A flurry of moves by health tech companies to promote more patient data sharing is raising red flags over the way it could expose personal information.

Why it matters: The moment someone pulls data from their doctor's office, it's no longer covered by HIPAA, the landmark privacy law that safeguards personally identifiable health information.

• That means a fitness tracker that asks for someone's medical history could become a target for bad actors, or be subject to a patchwork of conflicting privacy standards.
• "What HIPAA does is it sets like a baseline, a floor of protections," said Jodi Daniel, former founding director at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT. "Once you're outside of HIPAA, the protections are based on what the parties agreed to."

Driving the news: Wearable fitness tracker Whoop, in partnership with the health records platform HealthEx, announced last week a plan to make it easier to share patient records within the wearable's app ecosystem.

• It comes just weeks after Oura announced a plan to help users integrate their medical records into its smart ring app.
• The idea is to combine wearable data with medical records to provide more meaningful health insights, said Priyanka Agarwal, co-founder and CEO of HealthEx.
• The company is part of a federal initiative, known as the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement, that aims to promote the secure and interoperable exchange of electronic health information. HealthEx says the initiative requires it to manage data in a manner consistent with HIPAA.

Yes, but: Health systems worry that patients may not understand what they're giving up when they authorize records to flow into consumer apps.

• While hospitals and doctors face strict limits on how patient information can be used under HIPAA, the law doesn't apply to most consumer health apps.

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Growing demand for medical care and high-cost drugs helped drive up national health spending 7.3% last year, to $5.7 trillion, according to new projections federal actuaries released yesterday.

The big picture: It marked the third consecutive year that health spending rose above 7% — a trend that's likely to continue this year and intensify affordability concerns.

By the numbers: Health care's share of the overall economy rose to 18.4% last year, up from 18% in 2024, due to higher demand for physician care and clinical services and expanded use of GLP-1 drugs and cancer treatments.

• Hospital spending remained the biggest category of medical services, rising 8.2% in 2025 to $1.8 trillion.
• Physician and clinical services spending grew 6.2% to $1.2 trillion.
• Overall prescription drug spending was up 11.1%, reaching $518.7 billion.

Between the lines: Health price growth has been fairly moderate and is expected to average roughly 2.5% through 2026.

• But demand for care and services has been surging as more Americans have had disposable income and health coverage to cushion the costs.
• Robust use of GLP-1s is expected to continue through this year, after which the market may become saturated and spending would begin to come down, said Jacqueline Fiore of the National Health Statistics Group in the CMS Office of the Actuary.

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Alzheimer's disease and related dementias will cost the U.S. an estimated $818 billion this year, factoring in often-overlooked costs to patients and family and friends providing their care, new USC-led research shows.

Why it matters: Tracking changes in dementia care costs and shifts in who bears them can help guide decisions about allocating resources as the population ages.

What they found: Reductions in quality of life for persons with dementia — including cognition, speech and other health measures — account for the biggest portion of costs at $320 billion.

• Informal caregivers have an additional $15 billion in related costs.
• Long-term and medical care costs total $222 billion, with Medicare and Medicaid covering about 70%. Out-of-pocket costs borne by individuals and families are $46 billion.
• People with dementia and their care partners also forgo $23 billion in annual earnings.

What's next: Lead researcher Julie Zissimopoulos said the models can reveal how a new treatment that slows dementia could improve quality of life or affect demand for nursing home care.

👀 The FDA, which cut more than 3,000 employees last year, has been authorized to hire 2,200 people, the acting chief of staff for the commissioner told a biotech conference in San Diego. (Reuters)

💉 Military services are again requiring recruits to get flu vaccinations as an outbreak at the Air Force's basic training hub grows. (ABC)

🚔 A growing number of conservative leaders are starting to argue that the only way to stop women from ending their pregnancies could be to arrest them. (NYT)