Nvidia, Google, Microsoft and dozens of other tech companies are descending on Las Vegas next week to showcase artificial intelligence tools they say will save doctors and nurses valuable time. 

Sunday marks the official start of a health-care technology conference called HLTH, which is expected to draw more than 12,000 industry leaders this year. CNBC will be on the ground. Based on the speaking agenda and announcements leading up to the conference, AI tools to conquer administrative burdens will be the star of this year’s show. 

Doctors and nurses are responsible for mountains of documentation as they work to keep up with patient records, interface with insurance companies and comply with regulators. Often, these tasks are painstakingly manual, in part because health data is siloed and stored across multiple vendors and formats. 

The daunting administrative workload is a major cause of burnout in the industry, and it’s part of the reason a nationwide shortage of 100,000 health-care workers is expected by 2028, according to consulting firm Mercer. Tech companies, eager to carve out a piece of a market that could top $6.8 trillion in spending by the decade’s end, argue that their generative AI tools can help.

Google, for instance, said it’s working to expand its health-care customer base by tackling administrative burden with AI.

On Thursday, the company announced the general availability of Vertex AI Search for Healthcare, which it introduced in a trial capacity during HLTH last year. Vertex AI Search for Healthcare allows developers to build tools to help doctors quickly search for information across disparate medical records, Google said. New features within Google’s Healthcare Data Engine, which helps organizations build the platforms they need to support generative AI, are also now available, the company said.

Google on Thursday released the results of a survey that said clinicians spend nearly 28 hours a week on administrative tasks. In the survey, 80% of providers said this clerical work takes away from their time with patients, and 91% said they feel positive about using AI to streamline these tasks. 

Similarly, Microsoft on Oct. 11 announced its collection of tools that aim to lessen clinicians’ administrative workload, including medical imaging models, a health-care agent service and an automated documentation solution for nurses, most of which are still in the early stages of development. 

Microsoft already offers an automated documentation tool for doctors through its subsidiary, Nuance Communications, which it acquired in a $16 billion deal in 2021. The tool, called DAX Copilot, uses AI to transcribe doctors’ visits with patients and turn them into clinical notes and summaries. Ideally, this means doctors don’t have to spend time typing out these notes themselves. 

Nurses and doctors complete different types of documentation during their shifts, so Microsoft said it’s building a separate tool for nurses that’s best suited to their workflows. 

AI scribe tools such as DAX Copilot have exploded in popularity this year, and Nuance’s competitors, such as Abridge, which has reportedly raised more than $460 million, and Suki, which has raised $165 million, will also be at the HLTH conference. 

Dr. Shiv Rao, the founder and CEO of Abridge, told CNBC in March that the rate at which the health-care industry has adopted this new form of clinical documentation feels “historic.” Abridge received a coveted investment from Nvidia’s venture capital arm that same month. 

Nvidia is also gearing up to address doctor and nurse workloads at HLTH. 

Kimberly Powell, the company’s vice president of health care, is delivering a keynote Monday that will explain how using generative AI will help health-care professionals “dedicate more time to patient care,” according to the conference’s website.

Nvidia’s graphics processing units, or GPUs, are used to create and deploy the models that power OpenAI’s ChatGPT and similar applications. As a result, Nvidia has been one of the primary beneficiaries of the AI boom. Nvidia shares are up more than 150% year to date, and the stock tripled last year. 

The company has been making steady inroads into the health-care sector in recent years, and it offers a range of AI tools across medical devices, drug discovery, genomics and medical imaging. Nvidia also announced expanded partnerships with companies such as Johnson & Johnson and GE HealthCare in March. 

While the health-care sector has historically been slow to adopt new technology, the buzz around administrative AI tools has been undeniable since ChatGPT exploded onto the scene two years ago. 

Even so, many health systems are still in the early stages of evaluating tools and vendors, and they’ll be making the rounds on the HLTH exhibition floor. Tech companies will have to prove they have the chops to tackle one of health care’s most complex problems. 

Cancer drains individuals of their physical, emotional, and financial health. Given the impact on both patients and the people in their lives — including their employer — it’s time that CEOs take note and take action to reduce the burden of cancer.

In a study from the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, nearly half of cancer patients and survivors reported being extraordinarily burdened by medical debt. Many respondents carried a negative balance of at least $5,000 from their cancer treatment for more than one year, and 42% of people with cancer deplete their life savings within the first two years after diagnosis.

Financial hardship caused by cancer can also contribute to “financial toxicity,” wherein the cost of treatment forces individuals to make tradeoffs that impact their chances of survival. These may include non-biologic factors such as skipping or halving cancer medications to stretch their supply, or being unable to complete cancer care as planned due to the high costs of transportation to or housing near cancer treatment centers. This model isn’t sustainable, and rising costs of new, life-saving cancer therapies will impose additional financial toxicities — and an increasingly large threat to patients’ lives.

Not only does financial toxicity of cancer care affect the individual, it can also negatively impact their employer. As the providers of health insurance coverage for nearly half the country, employers and unions shoulder much of cancer’s financial burden. Today, cancer is the leading health-care cost for mid- and large-sized organizations in the U.S., and the burden is growing.

For the first time in history, more than 2 million Americans will receive a new cancer diagnosis in 2024. While increasing cancer incidence can be attributed in part to our aging population (cancer risk increases with age), we also see a disturbing national trend in which younger people are being diagnosed with 17 major cancers. These are people who would still likely be in the workforce, using employer-sponsored health insurance. As a result, employers are asking what they can do to reduce the burden of cancer on their populations — and their bottom line.

Patients, families, and employers all “win” when cancers are diagnosed at an early stage. Detecting cancer early not only improves chances of survival, it significantly lowers the cost of care. Overall, treatment costs for someone diagnosed at stage IV — when cancer has spread throughout the body — are an average of $156,000 higher than for those diagnosed at stage I, when the disease is localized. The first year of treatment for colorectal cancer, which affects over 150,000 individuals each year in the United States and is on the rise in younger populations, costs an average of $111,000 when diagnosed at stage I, with about a 90% five-year survival rate. By contrast, stage IV colorectal cancer drives average treatment costs of $256,000 in the first year, and five-year survival rates are under 20%. Evidence suggests that if individuals could only take advantage of the prevention, early detection, and cancer treatment strategies that exist today, the cancer mortality rate would decline by 30% to 50%.

These statistics are profound and strongly suggest that concerted efforts from employers and individuals to encourage cancer prevention and early detection would improve health and reduce health-care costs. Today, our best tool to achieve this is screening. Adherence to recommended screening guidelines — like those published by ACS — could save the U.S. health-care system $26 billion per year in avoided treatment costs.

Despite the importance of early detection and proven value of screening, access to preventive care remains a barrier to better outcomes. At present, a staggering 65% of eligible Americans are out-of-date with recommended cancer screenings. Covid-19 restrictions delayed or prevented 9.4 million cancer screenings in 2020 alone, likely leading to later-stage diagnoses that would have normally been caught earlier.

There are also logistical and societal barriers that contribute to financial toxicities and impact a person’s ability to get screened. People may need to take time off work or arrange childcare to attend a screening appointment. They may need to weigh potential future treatment costs against their need to pay rent. Some may not be aware they’re eligible for screening, and stigma and fear associated with cancer screening hinders some people from seeking care. Inequities according to one’s socioeconomic status — including where they live, their income, education level, access to healthcare and healthy foods, and other social determinants of health — create roadblocks to preventive care. To realize the benefits of early detection on individuals and organizations, it’s important that we develop new strategies to remove these barriers.

ACS is committed to tackling cancer, approaching the challenge of improving access to care and reducing financial toxicity from multiple angles. Similar or supportive action from U.S. employers will increase our collective impact against cancer’s burden.

Toward the goal of increasing early detection, ACS recently partnered with Color Health in a joint venture to improve access to screening and preventive care through employers and unions. By making it easier and more convenient for employees to get care — with at-home testing kits and care navigation support across their cancer journey — this program aims to increase awareness, accessibility, and affordability of cancer screening and early detection. Notably, organizations taking advantage of the ACS-Color program have witnessed a 77% increase in cancer screening adherence.

In addition to direct screening initiatives, programs like Road to Recovery and ACS Hope Lodges remove the cost burdens of transportation and lodging for cancer treatment. Other partnerships through BrightEdge, ACS’s donor-funded innovation and investment arm, provide access to a wide range of solutions that help people navigate the financial complexities of cancer across the continuum of care. One BrightEdge portfolio company, TailorMed, offers a platform to help patients find resources to cover the cost of treatment and reduce out-of-pocket expenses. Further investments aim to bring the patient voice into therapy and diagnostic development, to enable a future generation of sustainable cancer innovations that reduce patients’ financial distress.

Advocacy is also key to reducing financial toxicity. ACS’s Cancer Action Network advocates for Medicaid expansion to help currently uninsured individuals access screening and preventive care. To bring down the cost of prescription drugs, ACS CAN has also successfully advocated for “smoothing,” a policy that allows Medicare beneficiaries to spread out their prescription drug costs over the course of the year. By making payments more manageable for patients, we remove a crucial element of the cancer financial challenge.

Cancer will impact one in two women and one in three men at some point in their lifetime. By facilitating guideline-recommended screening and activating programs that make early detection affordable and accessible, employers can offset financial toxicities and improve outcomes for people across the country. When employers help their employees get screened, they bring us one step closer to ending cancer — and its costs — as we know it.

—By Karen Knudsen, CEO of the American Cancer Society. She is also a member of the CNBC CEO Council.

Longtime CVS Health executive David Joyner has replaced Karen Lynch as CEO, as the company struggles to drive higher profits and stock performance, CVS announced Friday.

The move, effective Thursday, the day before the announcement, comes as CVS shares have fallen nearly 20% this year. Shares plunged about 11% in premarket trading Friday.

CVS has faced challenges as higher medical costs weigh on its insurance unit, Aetna, and consumer spending drops at its retail pharmacies. In August, the company slashed its full-year profit guidance and said it would cut $2 billion in costs over the next several years.

In its release Friday, CVS also said it expects adjusted earnings of between $1.05 and $1.10 per share in its third quarter. It anticipates higher medical costs than previously expected, with a so-called medical benefit ratio of 95.2% in the quarter.

“In light of continued elevated medical cost pressures in the Health Care Benefits segment, investors should no longer rely on the Company’s previous guidance provided on its second quarter 2024 earnings call on August 7, 2024,” CVS said in the release.

The company is set to report third-quarter earnings on Nov. 6.

Last month, major CVS shareholder Glenview Capital began a significant push for changes at the company, CNBC previously reported.

CNBC reported last month that CVS’ board had engaged strategic advisors to weigh its options, including the potential of a breakup of its insurance and retail businesses.

Joyner most recently oversaw the company’s pharmacy services business as president of CVS Caremark, a similar position to the one Lynch held before she assumed the top job in February 2021. He began his career at Aetna in pharmacy benefit services and previously held the role of executive vice president of sales and marketing at CVS Health.

“We believe David and his deep understanding of our integrated business can help us more directly address the challenges our industry faces, more rapidly advance the operational improvements our company requires, and fully realize the value we can uniquely create,” Chairman Roger Farah said in a statement.

Lynch also stepped down from the company’s board of directors this week, the company said Friday. Joyner will take a seat on the board, and Farah will assume the role of executive chairman.

This is breaking news. Please refresh for updates.

CVS Health on Friday named company veteran David Joyner as new CEO, succeeding Karen Lynch who stepped down from the helm of the struggling healthcare giant after an agreement with the board.

Shares of the company tumbled 11% to $57 in premarket trading.

Joyner, president of the company’s pharmacy benefit manager CVS Caremark, takes over as president and CEO from Friday, the company said.

The change comes on the back of repeated profit forecast cuts this year as the company’s insurance segment has struggled with rising medical costs.

“The board believes this is the right time to make a change, and we are confident that David is the right person to lead our company,” said Chairman Roger Farah.

The healthcare giant is also exiting its core infusion services business and plans to either close or sell 29 related regional pharmacies in the coming months, Reuters reported earlier this week.

The Wall Street Journal had first reported the news of Joyner’s appointment on Friday.

Merck on Thursday said its experimental treatment designed to protect infants from respiratory syncytial virus showed positive results in a mid- to late-stage trial, bringing the company one step closer to filing for approval of the shot. 

The pharmaceutical giant could emerge as a new competitor in the market for treatments against RSV, which causes thousands of deaths among older Americans and hundreds of deaths among infants each year. Complications from the virus are the leading cause of hospitalization among newborns, making Merck’s drug a valuable new treatment option if approved.

Merck plans to discuss the study data with regulators worldwide, with a goal of making the treatment available for infants as early as the 2025 to 2026 RSV season, according to a release. 

The trial examined the safety and efficacy of a single dose of the treatment, clesrovimab, in healthy preterm and full-term infants entering their first RSV season. Merck presented the results at the medical conference IDWeek in Los Angeles.

The treatment reduced RSV-related hospitalizations by more than 84% and decreased hospitalizations due to lower respiratory infections by 90% compared with a placebo among infants through five months, according to Merck. Clesrovimab also reduced lower respiratory infections that required medical attention by more than 60% compared with a placebo through five months.

RSV is a common cause of lower respiratory tract infections such as pneumonia. Results were consistent through both the five-month and six-month time points in the trial, Merck said.

The rates of adverse and serious side effects were comparable between patients who received Merck’s shot and those who took placebos in the trial. There were no treatment or RSV-related deaths in the study, the company added. 

“These promising results demonstrating decreased incidence of RSV disease, including hospitalizations, highlight the potential for clesrovimab to play an important role in helping to alleviate the continued burden of RSV on infants and their families,” Dr. Octavio Ramilo, chair of the Department of Infectious Diseases at St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, said in Merck’s release. Ramilo is also an investigator working on the trials. 

Merck’s clesrovimab could potentially compete against a similar treatment from Sanofi and AstraZeneca called Beyfortus, which was in short supply nationwide last RSV season due to unprecedented demand. Both are monoclonal antibodies, which deliver antibodies directly into the bloodstream to provide immediate protection. 

But Merck’s treatment can be administered to infants regardless of their weight, which the company said may offer convenience in terms of dosing. Meanwhile, the recommended dosage of Beyfortus is based on an infant’s body weight. 

Last year, Pfizer and GSK rolled out RSV vaccines that are administered to expectant mothers who can pass on protection to their fetuses. 

Tobacco product use among middle and high school students has dropped to a 25-year low, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced on Thursday.

The CDC and FDA recorded data on youth tobacco product use through the National Youth Tobacco Survey, which found that 2.25 million middle and high school students reported they had used any tobacco product in the last 30 days, down from 2.8 million in 2023.

The drop reflected a decline in students who said they were using electronic cigarettes, down to 1.63 million in 2024 from 2.13 million in 2023.

“We’re headed in the right direction when it comes to reducing tobacco product use among our nation’s youth,” Brian King, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, said in a press release on Thursday. “But we can’t take our foot off the gas. Continued vigilance is needed to continue to reduce all forms of tobacco product use among youth. Addressing disparities remains an essential part of these efforts to ensure that we don’t leave anyone behind.”

Female students reported the biggest decline in use across the board, and Hispanic students also reported a drop in use of any tobacco product. Evidence-based strategies, including price increases, media campaigns and smoke-free policies, are likely part of what caused tobacco product use to drop, according to the agencies.

E-cigarettes continue to be the most used among students who reported tobacco product use, at 5.9%, but nicotine pouches are now the second most commonly used tobacco product, at 1.8%, followed by cigarettes at 1.4%.

Nicotine pouch use actually grew among students, though not enough to be considered significant, from 1.2% in 2023 to 1.8% in 2024, the CDC said in September.

“Youth use of tobacco products in any form — including e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches — is unsafe,” Deirdre Lawrence Kittner, the director of the CDC’s office on smoking and health, said in a press release in September. “It’s essential that we remain vigilant and committed to public health efforts to ensure all youth can live healthy, tobacco-free lives.”

Zyn was the most popular nicotine pouch brand, at 68.7%, compared with the next most popular brand On at 14.2%.

Zyn, the oral nicotine pouch brand owned by Philip Morris International, exploded in popularity on social media earlier this year which led to a nationwide shortage. Philip Morris in July announced plans to invest $600 million into a new Zyn production facility in Colorado in response to the spike in demand.

The survey was distributed among 29,861 students from 283 schools from Jan. 22 to May 22.

Medical device maker Abbott Laboratories on Wednesday delivered better-than-expected quarterly results and upped its earnings guidance for the third straight quarter. Shares rose more than 1%, shaking off an initially subdued reaction.

Novavax on Wednesday said the Food and Drug Administration has put a hold on its application for a combination shot targeting Covid and influenza and a standalone flu vaccine, sending the company’s shares down sharply. 

The biotech company’s stock fell nearly 20% on Wednesday. The so-called clinical hold is due to a single report of nerve damage in a patient who received the combination shot in a phase two trial that finished in July last year. 

A clinical hold is an order issued by the FDA to a manufacturer to delay or suspend a proposed clinical investigation on a drug.

It is unclear if the pause will impact Novavax’s ability to start and release data on phase three trials on those vaccines. Still, it appears to be a setback for the biotech company, which is scrambling to bring new products to market as demand for its Covid vaccine plummets worldwide.

Novavax said it was working with the FDA to resolve the clinical hold on its combination shot and standalone flu vaccine. The company said other trials of its Covid and flu shots had not shown any safety concerns related to the type of nerve damage reported in the patient. 

Novavax said it does not believe there’s an established connection that the vaccine had caused the nerve damage in the patient but said it is working to provide more information to the FDA. 

“Our goal is to successfully resolve this matter and to start our Phase 3 trial as soon as possible,” Dr. Robert Walker, Novavax’s chief medical officer, said in a release. 

Public health officials see Novavax’s protein-based Covid vaccine as a valuable alternative for people who don’t want to take mRNA shots from Pfizer and Moderna, which use a newer vaccine method to teach cells how to make proteins that trigger an immune response against Covid.

Novavax’s shot, meanwhile, fends off the virus with protein-based technology, a decades-old method used in routine vaccinations against hepatitis B and shingles.

A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Healthy Returns newsletter, which brings the latest health-care news straight to your inbox. Subscribe here to receive future editions.

Good afternoon and happy Tuesday! To no surprise, expanding Medicare coverage of costly weight loss drugs could come at a steep cost for the federal government. 

Allowing Medicare to cover obesity medications would increase federal spending by about $35 billion from 2026 to 2034, according to an analysis released by the U.S. Congressional Budget Office last week. 

The federal costs for covering those drugs would grow from $1.6 billion in 2026 to $7.1 billion in 2034, the CBO said. 

The analysis is all hypothetical, and comes as drugmakers and advocacy groups push for the government to expand coverage of – and give more seniors access to – the highly popular treatments. Those include GLP-1s for obesity such as Novo Nordisk‘s Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s Zepbound, which both carry hefty price tags of roughly $1,000 per month before insurance and other rebates. 

Right now, Medicare doesn’t cover weight loss treatments unless they are approved and prescribed for another health condition. For example, Medicare covers Wegovy for reducing the risk of serious cardiovascular complications in those with heart disease and obesity, but doesn’t cover the drug for weight loss.  

The CBO expects that savings from improved health among patients – mainly by reducing the incidence of obesity-related conditions – 

will grow over time. Still, it says those savings could be relatively small, totaling less than $50 million in 2026 and about $1 billion in 2034.

“Even though net federal savings per user are projected to be larger over the longer term, they would still be less than the cost of the medications,” the CBO said in the report.

The cost of drugs could also fall over time, according to the CBO.  

Here’s why: It expects generic versions of popular weight loss injections to enter the market and reduce prices. The CBO also anticipates average net prices for obesity medications will fall in 2027 due to Medicare drug price negotiations with manufacturers.

Semaglutide, the active ingredient in Wegovy and Novo Nordisk’s diabetes drug Ozempic, could be among the 15 prescription drugs selected for the next round of price talks, which will begin in 2025 and go into effect in 2027. 

But how could Medicare coverage of those treatments impact access? 

If Medicare covers those medications, more than 12.5 million beneficiaries would newly qualify for weight loss drugs beginning in 2026, according to the CBO. The analysis said around 2% of those patients are expected to use the treatments in the first year. 

More than two-thirds of Medicare beneficiaries are

classified as either obese or overweight, according to their

body mass index, the CBO said. 

Notably, spending could look slightly different beyond 2034. 

The CBO said Medicare spending on weight loss drugs would probably be lower on a per-user basis due to lower costs tied to the drugs and increasing savings. But Medicare coverage of those treatments would still increase net federal costs from 2034 to 2044, the CBO noted. 

A Novo Nordisk spokesperson said in a statement Tuesday that the medical and societal costs of obesity are “significant,” with some estimates exceeding $1.7 trillion annually in the U.S. 

“We know treatment of obesity is linked to better medical outcomes, even if bureaucrats haven’t figured out how to account for these savings,” the spokesperson said, adding that the company hopes Medicare will start to offer coverage for weight loss drugs. 

Eli Lilly did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment. 

Feel free to send any tips, suggestions, story ideas and data to Annika at annikakim.constantino@nbcuni.com.

Walgreens on Tuesday reported fiscal fourth-quarter sales and adjusted profit that beat Wall Street’s expectations, as the company slashes costs in an attempt to steer itself out of a rough spot.

The retail drugstore chain also said it plans to close roughly 1,200 stores over the next three years, which includes 500 in fiscal 2025 alone. The company said those closures will be “immediately accretive” to its adjusted earnings and free cash flow.

Walgreens has around 8,700 locations in the U.S., a quarter of which it says are unprofitable. 

Those closures will give Walgreens a “healthier store base” and “will enable us to respond to shifts in consumer behavior and buying preferences,” the company’s CEO Tim Wentworth said during an earnings call on Tuesday. He added that Walgreens aims to employ the majority of the workforce affected by the closures, though it is unclear how many employees stand to lose their jobs.

The company’s shares closed more than 15% higher on Tuesday.

The results cap a rocky fiscal 2024 for Walgreens, which is grappling with pharmacy reimbursement pressure, softer consumer spending and challenges related to its push into primary care, among other issues. The company on Tuesday said it surpassed its target of cutting $1 billion in costs during fiscal 2024, which included shuttering underperforming stores, laying off employees and using artificial intelligence to make its supply chain more efficient, among other efforts. 

Most of the benefits of the cost cuts came in the company’s U.S. retail pharmacy segment, Walgreens CFO Manmohan Mahajan said during the call.

In June, Walgreens said it intends to close a “significant” number of its underperforming stores by 2027. Tuesday’s announcement appears to be the company’s first exact estimate of how many locations it will shutter.

Here’s what Walgreens reported for the three-month period ended Aug. 31 compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

• Earnings per share: 39 cents adjusted vs. 36 cents expected
• Revenue: $37.55 billion vs. $35.76 billion expected

Walgreens booked sales of $37.55 billion for the quarter, up 6% from the same period a year ago. 

The company reported a net loss of $3 billion, or $3.48 per share, for the fiscal fourth quarter. That reflects a so-called valuation allowance meant to reduce the company’s deferred tax assets mainly related to opioid settlements. 

It compares with a net loss of $180 million, or 21 cents per share, for the year-earlier period.

Excluding certain items, adjusted earnings were 39 cents per share for the quarter. 

The fourth-quarter and full fiscal-year results “reflected our disciplined execution on cost management, working capital initiatives and capex reduction,” Wentworth, who stepped into the role nearly a year ago, said in a release.

The company’s guidance for fiscal 2025 was in line with analysts’ expectations. Walgreens expects growth in its U.S. health-care and international segments, which will be offset by a decline in its retail pharmacy segment. 

The company is engaged in a “multi-year process of reframing our relationship” with pharmacy benefit managers, which negotiate drug rebates on behalf of health plans and reimburse pharmacies for prescription drugs, Wentworth said during the call. Walgreens hopes that will help improve margins in its pharmacy business. 

Walgreens anticipates adjusted earnings per share of $1.40 to $1.80 in the coming fiscal year. Analysts project an adjusted profit of $1.75 per share, according to LSEG. 

The company also sees revenue for the year at $147 billion to $151 billion. Wall Street analysts estimate sales of $147.3 billion.