{"id":96921,"date":"2025-08-20T13:40:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T13:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/96921\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T13:40:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T13:40:07","slug":"trans-health-care-price-transparency-mosquito","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/96921\/","title":{"rendered":"Trans health care, price transparency, mosquito"},"content":{"rendered":"

Get your daily dose of health and medicine every weekday with STAT\u2019s free newsletter Morning Rounds.\u00a0Sign up here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Good morning. The theme of today\u2019s newsletter seems to be: $$$ money $$$<\/p>\n

Specifically: What\u2019s driving health costs up? What\u2019s getting covered by insurance and what isn\u2019t? Who\u2019s doing anything about it?<\/p>\n

But also,\u00a0mosquitos.<\/p>\n

How AI scribes could raise health care costs<\/p>\n

Artificial intelligence companies offering automation for tasks like clinical documentation and medical coding have announced nearly $1 billion<\/a> in funding so far this year. Companies like Ambience and Abridge are pitching their AI scribes \u2014 which listen to patient visits and then draft doctors\u2019 notes \u2014 as a way to give patients the full attention of their doctors. But there\u2019s another selling point for the tools: When used in combination with automated coding, they can ensure providers get paid the most money the notes justify.\u00a0<\/p>\n

AI coding and billing software vendors told STAT\u2019s Brittany Trang that patients won\u2019t foot the bill for the larger invoices their tools create. That will fall to the insurer, they say. But some experts disagree. \u201cIndividuals end up paying for everything one way or another,\u201d said health economics professor James Robinson.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a> from Brittany on how AI-enhanced billing could raise our health care costs. And check out this week\u2019s video<\/a> on the topic, which features some great additional insights from Brittany.<\/p>\n

For more AI reading, we\u2019ve got a new First Opinion essay arguing that AI should come with green, yellow, and red lights for mental health. Take a read<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s driving up employer health care costs in 2026<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s something to consider when weighing the claims above: Employers are going to spend a lot more money on health insurance next year due to higher costs driven by GLP-1 drugs, cancer, and mental health services, according to an annual survey.<\/p>\n

In the survey, 121 employers who cover 11.6 million people reported that they expect health care costs to spike by a median of 9% next year. The strategies for how to manage ballooning costs vary, but can include raising premiums and deductibles for workers. Ellen Kelsay, CEO of the Business Group on Health, which ran the survey, calls passing costs to employees a \u201cBand-aid approach.\u201d Read more<\/a> from STAT\u2019s Tara Bannow on what\u2019s ahead.<\/p>\n

A \u2018new normal\u2019 for mosquito-borne diseases in Europe<\/p>\n

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control warned today that record-breaking spikes for two mosquito-borne diseases point to a \u201cnew normal\u201d of more widespread and intense transmission across the continent. There have been 27 outbreaks of the chikungunya virus in Europe so far this year, setting a new record. The disease is currently established in 369 European regions\u00a0 \u2014 more than double what it was a decade ago. Similarly, West Nile virus has been consistently cropping up in new corners of the continent for decades, with 335 locally acquired cases and 19 deaths this year so far.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis makes prevention more important than ever, both through coordinated public health action and personal protection measures,\u201d C\u00e9line Gossner, who leads the section on food, water, and vector-borne and zoonotic diseases at ECDC, said in a press release. For the best infectious disease reporting available \u2014 including on how the re-formulated ACIP recently voted<\/a> on a chikungunya vaccine \u2014 follow STAT\u2019s Helen Branswell<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gender-affirming care won\u2019t be covered for federal employees in 2026<\/p>\n

Starting next year, insurance companies providing coverage to federal employees will be prohibited from paying for gender-affirming care for trans people of any age, according to a letter<\/a> sent to carriers on Friday from the Office of Personnel Management. It\u2019s the latest in a torrent<\/a> of decisions<\/a> by the Trump administration that restrict gender-affirming care for trans people across the country.<\/p>\n

There are nearly 14,000 trans federal employees in the U.S. according to the Williams Institute<\/a>. The directive, which will likely be challenged in court, will also affect any trans family members of federal workers also covered by a federal plan, including Postal Service employees.<\/p>\n

The letter specifically calls out gender-affirming hormones and surgery, clarifying that counseling services for gender dysphoria should still be covered, including controversial \u201cfaith-based counseling,\u201d which can resemble\u00a0conversion therapy. (The letter says the therapy must come from a licensed medical provider, but there\u2019s some critical context needed here: This fall, the Supreme Court will hear a case in which a licensed therapist in Colorado is challenging the state\u2019s law prohibiting licensed mental health professionals from engaging in conversion therapy, arguing that she should be allowed to do so based on her religious beliefs.)<\/p>\n

A senator calls for price transparency in health care<\/p>\n

Americans spend about $5 trillion a year on health care, and reducing these costs is a top priority of this Congress on both sides of the aisle, according to Sen. Roger Marshall (R). In a new First Opinion essay, Marshall makes the case for new bipartisan legislation he\u2019s introduced to increase price transparency.<\/p>\n

\u201cI practiced medicine before joining the Senate, and I saw firsthand that patients routinely couldn\u2019t access the upfront prices they needed before treatment,\u201d Marshall writes. \u201cPrice transparency can make health care efficient, as it does in every other sector of the economy.\u201d Read more<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What we\u2019re reading<\/p>\n

Are marathons and extreme running linked to colon cancer? New York Times<\/a><\/p>\n

In a new era, glucose sensors straddle the line between medical device and wellness tool, STAT<\/a><\/p>\n

The two-word phrase unleashing chaos at the NIH, Atlantic<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Get your daily dose of health and medicine every weekday with STAT\u2019s free newsletter Morning Rounds.\u00a0Sign up here.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":96922,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":["post-96921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}