Public Health & Policy

Preventing diabetic lower limb amputation with AI and offloading

Adwait Chafale

Policy

March 27, 2026

Globally, about $1 trillion has been spent on diabetes-related treatment, a 338 percent increase over the last 17 years, according to the International Diabetes Federation. And yet, 3.4 million deaths were related to diabetes in 2024. This shows the massive strain diabetes has placed on health systems worldwide. One of the most common and debilitating complications of diabetes is non-traumatic lower limb amputation. Diabetes …

How Medicare’s MIPS impacts skilled nursing facilities and clinicians

Steve Buslovich, MD

Policy

March 26, 2026

Most skilled nursing facility leaders understand the quality measures that affect their operations. They live with Star ratings and Quality Reporting Program requirements every day. What is less visible is how the clinicians caring for those same residents are evaluated under Medicare’s Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS).

When facilities and clinicians are accountable for the same resident outcomes through different quality programs but lack shared visibility into how those programs are …

The truth about Medicare Advantage funding and costs

Timothy Bulat

Policy

March 26, 2026

For more than two decades, I have worked in health insurance, first at insurers and more recently as a consultant on Medicare policy. I have led large Medicare Advantage analytics and actuarial organizations comprising actuaries and data scientists working to improve care delivery, manage costs, and optimize revenue. Having seen firsthand the sophistication insurers bring both to improving care and to maximizing revenue within the rules, I find today’s MA …

Health care affordability crisis: lessons from the NYC nursing strike

Marc Henry Estriplet, MD, MPH

Physician

March 25, 2026

As a physician who lives and has practiced in NYC, the largest nursing strike in the city’s history has broken my heart. It has saddened me that our nurses could not be the heroes they truly are and that hospitalized patients experiencing some of the worst days of their lives had not received the best quality care that they could and should get.

And this is just the start of a …

What world leaders can learn from diverse medical teams

Zoran Naumovski, MD

Physician

March 21, 2026

I do not watch the news anymore. I do not listen to it on the radio. I do not even read about it online. But every once in a while, I will catch myself reading an article on Google News on my iPad. I, too, fall prey to clickbait on occasion. But, for the most part, I avoid the news: local, regional, state, national, and even international. It is too …

Florida health care legislation 2026: top bills to watch

Del Carter, MD

Policy

March 20, 2026

As Florida’s 2026 state legislative session reaches the halfway point, there are several health care bills up for discussion. While every session seems to have its own theme, common issues repeat themselves year after year. Here are some of the top bills involving health care in the Florida Legislature today.

AI regulation in insurance

Artificial intelligence (AI) and the concern for its regulation continues to be a hot topic. Mandatory Human Reviews …

Violence against health care workers: the silence must end

Carleigh Beriont and June Zanes Garen, RN

Policy

March 19, 2026

I spent decades as a nurse, choosing a profession grounded in care, patience, science, and the belief that showing up for others matters, even on the hardest days.

In 2017, that belief was shattered when I was physically assaulted at work. I survived, but I carry the scars of that day, both visible and unseen.

I have worked hard to heal through therapy, reflection, and learning how to trust my body again. …

The health care economic crisis: Why the system is failing in 2026

Harry Severance, MD

Physician

March 13, 2026

For years, the U.S. has felt the impact of ever-rising health care costs while facing decreasing access, affordability, and worsening clinical outcomes, as compared to other countries. Multiple disruptive forces increasingly plague our health care system, our workforce and workplaces, health care facilities, health care consumers, …

Repeating history: the ethics of the new Guinea-Bissau hepatitis B study

Meghan Johnston, MPH

Policy

March 13, 2026

In the late 1990s, a U.S.-funded study randomized HIV-positive pregnant women in Bangkok, Thailand, to either a placebo group or a group treated with a short course of AZT. At the time, AZT was the standard of care in the U.S., and researchers knew the medication protocol worked at reducing mother-to-child HIV transmission by nearly 70 percent. The study looked at whether a shortened protocol could meaningfully reduce …

Health care market distortion: How government intrusion hurts medicine

Allan Dobzyniak, MD

Physician

March 11, 2026

Could it be that it is not market forces that have distorted medicine but actually the fault of those who should have been integral to the evolution of the health care system, physicians? The industry has evolved based on circumstances. Government intrusion with unregulated bureaucracies and the poison of politics can now be described as the monopsony that is basic to the present market distortions. When pricing is arbitrary based …

The dangers of vertical integration in health care

Stephanie Waggel, MD

Policy

March 11, 2026

As a practicing physician who has worked in the health care field in five different countries, I have a pretty solid idea of why health care in the U.S. is so problematic. In the U.S., many entities related to health care are owned by the same companies. This is a concept called vertical integration, where one business controls every stage of the supply chain. To understand this, imagine the car …

Artificial intelligence in clinical care: Shaping the HHS policy landscape

Ido Zamberg, MD

Policy

March 6, 2026

I read with interest HHS’s request for public input on how regulation, reimbursement, and research and development can accelerate the adoption of artificial intelligence in clinical care. As someone who began his career as a software engineer, then became a practicing physician, and later founded a clinical AI company, I welcome this moment. It is overdue, and it is also fragile.

The promise of efficiency over autonomous medicine

AI’s greatest opportunity …

Why your nonprofit hospital system is spending millions on marketing

Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA

Physician

March 6, 2026

An excerpt from Narrative Medicine in the Age of Uncertainty: When Systems Strain and Stories Steady.

When a nonprofit hospital system posts a $201 million operating loss, lays off roughly 650 workers, and then buys naming rights to an NFL practice facility, it does not just create bad optics. It teaches a lesson.

Not to the marketing department. To the workforce.

In Philadelphia, Jefferson Health reported a $201 million …

American health care policy reform: Why we need a bipartisan commission

Steve Cohen, JD

Policy

March 4, 2026

America is ready for an honest conversation about health care policy before more people suffer and we go broke waiting for it to happen. Fully one-third of Americans report that in the past 12 months they have skipped or postponed getting needed health care because of the cost. Thirty percent say that they or a family member had problems paying for health care in the past year, and 41 …

The service of humanity: Recommitting to physicians’ ethical duties

American College of Physicians

Policy

March 4, 2026

Recently, my husband and I passed through Eureka, IL (pop. 5,200). We stopped at Eureka College, which is President Ronald Reagan’s alma mater and the host of the Ronald Reagan Museum. As visitors to many presidential libraries, we …

Ecovillages and organic farming could reverse global warming [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

March 3, 2026

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes!

Physician and health care reform advocate David K. Cundiff discusses his article “Ecovillages and organic agriculture: a scenario for global climate restoration.” David challenges the IPCC’s failure to model a fully organic …

Evaluating the U.S. Surgeon General nominee: Why clinical experience matters

Ben Gonzalez, MD

Physician

March 2, 2026

The single scariest moment in my medical career was not as a student, or a resident with the first dying trauma patient in front of me. Nor was it in Iraq on November 2, 2003, when two Chinooks were shot down and my ER was overwhelmed with trauma after trauma. It was the very first day as an attending in the ER. Up until then, in every single case in …

From Singapore to Canada: a blueprint for primary care transformation

Ivy Oandasan, MD

Policy

February 26, 2026

Recently, Dr. Tara Kiran made headlines when her robust national OurCare survey revealed 5.9 million Canadians still lack a primary care provider, the point-of-entry health professional, like a family doctor or nurse practitioner, who provides routine care.

Those who do have a primary care provider often wait weeks for an appointment, then get rushed through in minutes. Emergency departments overflow with patients who have nowhere else to go.

The federal government …

Opt-in vs. opt-out: How defaults shape organ donation rates

Anvit Divekar

Conditions

February 26, 2026

A few weeks ago, I went to the DMV to renew my driver’s license. At the very end of the process, after the routine questions and fine print, a single prompt appeared with a small checkbox next to it: Do you want to register as an organ donor?

I selected “yes,” but then I paused. Not because I was conflicted, but because I realized how easily I could have done nothing. …

Community cooperatives offer a solution to the affordable health care crisis [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

February 24, 2026

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes!

Physician, author, and health care reform advocate David K. Cundiff discusses his article “Accountable care cooperatives: a 2026 vision for U.S. health care.” David analyzes the severe funding crisis affecting American families …

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