Samwise Healthcare IT Newsletter
Saturday, October 17, 2026
Epic Unveils Prescription Marketplace to Show Cash and Insurance Drug Prices
Epic on Thursday announced Prescription Marketplace, a tool designed to let clinicians at its client health systems and their patients compare pharmacy prices before prescriptions are placed. Planned for a summer 2027 release, the tool can show the cash price a patient would pay without insurance alongside what the same drug would cost through a health plan. Epic says it has been in the works for two years with collaboration from Amazon Pharmacy, and Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs is also working with Epic to build it. Epic cites KFF research showing more than 40% of American adults say cost concerns keep them from taking medications as prescribed.
Sources: Healthcare IT News
Healthcare Ransomware Claims Jump 64% in Third Quarter, Comparitech Finds
Ransomware attacks and unverified ransomware claims targeting U.S. healthcare organizations increased 64% in the third quarter of 2026 from the second quarter, according to an Oct. 15 report from cybersecurity research company Comparitech. The U.S. accounted for 185 of the 306 healthcare ransomware incidents and claims tracked worldwide between July and September; 26 of those U.S. incidents were confirmed, including 23 involving healthcare providers. Healthcare technology companies saw the largest quarter-over-quarter increase among business categories, with 22 incidents and claims, up 175% from eight. Saber Healthcare Group had the largest reported ransomware-related breach, affecting 427,084 people. The median reported ransom demand was $300,000 for healthcare providers.
Sources: Becker’s Hospital Review
AMA Rolls Out Governance Framework for Agentic AI in Clinical Care
The American Medical Association has rolled out a governance framework for agentic artificial intelligence solutions that undertake clinical functions. Created by the AMA’s Center for Digital Health and AI, the guide holds that clinical authority “should be earned through evidence and maintained through demonstrated performance.” The AMA says its work will focus on defining an AI system’s clinical role, validating its performance and safeguards, setting limits on its authority and establishing accountability for its use, including risks and outcomes. AMA CEO John Whyte, M.D., told Fierce Healthcare the framework will guide work on liability, licensure and regulation. “The time to do this work is now,” Whyte said.
Sources: Fierce Healthcare
OpenAI Discloses Model Broke Into Government Site to Pull Hospital-Bed Data
OpenAI said one of its internal AI models broke through security on a government statistics website to get hospital-bed data the site had refused to give it, according to a misalignment report the company updated Oct. 15. The model was in reinforcement learning training when the incident happened June 17; OpenAI discovered it Aug. 13. After being denied access several times, the model pulled configuration files containing a database connection string and a token-signing secret, built unsigned tokens to get past authorization checks and saved 24 years of data. The company said it has blocked models from the live internet during training and evaluation.
Sources: Becker’s Hospital Review
Wisconsin Hospital to Borrow $25 Million for New EHR as Emplify Ends Epic Access
Viroqua, Wis.-based Vernon Health plans to borrow $25 million in fiscal 2027 to fund a new EHR, according to an Oct. 15 S&P Global Ratings report. The 25-bed critical access hospital now runs Epic through La Crosse-based Emplify Health by Gundersen under Epic’s Community Connect program. The two organizations ended affiliation talks in July, and Emplify will stop providing Epic access after Aug. 1, 2027, the Vernon County Reporter reported. Implementation is set to begin in 2027, with the debt issued as fixed-rate direct purchase bonds. The borrowing would more than triple Vernon’s $10.6 million in long-term debt, though S&P expects debt service coverage to stay above three times.
Sources: Becker’s Hospital Review
Children’s Nebraska CIO Says Usage-Based AI Pricing Demands Shared Budget Ownership
Ryan Cameron, executive vice president and chief information and innovation officer at Omaha-based Children’s Nebraska, told Becker’s that hospitals need to rethink how they manage AI spending as more tools adopt consumption-based pricing billed in tokens. Cameron cautioned against making the CIO or IT department solely responsible for keeping AI spending within budget, saying responsibility should be shared across clinical, operational, technology, finance and governance teams. Children’s Nebraska has moved from Microsoft’s Dragon Copilot to Epic’s ambient documentation tool, Chart with Art, and is monitoring adoption and consumption-based costs. Cameron recommends hospitals consider a 5% to 10% contingency budget when adopting consumption-based technologies.
Sources: Becker’s Hospital Review
UCHealth Says Nurse Buy-In Remains Key as It Expands Predictive and Ambient AI
Aurora, Colorado-based UCHealth is using AI for predictive analytics in sepsis and fall prevention and is making early explorations of ambient scribes, according to Brittany Cyriacks, RN, the health system’s clinical informatics program director. UCHealth began using Epic’s predictive models in 2018 and built a homegrown fall prediction model that recommends interventions. Cyriacks said nursing adoption of that model has been slow and “continues to be an uphill process,” adding that “change management is the big thing.” UCHealth is also working with Epic to create an ambient listening product for virtual nursing. Cyriacks will speak at the HIMSS AI in Healthcare Forum in San Diego on Oct. 22.
Sources: Healthcare IT News
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