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts sided with the American Academy of Pediatrics and other plaintiffs who challenged the authority of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr to effectively remove the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices from the process put in place to make changes to CDC vaccine recommendations. 

Amir Lerman, MD, a veteran cardiologist with Mayo Clinic, died unexpectedly on Feb. 23. He was 69 years old.
Pioneer cardiologist Amir Lerman remembered as a ‘true giant’ of the specialty

Lerman, who spent nearly 40 years with Mayo Clinic, was especially influential in the treatment of nonobstructive CAD. 

judge court gavel justice system legal
Court affirms death sentence for Texas nurse who intentionally killed patients

A jury sentenced the former cardiovascular ICU nurse to death for intentionally murdering multiple heart patients. In one TV interview, he said the power associated with the murders became "an addiction" over time. 

geisinger.jpg
Stolen data complaint against Geisinger Health, Nuance Communications settled for $5M

The caper was carried out by a former employee of Nuance Communications, a Microsoft subsidiary. According to court documents, the man used his credentials to access patient data from 1.3 million patients at Geisinger. Police said they found the trove stored on a flash drive in his car.

Epic campus sculpture art. Photo by Dave Fornell
Telehealth company admits to sharing medical records with law firms as Epic’s lawsuit heats up

GuardDog admitted to accessing medical histories from patients stored on Epic’s platform, selling some of them to law firms engaged in unrelated civil litigation. The primary defendant in Epic’s lawsuit, Health Gorilla, maintains it did nothing wrong and accuses Epic of stifling interoperability.

President Donald Trump, White House press photo.
Trump’s EPA wants to roll back Biden-era pollution limits for medical device sterilization

Ethylene oxide is an odorless gas used to sterilize pacemakers, leads, stents and many other medical devices. Long-term exposure, however, can cause cancer. The Biden administration made it a priority to reduce ethylene oxide emissions, but many critics thought those cuts were too extreme.  

Around the web

Cardiovascular Business
Cardiologists use endovascular device for brain aneurysms to treat high-risk heart patients

A multidisciplinary research team has found a new use for a reliable medical device. Multiple heart patients have already benefited for the group’s outside-the-box thinking.