The Gist Healthcare Podcast

Pennsylvania sues an AI company, alleging its chatbots posed as licensed medical providers. Two North Carolina nonprofit health systems plan to merge. And the American Hospital Association is partnering with West Health to expand hospital technology adoption. Those stories and more on today’s episode of The Gist Healthcare Podcast.

Coming up on The Gist Healthcare Podcast: UnitedHealthcare cuts prior authorizations by 30 percent. Healthcare bankruptcies rise in the first quarter. The Trump administration names a new Surgeon General.

Artificial intelligence in healthcare is already being used in practice—but those tools aren’t perfect.   In the final part of a three-part series, host J. Carlisle Larsen continues her conversation with Dr. Robert Wachter, Chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco and author of A Giant Leap: How AI Is Transforming Healthcare and What That Means for Our Future.   As these tools move into wider use, Wachter explains how their limitations show up in real-world settings—from questions about reliability to how they’re used by clinicians and patients.   The conversation examines what happens when imperfect systems are used in higher-stakes environments, and what that means for how AI is adopted going forward.  You can listen to Part 1 here. And Part 2 here.  

CMS to require state audits of Medicaid providers, the Trump administration plans faster Medicare coverage for breakthrough devices, and a new survey shows physician burnout declining, on today’s episode of The Gist Healthcare Podcast.

UnitedHealthcare eliminates a majority of prior authorizations for rural providers, the White House taps a new CDC director, and Michigan lowers the measles vaccine age in some counties, coming up on today’s episode of The Gist Healthcare Podcast.

Artificial intelligence in healthcare is often discussed in terms of what it might do. But, in some areas, it’s already being put to use. In Part 2 of a three-part series, host J. Carlisle Larsen continues her conversation with Dr. Robert Wachter, Chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco and author of A Giant Leap: How AI Is Transforming Healthcare and What That Means for Our Future. This episode focuses on AI scribes—one of the first use cases gaining traction across health systems—and what they reveal about how this technology is being adopted in practice. Wachter explains why scribes have emerged as an early success and what they signal about where AI may go next. You can listen to the first half of the conversation here.  

New drug prior authorization rules are under consideration, physician pay rose slightly in 2025, and proposed legislation would count direct-to-consumer drug purchases toward deductibles. Those stories and more on today’s episode of The Gist Healthcare Podcast.

Medicare inpatient pay edges up, measles cases top 1,700, and vaccine confidence slips, on today’s episode of The Gist Healthcare Podcast.

Artificial intelligence is being positioned as the next major transformation in healthcare, but the industry has seen similar waves of technological change before.   In Part 1 of a three-part series, host J. Carlisle Larsen speaks with Robert Wachter, M.D., Chair of the Department of Medicine at University of California-San Francisco and author of A Giant Leap: How AI Is Transforming Healthcare and What That Means for Our Future, about how to understand this moment in AI.   Drawing on lessons from the rollout of electronic health records, Wachter explains why previous efforts to digitize healthcare often fell short of expectations and what may be different this time.