[continued from previous message]

"opportunities for more effective and efficient use of resources" at the
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, an agency spokesperson said.

* But it's not clear how wide a net it's casting or how it's defining those
words. State of play: Two senior agency staff, one focused on policy and
one focused on operations, are leading collaborative efforts with DOGE
and "ensuring appropriate access to CMS systems and technology," a CMS
spokesperson said Wednesday.

* DOGE team members have also visited the Atlanta offices of the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention and asked for sensitive information
from the agencies, the Washington Post
reported<https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/02/05/doge-health-agencies-labor/>.

* DOGE staff have been given read-only access to a database including
information on contracts the agency maintains, according the Wall Street
Journal, which first reported on DOGE entering CMS. <https://www.wsj.com/politics/elon-musk-doge-medicare-medicaid-fraud-e697b162>

* WSJ reported that DOGE is also looking at the technology used by CMS and
its organizational structure.

* CMS did not respond to questions on specific systems DOGE staff have
access to, or how long the review is expected to last. What they're
saying: "Yeah, this is where the big money fraud is happening," Musk
wrote on X Wednesday, referring to DOGE going into Medicare systems. The
definition of abuse or waste "is really in the eye of the beholder,"
Chris Meekins, managing director at Raymond James, wrote in a client
note.

* For example, Medicare advisers to Congress argue the government is
overpaying privately administrated Medicare Advantage plans that now
cover more than half of the country's seniors. But insurers and other
policymakers and advisers disagree that the government is wasting money
in that space.

* DOGE has said it wants to save $2 trillion in government spending, which
is virtually impossible to do without making cuts to health spending. But
President Trump told reporters last week that his administration won't
touch Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid unless it finds abuse or
waste.
<https://www.axios.com/2025/01/24/doges-road-to-saving-2-trillion-starts-with-an-unexpected-order>

* "The people won't be affected," Trump said. Reality check: The federal
government has long-established channels for rooting out overspending and
wrongdoing in health programs. They recoup billions of taxpayer dollars
each year.

* HHS inspectors recovered $7.13 billion for the federal government in
misspent taxpayer funds during fiscal year 2024. The Justice Department
brought in another $1.7 billion in settlements and judgments from health
care-related litigation on false claims.

* Trump fired HHS inspector general Christi Grimm last week. Yes, but: The
Government Accountability Office said in an April
report<https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-24-107487> that the federal
government can do more to stop improper payments in Medicare and
Medicaid.

* The two programs accounted for 43% of improper payments made throughout
federal agencies in 2023, according to GAO.

* Conservative health wonks are optimistic that DOGE can bring positive
change to government-run health programs.

* "It is a no-brainer for DOGE to focus on problems in this area and it's
long overdue," Brian Blase, president of health policy think tank Paragon
Health Institute, told Axios.

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 6 Feb 2025 11:41:52 -0800
From: Peter Neumann <Neumann@CSL.SRI.COM>
Subject: White House seeks public input on AI strategy (Axios)

https://www.axios.com/2025/02/06/trump-white-house-ai-action-plan

Request for Information on the Development of an Artificial Intelligence
(AI) Action Plan

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/02/06/2025-02305/request-for-information-on-the-development-of-an-artificial-intelligence-ai-action-plan

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2025 08:12:31 -0800
From: Kent Borg <kentborg@borg.org>
Subject: Re: AI in medicine (Jim Geissman)

At one point I heard him tell his phone "load the annual physical
macro". JRG

I think it is time to get a new doctor.

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 28 Jan 2025 18:47:27 +0200
From: Amos Shapir <amos083@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Eutelsat resolves OneWeb leap-year software glitch
after two-day outage (Bacher, RISKS-34.53)

The error was failing to identify 2024 as a leap year but the problem
didn't occur until now?

> Not on 29 February 2024?

The software was probably using a day-of-the-year number, and wasn't
prepared to deal with 366.

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 28 Oct 2023 11:11:11 -0800
From: RISKS-request@csl.sri.com
Subject: Abridged info on RISKS (comp.risks)

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