IBM's Watson—the same machine that beat Ken Jennings at Jeopardy—is now churning through case histories at Memorial Sloan-Kettering, learning to make diagnoses and treatment recommendations. This is one in a series of developments suggesting that technology may be about to disrupt health care in the same way it has disrupted so many other industries. Are doctors necessary? Just how far might the automation of medicine go?
Washington doctors have been warned for decades about the dangers of delivering babies early without medical reasons, but the practice remained stubbornly persistent. Now, with pressure on doctors and hospitals from the federal government, private and public insurers and patient advocacy groups, the rate of elective deliveries before 39 weeks is dropping significantly, according to the latest hospital survey from The Leapfrog Group.
A group of medical societies have identified 90 procedures that are "commonly ordered, but which are not always necessary" and are sometimes harmful, according to the announcement from the ABIM Foundation. Among their suggestions: Kids under age 4 shouldn't get cough or cold medicine, doctors shouldn't induce labor for pregnant women before 39 weeks, and patients with advanced dementia should get oral assistance eating rather than feeding tubes. The new guidelines follow 45 other procedures already highlighted last year.
Gov. Rick Scott said Wednesday he supports expanding Medicaid and funneling billions of federal dollars to Florida, a significant policy reversal that could bring health care coverage to 1 million additional Floridians. "While the federal government is committed to pay 100 percent of the cost, I cannot, in good conscience, deny Floridians the needed access to health care," Scott said at a hastily called news conference at the Governor's Mansion.
A report released by two consumer groups Wednesday makes a pro-business case for Medicaid expansion in Florida, saying the infusion of federal money in the state would create 71,300 jobs and $8.9 billion in economic activity. Most of those new jobs would be in the health care industry as an estimated 1.8 million people gain coverage through the Medicaid expansion, according to the report from expansion advocates Florida CHAIN and national health consumer organization Families USA. An earlier study done for the Florida Hospital Association estimated that the infusion of federal funds would add 56,000 jobs to the state.
The Obama administration on Wednesday issued its long-awaited final rule on what states and insurers must do to provide the essential health benefits required in the individual and small-group market beginning in 2014 under the healthcare reform law. A cornerstone of President Barack Obama's plan to enhance the breadth of healthcare coverage in the United States, the mandate allows the 50 U.S. states a role in identifying benefit requirements and grants insurers a phased-in accreditation process for plans sold on federal healthcare exchanges.