“Helene, you’re just plain mean.” This is America, so of course, someone out there spoofed Dolly Parton’s amazing song Jolene just because it rhymes with this terrible storm. What is more amazing is how talented this Floridian surfer girl is – a genuinely impressive musician. While the Southeast tries to recover from Helene and song parodies, California is causing a different type of storm. And yet, Governor Newsom’s hair hasn’t moved. You may consider purchasing some climate-change-defying hair gel; then you too can be stiff and unmoving just like most health AI regulations. Naturally, this nature-defying state of health affairs is the topic of the One Thoughtful Paragraph.
No hair gel was used to put together this news, but some of it may be sticky enough to be in the next couple of news cycles:
- HHS released the 2024-2030 Federal Health IT Strategic Plan, which includes ideas about how to take the next big steps to create a nationwide health data exchange platform (TEFCA), ensure AI is being trained on non-biased data sets, and how to ensure that our public health infrastructure isn’t as bad as it was during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Epic, the dominant electronic health records company, is being sued by Particle Health for allegedly blocking health information and engaging in anti-competitive behavior. In response, Epic is asking another entity — Carequality – to weigh in about Particle Health’s purported improper use of patient medical records. An interesting take on this health data exchange controversy is here.
- Wondering what’s going on with Medicare coverage of telehealth? The Kaiser Family Foundation has that covered with its new issue brief.
“Some say that San Andreas is a bad movie because of its acting, writing, and plot, but others say it’s entertaining and fun.” This is the helpful “AI Overview” equivocation on Google if you search for “San Andreas is a bad movie.” Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson starred in the California-based disastrous disaster film San Andreas, but he can be forgiven because he is such a god among mere mortals that he actually plays gods in movies. Unlike The Rock, who, as a god, has no need for hair gel, no hair moved on his well-gelled coif when Governor Newsom signed 17 AI-related bills over the past 30 days, two of which are focused on healthcare. One requires healthcare providers to disclose when they are using generative AI for patient communications. The other creates new requirements for health plans when they use AI to make coverage determinations. But things got a little shaky in Hollywood when he vetoed Senate Bill 1047, which would have been a first-in-the-nation sweeping set of requirements designed to establish safeguards for technology that incorporates AI. The Governor’s “veto note” to the legislature is worth a read, and he has plans for how to create a new bill. Interesting that the federal government is happy to allow the states to take the first steps on AI. As Paul Giamatti says, who plays a CalTech earthquake studies professor in the San Andreas movie: “Even though it is happening here in California, you will feel it on the east coast.”
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