CVS’ Omnicare unit ordered to pay $949M in whistleblower fraud case; workplace mental health at risk; new AI tool outperforms Big Tech in reading chest X-rays – Morning Medical Update

CVS’ Omnicare unit ordered to pay $949M in whistleblower fraud case

A federal judge has ordered CVS Health’s Omnicare unit to pay nearly $949 million for improperly billing Medicare, Medicaid and Tricare for invalid prescriptions over an eight-year span. The penalty stems from a whistleblower lawsuit filed by a former pharmacist and joined by the government. U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon ruled Omnicare knowingly submitted over 3.3 million false claims and failed to fix the issue, even after CVS acquired it in 2015. CVS said it will appeal, calling the case a “technical” recordkeeping issue.

Cuts to federal safety agency threaten progress on workplace mental health

A federal agency central to improving mental health in high-risk workplaces is facing deep staffing and funding cuts under the Trump administration, raising alarms among public health experts. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), which helped launch key programs supporting construction workers in recovery and hospital staff facing burnout, has been gutted — jeopardizing research, grants and national campaigns. Advocates warn that private industry alone cannot fill the gap, and that the rollback may delay urgently needed reforms, with serious consequences for worker safety and well-being.

New AI tool from ASU outperforms Big Tech in reading chest X-rays

Researchers at Arizona State University have developed Ark+, an open-source AI tool that helps doctors diagnose lung diseases faster and more accurately from chest X-rays. Trained on over 700,000 global images and expert physician notes, Ark+ outperformed tools from Google and Microsoft in identifying both common and rare conditions like COVID-19. The system is free, adaptable and built to promote equitable access to advanced medical imaging. The study, published in Nature, highlights Ark+ as a potential foundation for broader AI use in medical diagnostics.