PROVIDERS Back in September, the Trump administration instituted a new rule to charge $100,000 for new H-1B petitions, up from an average of $3,500 for an international temporary worker permit, according to a study by Mass General Brigham and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Created back in 1990, the H-1B program has targeted “high-skilled” workers, particularly in STEM fields. The program previously doled out 85,000 new visas annually, and as many as 730,000 workers are currently H-1B holders, according to fwd.us, an immigration and criminal justice advocacy group. Employers sponsored H-1B visas for 0.97% of physicians (11,080), 0.02% of advanced practice providers (122), 0.40% of dentists (1,004), and 0.07% of other healthcare workers (132) in 2024, according to that same October 2025 research from Mass General Brigham and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. The Trump administration, however, said in a presidential proclamation the program has “been deliberately exploited to replace, rather than supplement, American workers with lower-paid, lower-skilled labor.” Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) proposed a bill on Feb. 9 to end the H-1B visa program entirely. Here’s how this change could impact worker shortages.—CM | | |
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Presented By eMed Delivering a GLP-1 benefit that employees value and employers can depend on? Yes, you can have both. eMed delivers a comprehensive program that provides eligible employees access to GLP-1 medications alongside ongoing clinical support. Designed to support adherence and long-term outcomes, this is not a one-time prescription. It’s a structured, clinically assisted program built for population health. eMed’s GLP-1 program helps employers offer GLP-1 coverage they can trust and that care teams can rely on. It’s designed for the people, no matter which team you’re on. Learn more. |
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AI Burnout, workforce shortages, stretched margins: These are the commonly cited, pervasive issues in healthcare that AI tools like scribes and agents were made to help address. With sweeping issues like these comes a surplus of potential solutions. Research from nonprofit researcher Epoch AI found the number of AI tools available has doubled about every six months, with the training compute—meaning the processing capability available to train large language models—that’s used to create these tools growing at a rate of 4.4x per year since 2010. Microsoft Health is one of many Big Tech companies to hop on the trend and introduce its own AI clinical assistant, Dragon Copilot, to do exactly that. At a press briefing on Feb. 11 in New York City, Corporate VP of Microsoft Health and Life Sciences Solutions and Platforms Joe Petro shared that 170,000 health and life sciences companies worldwide are using Microsoft’s tech, with 100,000+ clinicians using Dragon Copilot and more than 600 health systems adopting its ambient tech, DAX Copilot, over the past 18 months. Per Microsoft’s data, Petro said, these tools save up to seven minutes per use, freeing up enough time for providers to see five more patients a day. See more on what Microsoft Health has got going on.—NO | | |
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HEALTH TECH Maria Artunduaga moved from Colombia to the US at 26 with one goal: to become a pediatric plastic surgeon. Her sister, who has cerebral palsy, was struggling to find care in their home country, and Artunduaga says she wanted to help her walk. So she headed to the US to attend Harvard for postdoctoral training in human genomics, then went to the University of Chicago for plastic and reconstructive surgery. While in the Midwest, though, she experienced discrimination and treatment she describes as hazing that made her rethink her career. Around the same time, her grandmother died from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Globally, COPD accounted for 3.5 million deaths in 2021, the World Health Organization reported, adding that almost 90% of COPD deaths in people under 70 happen in low- and middle-income countries. This sent Artunduaga down a new path: respiratory health. She headed to the University of Washington in Seattle and the University of California, Berkeley to study public health, and by 2018, she founded Samay. See more about how the startup operates.—CM | | |
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Together With Centegix Check the numbers. Workplace violence prevention in healthcare is critical, but safety initiatives often struggle to secure the funding they deserve. That’s why CENTEGIX created the Workplace Safety ROI Report and ROI Calculator. It helps you quantify the financial impact of incidents, the cost of turnover, and the potential savings of prevention strategies. Take a look. |
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VITAL SIGNS Today’s top healthcare reads. Stat: 700. That’s about how many primary care clinics were enrolled in a 10-year pilot to enhance primary care that CMS scrapped after just one year. (KFF Health News) Quote: “The states that are doing these automatic referrals, that makes the women in those states incredibly vulnerable.”—Dana Sussman, SVP of legal advocacy organization Pregnancy Justice, on states that refer patients to law enforcement when they suspect substance use during pregnancy. (CBS) Read: People with autism may face unique health risks as they age. Advocates are pushing for more research to find out what to expect. (Nature) Easy as GLP-1, 2, 3: eMed’s GLP-1 program helps employers offer GLP-1 coverage they can trust and that care teams can rely on. Learn more about the comprehensive program.* *A message from our sponsor. |
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The feeling of getting a 5/5 on the Brew’s weekly news quiz has been compared to getting a company-wide shoutout from your boss. It’s that satisfying. Ace the quiz |
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JOBS Real jobs, shared through real communities. CollabWORK brings opportunities directly to Healthcare Brew readers—no mass postings, no clutter, just roles worth seeing. Click here to view the full job board. |
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