A Maryland pathologist and MedChi past president explains how all-or-nothing contracts, anti-steering clauses and private equity deals inflate costs. He also outlines the federal and state reforms that could restore competition.

A pre-election candidate survey lands two weeks before CMS sets the next round of rural health awards, which partly score states on nurse practitioner rules.

KFF's pre-election poll found voters trust Democrats over Republicans on health care costs by 20 points, and public support for a single government plan moves sharply depending on the argument people hear.

A critical flaw in the code behind most websites and a breach at one of the nation's largest lab companies landed in the same week. Here's what physicians should check, ask and tell patients now.

The top news stories in medicine this week.

HFMA proposes ‘Declaration on Healthcare Affordability and Sustainability’ as physicians and patients feel the squeeze.

Prescription abandonment climbs sharply as out-of-pocket costs rise, and prior authorization delays push more patients away. Showing cost and coverage at the point of prescribing could change whether patients ever start therapy.

An AI system that simulates a panel of physicians reached the correct diagnosis in about 80% of test cases, compared with 36% to 47% for generalist physicians, though researchers caution the results come from a controlled, text-only benchmark rather than real-world practice.