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The Veterans Health Administration has added nearly 49,000 new employees this fiscal year as demand spikes amid a deluge of claims and new enrollment from the PACT Act. It is closing in on a total goal of 52,000 hires by Sept. 30. The majority are in occupations that Under Secretary for Health Dr. Shereef Elnahal calls the "Big Seven" -- jobs that directly affect patient care and services, including physicians, nurses, licensed practical nurses, nursing assistants, medical support, food service workers and housekeepers. (Kime, 8/15)

Private equity deals in healthcare services fell nearly 24% during the second quarter, to the lowest point since 2020, according to PitchBook's latest Healthcare Services Report. The report estimated 164 dealsoccurred in the quarter, up from 75 in the same period in 2020 but down substantially from a 362-deal peak in 2021's fourth quarter. The second quarter was the sixth-straight quarter for declining deal counts, the report found. (Hudson, 8/15)

Some 134,000 Massachusetts residents may have had their personal information stolen in a data breach involving a widely used file-transfer software, state officials and UMass Chan Medical say. Hackers targeted recent or current recipients of MassHealth, state cash benefits, Aging Services Access Points services and other resources, officials said in a news release. (Solis, 8/15)

Epic is going to allow select third-party vendors to work more closely in its electronic health record platform, and one of the first participants is calling it a “stamp of approval” from the company. Epic’s Partners and Pals programs are scheduled to be introduced during the EHR company's annual user conference in Verona, Wisconsin, next week, a company spokesperson confirmed. (Perna and Turner, 8/15)

Artificial intelligence has been used "behind the scenes" in health care for decades, but with the growing popularity of new technologies such as ChatGPT, it’s now playing a bigger role in patient care — including during routine doctor’s visits. Physicians may rely on AI to record conversations, manage documentation and create personalized treatment plans. And that raises the question of whether they must get patients’ permission first to use the technology during appointments. (Rudy, 8/16)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Feds Say Hospitals That Redistribute Medicaid Money Violate Law 

The Biden administration wants to crack down on private arrangements among some hospitals to reimburse themselves for taxes that help fund coverage for low-income people. It contends the practice violates federal law. Federal regulators say these arrangements “appear designed to” redirect Medicaid dollars away from facilities that treat the poorest patients to those that “provide fewer, or even no, Medicaid-covered services,” according to a proposed enforcement plan released May 3 by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. (Young, 8/16)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: How A Surprise Bill Can Hitch A Ride To The Hospital 

How did three siblings who took identical ambulance rides (from the same car wreck to the same hospital) end up with three wildly different bills? The answer lies in the No Surprises Act. That law has protected patients from some of the most outrageous out-of-network medical bills since it took effect in 2022 — except when it comes to ground ambulances. Host Dan Weissmann and producer Emily Pisacreta unpack the story with Bram Sable-Smith of �鶹Ů�� Health News and PIRG’s Patricia Kelmar and share what to do if you get hit with an out-of-network ambulance bill. (8/16)

In the world of stroke care, time is everything. At stroke onset, a clot or ruptured blood vessel interrupts blood flow to the brain. Within minutes, brain cells starved of oxygen and nutrients begin to die. Every additional second that passes without blood flow increases the chance that the brain suffers irreparable damage, leading to permanent disability. With enough time, strokes become fatal, and sadly this is not uncommon. Nearly 800,000 Americans die from stroke every year nationwide, making it the fifth leading cause of death in the United States. (Bree Iskandar, 8/15)