• California: Last week, California legislators passed a bill allowing healthcare providers to mail abortion medication with a minimum of identifying information — a move that aims to protect providers sending the drugs to states with abortion bans and the patients receiving them. The bill was approved by the California state assembly and senate and is expected to be signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom. The bill allows healthcare providers to omit the name of the patient, prescriber, and pharmacists when it comes to abortion medication, making it harder for states with abortion bans to develop evidence in legal cases against doctors providing abortion care. Brigid Groves, VP of professional affairs for the American Pharmacists Association, said that while giving patients medications without their name on it raises some concerns, "I understand wanting to make sure that in this case [with abortion medication], people aren't being targeted or going to have other repercussions because of the medication they've been prescribed." (Belluck, New York Times, 9/11)
• Indiana: Eli Lilly is offering the use of some of its proprietary AI models at no cost to select biotech companies. Through a new platform called Lilly TuneLab, companies will be able to access 18 models, including 12 aimed at predicting small-molecule drug properties and six for evaluating whether antibodies are capable of further development. Companies will be able to use the models at no cost if they allow Lilly to use their data to help train the models. Lilly will not be able to see other companies' data. "We're really much more focused on enabling the science as opposed to partnering with other peers that may have data sets the same size as ours," said Aliza Apple, VP of the company's external development program Lilly Catalyze360 and head of TuneLab."Don't get me wrong, we'll happily welcome them as well, but our focus is much more on enabling novel science to see the light of day wherever it lives, even if it lives in tiny companies, and making sure that they get the same access and value to drive their programs forward." So far, around a dozen companies are using TuneLab, including Firefly Bio, Superluminal Medicines, and Schrödinger. (Trang, STAT+ [subscription required], 9/9)
• New York: The state of New York is planning to phase out a program offering zero-premium health coverage for working-class residents, citing funding cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. According to Axios, the tax and spending law cuts around half of the annual federal funds New York used to cover almost 1.7 million in its "Essential Plan." As a result, the state will no longer be able to maintain the same level of enrollment, with around 450,000 residents expected to lose access. Following the program's unwinding, New York will revert to the Affordable Care Act's basic health program, which allows states to use federal funding to cover residents with incomes between 138% and 200% of the federal poverty level. "An ideal scenario would be that the cuts can be eliminated or postponed at the federal level," said Kenneth Raske, president of the Greater New York Hospital Association. "Meanwhile, the governor [Kathy Hochul (D)] is prudently taking a look at what initiatives she could take to reduce the impact." (Goldman, Axios, 9/10)

Big data has the potential to revolutionize healthcare — but without the right tools, it remains untapped. Discover how artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are rapidly evolving to extract meaningful insights from complex healthcare data, and how the industry can collectively set the foundation for responsible and ethical AI models.