Congress and health care in 2025: AI prescribing medicine

Medical Economics spoke with health care attorney Tatiana Melnik, J.D., about vendor contracts, patient consent and the malpractice questions physicians could face next.

How long before every doctor has an artificial intelligence stunt double?

EBRI data show employer plans pay hospital outpatient departments about twice what physician offices receive for the same physician-administered drugs, and the commercial market has barely begun to address the gap.

From a same-day payment cut to AI-run prior authorization in traditional Medicare, MGMA's government affairs team laid out what Washington has in store for physicians next year.

The American Medical Association and five specialty societies say casting AI as smarter than physicians diminishes their expertise, a day after the health secretary praised AI second opinions.

MGMA's government affairs staff walked through the fee schedule, value-based care, prior authorization, Medicaid and the year-end fight in Congress.

Current quality programs measure organizations and claims after the fact, but the next generation of measurement focuses on the everyday clinical decisions that drive unnecessary spending.

Health care's real problem is operational capacity, not AI, and the right tools are the ones that eliminate work rather than add dashboards.