08/18/2026

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First Health-related AI Lawsuit: Uploading Your Medical Records to ChatGPT

For the last few weeks, we reported on the concept of artificial intelligence (AI) as doctor and the ethical and safety considerations that come with a non-human being involved in healthcare decisions. 

One of those questions we posed is an obvious one: who is to blame when AI gets it wrong? That is the dilemma at issue in a first-of-its-kind pair of lawsuits filed recently. In the latest, a Florida man details how he consulted ChatGPT about his symptoms of dizziness and variable blood pressure. Chat recommended staying “recliner-bound” and suggested it would take much more than that to warrant any real concern. It also invoked the man’s religious beliefs that he had shared with the program previously, suggesting that his god did not make mistakes when it comes to the body’s functions. 

Just a few weeks later, the man experienced a pulmonary embolism-or a blood clot in his lungs – that was likely exacerbated by spending too much time laying down – as ChatGPT recommended. This lawsuit, coupled with one in which a teenager died after advice on medications from Chat, will likely be a landmark ruling in the concept of accountability when it comes to AI. READ MORE

The Real Question Is Not Whether AI Can Access Patient Records

The healthcare debate about artificial intelligence (AI) often begins with the wrong question: Can a version of ChatGPT or Claude be configured to work with protected health information? Under an appropriately contracted, secured, and governed arrangement, a hospital may approve a specific product for that purpose. The actual automation should remain inside the hospital’s established systems — such as Epic, Oracle Health, MEDITECH, and proven bolt-on applications – where transactions can be controlled, validated, logged, and reversed when necessary.

The Real Distinction: Analysis versus Execution

This is not primarily a debate over whether some enterprise or API version of a model could be permitted to access patient or claim data.

Healthcare operations require repeatability. When the same facts and the same approved rule are presented, the organization needs a result that can be reproduced and explained. READ MORE

Oncologist Warns That Medicare’s Drug Price Negotiations Could Be “Catastrophic”

A new Medicare proposed rule tackling drug prices highlights a major reimbursement crisis on the horizon for medical oncologists unless they take steps now to head off the financial hit.

For the fourth year of its Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program (MDPNP), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a 133-page proposed rule to establish “a permanent framework” for the program, “creating a more transparent and sustainable process for lowering drug costs for millions of Medicare beneficiaries,” according to a release last month.

“We are moving from annual updates to a permanent, predictable framework,” CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz, MD, noted. READ MORE