Samwise Healthcare IT Newsletter
Tuesday, September 8, 2026
OpenAI launches GPT-6 Astra model
OpenAI has released GPT-6 Astra, its latest frontier AI model, to ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise users as well as through the OpenAI API, Microsoft Azure and AWS Bedrock. Also called GPT 6.0, the model is built for autonomous multi-step tasks and achieves the highest benchmark scores in healthcare-specific evaluations covering care consultations, medical documentation and research, outperforming GPT 5.6 “Sol,” Anthropic’s Claude models and Google’s Gemini 3.8 Flash. Healthcare IT leaders are closely watching the Astra release as they assess opportunities to integrate next-generation AI capabilities into clinical documentation, diagnostic decision support and cybersecurity applications including secure code review.
Sources: Healthcare IT News
House VA Committee votes to subpoena Larry Ellison over Oracle EHR overruns
The House Veterans’ Affairs Committee voted to subpoena Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and CEO Mike Sicilia to explain why an additional $17 billion is now required to complete the Department of Veterans Affairs Electronic Health Record Modernization project. The Oracle-built system, deployed at just 14 of 164 VA medical centers since rollout began in 2020, has repeatedly missed milestones and triggered patient safety concerns. Congressional investigators are demanding testimony and documents about a program that has already consumed enormous resources with incomplete results. The subpoena marks the most aggressive congressional escalation of federal EHR oversight in the program’s troubled six-year history.
Sources: Healthcare Dive
Cloud data breaches and stopping data exfiltration in healthcare
Healthcare cloud security is under mounting pressure as a wave of data breaches targeting Amazon Web Services-hosted provider systems continues to expose patient records across the sector. Incidents involving vendors including CareCloud and Aesto Health have highlighted how improperly secured cloud storage buckets and API endpoints allow attackers to exfiltrate protected health information at scale. Security researchers recommend that healthcare organizations audit third-party cloud configurations, enforce strict identity and access management policies, and implement data loss prevention tools to reduce exposure. The trend underscores the gap between rapid cloud adoption in healthcare and the maturity of cloud security controls many organizations have put in place.
Sources: Healthcare IT News
How AI can improve patient access beyond simply filling the next open slot
AI is helping health systems move beyond first-available scheduling to precision-matched care routing, according to Healthcare IT News. Rather than showing patients the next open slot, AI tools interpret patient-reported needs, factor in clinical urgency, subspecialty requirements, provider availability, location and care setting preferences, and match patients to the most appropriate provider. A pilot at Northwell Health using Brado AI’s precision-matching platform saw the subspecialty match rate climb from below 50 percent to more than 85 percent. Healthcare IT leaders view AI-driven access tools as a key strategy for reducing inappropriate referrals, closing care gaps and improving patient experience across complex provider networks.
Sources: Healthcare IT News
McKesson investigating cybersecurity incident involving exfiltration of certain data
McKesson is investigating a cybersecurity breach in which attackers gained unauthorized access to third-party applications tied to its Oncology and Multispecialty and Medical-Surgical business units and exfiltrated sensitive data. ShinyHunters, a prolific cybercrime group, has claimed responsibility, alleging it used voice-phishing techniques to extract approximately 284 million records. The claimed dataset reportedly includes patient names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, patient IDs, medical record numbers and clinical data including diagnoses and medications. McKesson said it has reasonable assurance of no ongoing unauthorized activity and that customers may continue to use its systems while the investigation proceeds.
Sources: Healthcare IT News
Why AI scribes are a malpractice risk, according to experts
AI-powered medical scribes are creating new malpractice liability exposure for providers who fail to rigorously verify automated clinical documentation, legal and clinical experts told Healthcare Dive. The tools, now widely deployed to reduce physician documentation burden, can introduce consequential errors including misattributed symptoms, incorrect medication details and omitted clinical findings that go undetected when clinicians treat AI output as a final draft. Legal experts emphasize that existing regulatory and malpractice frameworks hold physicians fully accountable for the accuracy of all signed medical records, regardless of whether documentation was AI-generated. Experts recommend that providers establish clear review workflows before broadly deploying AI scribe tools in clinical settings.
Sources: Healthcare Dive
DaVita agrees to pay $15M to settle claims from data breach
Dialysis provider DaVita has agreed to pay $15 million to settle a proposed class action lawsuit stemming from a ransomware attack by the Interlock cybercriminal group that compromised approximately 2.7 million patients at its network of more than 2,600 outpatient kidney care centers. The April 2025 attack cost DaVita $25 million and triggered at least ten lawsuits from affected individuals who sustained injuries including ongoing fraud and identity theft risk. The settlement awaits final court approval at a hearing not yet scheduled. The case reinforces the growing financial and legal consequences health systems face when ransomware attackers successfully breach patient data systems.
Sources: Healthcare Dive
UnitedHealthcare cuts prior authorization from 1,700 codes
UnitedHealthcare is eliminating prior authorization requirements for approximately 1,700 medical procedure codes effective October, the insurer disclosed in a memo to providers. The reductions span commercial, Medicare Advantage, Medicaid and Affordable Care Act plans and cover specialties including oncology, cardiology, orthopedics, genetic testing, home health services and durable medical equipment. The move fulfills UnitedHealthcare’s pledge to cut prior authorization requirements by 30 percent by year-end, part of a broader effort to rebuild trust with patients and providers following sustained public criticism of coverage denial practices. Healthcare IT teams will need to update payer-specific authorization workflows and clinical decision support tools to reflect the October changes.
Sources: Healthcare Dive
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