Russian lab worker's death sparks plague fears; Utah lets AI write first-time prescriptions; FTC warns 24 health systems on hidden prices — Morning Medical Update Weekly Recap

Russian lab worker's death sparks plague fears

Russia says tests found no dangerous pathogens; the World Health Organization says it still doesn't know how she was infected.

A 28-year-old technician at a plague research institute in Irkutsk, in southeastern Siberia, was hospitalized with severe pneumonia Sept. 29 and died overnight Oct. 1-2. Local Russian outlets, citing unnamed sources, reported she had broken a test tube containing plague bacteria days earlier, and the head of the neighboring Buryatia region posted that she had died, "maybe of the plague". Russia's consumer health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, called the death pneumonia of unknown origin, said no lab accident had been recorded and told the World Health Organization (WHO) that no plague case had been registered in the region. Authorities placed nearly 200 of her contacts under medical observation, and the watchdog said this week that nearly 5,000 lab tests found no dangerous pathogens as it wound down its measures in the region.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said a full risk assessment has not been possible, and the agency changed its risk rating to undetermined. "We don't understand how she was infected," Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO director of epidemic and pandemic management, said Oct. 7. Rospotrebnadzor on Oct. 8 called reports of a second sick employee fake. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention described the risk to the United States as extremely low, and pneumonic plague is treatable with antibiotics when started early.

Utah lets AI write first-time acne prescriptions

Two physicians review every prescription in the pilot's first stage, and the American Medical Association isn't sold.

Under a state pilot that began Oct. 5, Nolla Health's app uses photos of a patient's face to issue first-time prescriptions for topical acne treatment to Utah adults with mild to moderate acne, choosing from a short list of creams and gels. It cannot prescribe oral medications or isotretinoin. Utah's earlier artificial intelligence (AI) prescribing pilots, including one announced in January, cover refills of existing prescriptions.

Under the state agreement, two Utah-licensed physicians review every prescription before it is sent during the first stage, and later stages with less review require written approval from the state's Office of Artificial Intelligence Policy. Nolla Health cited a 61-day average wait for a dermatology appointment in Utah. American Medical Association CEO John Whyte told Bloomberg that AI tools "shouldn't autonomously be trying to practice medicine," Entrepreneur reported.

FTC warns 24 health systems as CMS rewrites insurer price rules

Following CMS rules doesn't shield hospitals from federal consumer protection law, the FTC says.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), with the Labor and Treasury departments, finalized updates Oct. 5 to the Transparency in Coverage rules for insurers and employer health plans. Plans must drop so-called ghost rates, prices listed for services a provider is unlikely to perform given its specialty, such as heart surgery rates for podiatrists, and attest that their files are accurate under the name of a senior executive. A peer-reviewed study of 61 insurers found 91.8% of the negotiated rates in their files were ghost rates. Starting Jan. 1, 2027, plans must also give patients personalized cost estimates by phone, according to CMS.

The same day, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman Andrew Ferguson sent warning letters to 24 of the nation's largest health systems. The letters say compliance with CMS rules is not a safe harbor under the FTC Act, and that a price that omits physician or facility fees could be deceptive. "Let me be clear: these letters are a warning," Ferguson said. The FTC did not name the recipients and said the letters are not findings that anyone broke the law. Some transparency advocates said the insurer rule did not go far enough, including its 11-claim threshold for publishing out-of-network prices.