CMS finalizes Medicaid work requirements; Trump's AI order and what it signals; how Americans really read drug labels — Morning Medical Update Weekly Recap

CMS finalizes Medicaid work requirements, projects millions in coverage losses

A new interim final rule sets an 80-hour monthly work requirement for many Medicaid enrollees beginning in 2027, and the agency's own estimates anticipate significant coverage losses.

On June 1, the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued an interim final rule implementing the Medicaid work requirement, which the agency calls community engagement, from last year's tax and domestic policy law. Beginning Jan. 1, 2027, most adults ages 19 to 64 enrolled through Medicaid expansion must complete 80 hours a month of work, education, job training or community service to keep coverage unless they qualify for an exemption.

The rule keeps carve-outs for groups including people who are pregnant, caregivers and those who are disabled or "medically frail," but leaves much of the frailty determination to states. CMS projects 2.3 million people will lose Medicaid in 2027, rising past 3 million in later years, while the Congressional Budget Office has estimated more than 5 million could become uninsured. States must generally implement the requirement by the 2027 deadline, and comments on the rule are due July 31.

Trump signs AI executive order with a cybersecurity focus for health care

The voluntary framework targets AI-enabled cyberthreats and names rural hospitals among the critical infrastructure set to gain new security tools.

President Donald Trump on June 2 signed an executive order directing federal agencies and AI developers to work together on cybersecurity and oversight of the most powerful artificial intelligence (AI) models. The order asks companies to voluntarily give the government up to 30 days to review certain frontier models before public release, down from a 90-day window in an earlier version the White House scrapped.

For health care, the notable provision sits in the cybersecurity section: the order sets up a government and industry effort to find and patch software vulnerabilities and names rural hospitals as critical infrastructure that will gain access to AI-enabled security tools. The framework includes no mandatory licensing or pre-clearance. It lands as physician groups, including the American Medical Association, press Congress for firmer guardrails on health-facing AI such as mental health chatbots.

Survey finds a gap between how patients say they read drug labels and how they behave

A national survey of 600 adults points to widespread skimming, overuse and limited awareness of the FDA's most serious safety warnings.

A Drugwatch survey of 600 U.S. adults found that 45% say they always read a medication label thoroughly, though self-reported behavior tells a more complicated story. Nearly half (46%) reported taking a medication more often than the label directs, 44% said they had stopped a prescription before finishing the course and 61% had avoided a medication over side effect concerns. Just 38% said they were familiar with black box warnings, the FDA's strongest safety alert, and about half believed over-the-counter drugs carry fewer risks than prescriptions.

Researchers noted that acetaminophen remains a leading cause of acute liver failure, and that adverse drug events are tied to more than 1.5 million emergency room visits a year. The findings point to a persistent health literacy gap that surfaces in everyday medication use. Check out our full slideshow.