VA halts mass layoffs as it sheds 30,000 jobs | Doctor indicted on $5.2M ozone gas fraud | AMA laments U.S. healthcare crisis

Veterans Affairs said plans to reduce its workforce by 85,000 have been called off. It has instead undertaken other efforts to improve efficiency. As for the 30,000 jobs it expects to lose by the end of 2025, those will come from early retirements.

Jawad Bhatti, MD, is facing a 26-count indictment from the U.S. Department of Justice after he allegedly advertised the use of ozone gas as a treatment for pain, then billed Medicare and Medicaid for the unapproved procedures. 

“We are in a crisis with healthcare research, administrative burdens, and with payment. Access for our patients is hurt," said American Medical Association (AMA) Board of Trustees member Scott Ferguson, MD, FACR.

Multiple professional groups, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Physicians, challenge recent policy changes to vaccine recommendations for COVID-19, which end routine inoculations for minors and pregnant women.

Sweeping tax cuts and reduced spending on Medicaid and SNAP were signed into law by President Donald Trump. However, a key provision that would have paused new AI regulations was removed by the Senate.

The two companies will continue combining components to make patient monitoring systems, under the new terms of the expanded deal that includes a "pledge program" to improve quality.

Law firm Wright & Schulte said they filed a legal complaint on behalf of patients, pointing to the health system’s alleged lack of transparency and negligence in protecting data as the basis for the lawsuit.

On Monday a district judge in Massachusetts declared the Trump administration’s squashing of billions in NIH grants “void and illegal.” 

Early adoption of multiple practice affiliations signals this trend "will become the norm rather than an exception," experts write in the Journal of the American College of Radiology. 

The new drug, LX2006, has already received the FDA's fast track designation. This latest distinction was based on early data from two separate clinical trials.