Category: AI & Digital Health

For a patient seeking urgent medical care or mental health support, a provider directory is supposed to be a lifeline. In theory, it is a curated list of professionals who have agreed to provide services at negotiated rates. In practice, however, these directories are increasingly resembling works of legal fiction. We are witnessing the rise...

For years, the narrative surrounding medical claim denials has been one of administrative friction, a byproduct of complex coding, outdated technology, or simple human error. We have been told that if providers just "cleaned up" their front-end processes, the revenue would flow. But at US Healthcare Today, we believe it is time to stop viewing...

For years, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has marketed its Star Ratings system as a North Star for patient quality. It was designed to be a transparent metric that allowed beneficiaries to compare Medicare Advantage (MA) plans and incentivized insurers to provide better care. However, as we look toward the finalized 2027...

For decades, the relationship between hospitals and technology vendors was transactional. A vendor built a product, a hospital paid a licensing fee, and the IT department integrated it: or tried to. However, as artificial intelligence (AI) moves from the periphery of administrative tasks to the core of clinical decision-making, the power dynamic is shifting. We...

The White House has officially signaled its intent to take a meat cleaver to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). With a proposed 12.5% cut to discretionary funding for the fiscal year 2027, we are looking at a $15.8 billion reduction that threatens to destabilize the very foundation of American healthcare administration. While...

For years, the healthcare industry operated under a "data hoarding" mentality. Information was a proprietary asset, locked behind silos and protected by a convenient, albeit often incorrect, interpretation of HIPAA. Those days are officially over. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Office of Inspector General (OIG) have moved past the education...

The modern hospital is no longer just a facility of medicine; it is a sprawling, interconnected data center where patient outcomes are inextricably linked to network uptime. At US Healthcare Today, we have observed a dangerous divergence: while clinical technology has leaped forward, the security infrastructure supporting it remains trapped in a state of perpetual...

At first glance, the Health Data, Technology, and Interoperability (HTI-5) proposed rule looks like a gift to the healthcare technology sector. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy (ASTP/ONC) have framed this as a massive "deregulation" effort. They are promising to remove 34 of the 60 current...

The healthcare industry has a long history of chasing silver bullets. For over a decade, the promise of "seamless interoperability" has been the carrot dangled before healthcare investors and policy makers. The latest iteration of this promise is the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA). Launched with significant fanfare by the Office of the...

The healthcare industry is currently caught in a gold rush for ambient AI. As health systems grapple with record-breaking levels of clinician burnout, the promise of a "digital scribe" that listens to patient encounters and automatically generates clinical notes sounds like a miracle cure. We see the marketing materials daily: promises of hours saved, restored...