U.S. could lose measles-free status by April; Medicare's AI WISeR model sparks debate in Congress; red light therapy may prevent brain inflammation — Morning Medical Update Weekly Recap

Welcome to the Morning Medical Update Weekly Recap — a new series from Medical Economics providing a brief rundown of the biggest stories in medicine from this past week.

Here are this week’s top stories.

The U.S. is at risk of losing it’s measles-free status as early as April 2026

It’s been a year now since the measles outbreak in West Texas kicked off a chain of outbreaks across Utah, Arizona and South Carolina, among other states.

In all, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed roughly 2,200 cases of measles across 44 states and 50 total outbreaks — that’s the most since 1991.

International health officials will meet on April 13 to decide if there’s been 12 months of consecutive spread and, if there has, the U.S. would lose it’s measles-free status for the first time since 2000.

Medicare just turned to AI to decide which care needs extra review and Congress is already pushing back

Medicare’s new WISeR model — that’s “Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction” — kicked off on January 1, 2026, in six states: Arizona, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas and Washington.

The model uses artificial intelligence (AI) to review certain procedures in traditional medicare — including knee replacements and nerve stimulator implants — then it decides whether prior authorization is required.

The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services says it’s an effective way to crack down on waste, but there’s concern that the model could simply deny claims faster and delay care for seniors and others who need it.

Two democratic representatives have already introduced the “Ban AI Denials in Medicare Act” in an attempt to stop the WISeR model, and 72 lawmakers signed a letter to House and Senate leadership asking for congressional consideration.

Could shining a red light into the brains of NFL players protect them from CTE?

A new study from the tested near-infrared red light therapy on 26 collegiate football players over the course of a full season, with players wearing a light-emitting headset and a nasal device three times a week for 20 minutes.

At the end of the season, MRI scans showed brain inflammation went up for the placebo group, but didn’t change for players who received the therapy.

More research is required, including tests into CTE itself, but the initial findings left researchers in disbelief. The study is published in the Journal of Neurotrauma.