Maybe we should all just relax. With the holidays approaching and a total lack of civil discourse, taking a break is what Congress decided to do. In an apparent nod to holiday cooking, the new House Speaker called Congress a “pressure cooker.” So they put off all serious decisions until January. There is an excellent explanation of how this impacts regular-order healthcare policy by Axios here. Is this the right thing to do? We give that answer a whirl in the One Thoughtful Paragraph below.
Congress may be relaxing, but others are full steam ahead on AI in healthcare planning:
- Medical school leaders at Vanderbilt and Duke will collaborate with the Coalition for Health AI and the University of Iowa to create a framework for the supervision of AI technology in health systems. They have $1.25 million in Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation grant money to spend on it.
- The supervision of AI tech in hospitals comes just in the nick of time, as many hospitals are integrating AI into their operations: Microsoft – Duke, Microsoft – Providence, AiDoc – University of Miami, Ambience – Epic – John Muir Health.
- The private market is also going full throttle: Salesforce partnered with Accenture to develop generative AI tools that increase productivity in healthcare, life sciences, and biopharma companies; the primary healthcare startup Forward got $100M to develop AI-powered CarePods to screen and diagnose health conditions; and AristaMD, an e-consult and referral management company, merged with Sitka, a video-consult specialist company that supports value-based care providers, raising $16.5M in the process.
So how does one relax with so much to worry about? Luckily, the British are coming. Downtown Abbey — now available on Netflix — is an excellent example of how to appear relaxed under tense circumstances. If that doesn’t help — the Brits in Love, Actually should do the trick — Liam Neeson manages to act warm and loving instead of his usual anger management always-choking-someone character. If you watch these movies and focus your attention on mashed potatoes, you too can avoid thinking about the 2025 Notice of Benefit Payment and Payment Parameters proposed rule (comments not due until January!), the fact that MedPAC is talking about how Medicare may reimburse software and technology therapies prescribed to patients, and whether the Senate is serious about making telehealth services permanent for Medicare beneficiaries. As Leslie Nielsen once said: Doing nothing is very hard to do… you never know when you’re finished. We like that one, despite the dowager’s curt admonishment to the younger generation in Downtown Abbey — Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit. Actually, Oscar Wilde’s quote in its entirety is: “Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit but the highest form of intelligence.” Best wishes for a relaxing holiday.
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