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Sept. 29, 2025, 10:30 PM EDT / Updated Sept. 30, 2025, 4:16 PM EDTBy Tim StellohNicole Kidman and Keith Urban are separating after nearly two decades of marriage.The Academy Award-winning actor filed for divorce Tuesday from the Grammy Award-winning country singer, according to a complaint in Davidson County Circuit Court in Tennessee.In the filing, Kidman cites irreconcilable differences. TMZ was first to report the separation Monday. Kidman and Urban, 57, were married in 2006 and share two daughters. The complaint asks that Kidman be named the primary parent.Kidman has two other children with Tom Cruise, to whom she was previously married. Keith Urban talks new album, upcoming tour, being a girl dad, more04:29She recently wrapped the filming of “Practical Magic 2” and had a series “summer memories” on Instagram, which noticeably did not include Urban.The Australian actor has appeared in dozens of films and shows and nominated for several Oscars. She won the award for best actress in 2003 for her portrayal of Virginia Woolf in “The Hours.”Urban, who was born in New Zealand and raised in Australia, won four Grammy Awards from 2005 to 2010 for best male country performance.He is on his High and Alive World Tour and has been sharing photos and videos from his time on the road.Tim StellohTim Stelloh is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.Carla Kakouris contributed.

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Nicole Kidman files for divorce from Keith Urban after nearly two decades of marriage.



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Sept. 30, 2025, 4:56 PM EDTBy Scott Wong and Frank Thorp VWASHINGTON — Millions of federal workers won’t get paid during a government shutdown. But the people who could prevent or end a shutdown — members of Congress — will still receive a paycheck.That’s because their pay is protected under Article I, Section 6 of the Constitution, which states: “The Senators and Representatives shall receive a Compensation for their Services, to be ascertained by Law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States.”The Constitution “says members will be paid,” Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, explained to reporters Tuesday.Some lawmakers don’t like that practice — or the optics of it.Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., is one of a handful of lawmakers asking that their paycheck be withheld in the event of a shutdown.“It’s wrong that the President and Members of Congress get paid during a government shutdown when our military and public servants don’t,” Kim said in a statement Tuesday. “I will be refusing my own pay if we end up in a shutdown. Government leaders shouldn’t be playing with other people’s chips.”Government heads toward shutdown as lawmakers fail to reach agreement02:48Presidents also get paid during a funding lapse. President Donald Trump donated his government salary during his first term and said he’s doing the same this time as well.In a letter to the head of the Senate Disbursing Office, Kim formally requested that his paycheck be withheld until the government reopens. Across the Capitol, Rep. Kat Cammack, R-Fla., made a similar request in a letter Tuesday to the House’s chief administrator that she shared on X.“The Democrats want to shut down the government because we won’t give them free healthcare for illegals. On top of that, they won’t even pass a bill that protects our military or border patrol agents pay in the event of a shutdown!,” she wrote on X. “So let’s see if they are willing to give up their pay as well; I’ll start.”Democratic leaders have disputed that they want to give undocumented immigrants free health care, calling that a lie. In their funding proposal, Democrats are pushing to extend Obamacare subsidies that expire at the end of the calendar year and roll back cuts and changes to Medicaid enacted in Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.””If our service members and federal workers won’t get paid because of Trump and far-right extremists, Members of Congress shouldn’t either,” Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., posted on X Tuesday. “I’ll keep fighting to lower health care costs and work across the aisle to keep the government open.”Some lawmakers said they can’t afford missing a pay period.“I’m not wealthy, and I have three kids. I would basically be missing, you know, mortgage payments, rent payments, child support,” Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., told NBC News. “So it’s not feasible, not gonna happen.”Most members of Congress receive a salary of $174,000; lawmakers in the top leadership poss receive more.While most federal workers will be furloughed and sent home during a shutdown, active-duty servicemembers still need to show up for work without getting paid. The same goes for so-called “excepted” or essential civilian workers as well.That includes people like air traffic controllers and TSA agents, who help ensure public safety and national security.In previous shutdowns, employees at intelligence agencies typically have been treated as essential workers and were required to continue to report to work.But according to internal policy guidance for the Defense Department obtained by NBC News, employees working on intelligence that is not directly related to current or planned military operations, such as political and economic intelligence, will not be required to report to work and are not in the “excepted” category of federal workers.Under the Pentagon contingency plan, employees working on intelligence activities deemed essential for national security would continue to report to work.Because of a law passed by Congress in 2019, federal employees — including legislative branch employees — are guaranteed to receive back pay following a shutdown, regardless of if they were in furlough status.At the Department of Homeland Security, most Customs and Border patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees will not be paid during the shutdown, but they will still be required to work, said DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin.Roughly 150,000 employees from CBP, ICE and the U.S. Secret Service would be impacted by a shutdown, as well as about 47,000 U.S. Coast Guard employees.Scott WongScott Wong is a senior congressional reporter for NBC News. Frank Thorp VFrank Thorp V is a producer and off-air reporter covering Congress for NBC News, managing coverage of the Senate.Dan De Luce, Julia Ainsley, Brennan Leach and Syedah Asghar contributed.
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Sept. 24, 2025, 5:00 AM EDTBy Lauren Sausser and Darius Tahir | KFF Health NewsTaking a page from the private insurance industry’s playbook, the Trump administration will launch a program next year to find out how much money an artificial intelligence algorithm could save the federal government by denying care to Medicare patients.The pilot program, designed to weed out wasteful, “low-value” services, amounts to a federal expansion of an unpopular process called prior authorization, which requires patients or someone on their medical team to seek insurance approval before proceeding with certain procedures, tests, and prescriptions. It will affect Medicare patients, and the doctors and hospitals who care for them, in Arizona, Ohio, Oklahoma, New Jersey, Texas, and Washington, starting Jan. 1 and running through 2031.The move has raised eyebrows among politicians and policy experts. The traditional version of Medicare, which covers adults 65 and older and some people with disabilities, has mostly eschewed prior authorization. Still, it is widely used by private insurers, especially in the Medicare Advantage market.And the timing was surprising: The pilot was announced in late June, just days after the Trump administration unveiled a voluntary effort by private health insurers to revamp and reduce their own use of prior authorization, which causes care to be “significantly delayed,” said Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.“It erodes public trust in the health care system,” Oz told the media. “It’s something that we can’t tolerate in this administration.”But some critics, like Dr. Vinay Rathi, an Ohio State University doctor and policy researcher, have accused the Trump administration of sending mixed messages.On one hand, the federal government wants to borrow cost-cutting measures used by private insurance, he said. “On the other, it slaps them on the wrist.”Administration officials are “talking out of both sides of their mouth,” said Rep. Suzan DelBene, a Washington Democrat. “It’s hugely concerning.”Patients, doctors and other lawmakers have also been critical of what they see as delay-or-deny tactics, which can slow down or block access to care, causing irreparable harm and even death.“Insurance companies have put it in their mantra that they will take patients’ money and then do their damnedest to deny giving it to the people who deliver care,” said Rep. Greg Murphy, a North Carolina Republican and a urologist. “That goes on in every insurance company boardroom.”Insurers have long argued that prior authorization reduces fraud and wasteful spending, as well as prevents potential harm. Public displeasure with insurance denials dominated the news in December, when the shooting death of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO led many to anoint his alleged killer as a folk hero.And the public broadly dislikes the practice: Nearly three-quarters of respondents thought prior authorization was a “major” problem in a July poll published by KFF, a health information nonprofit that includes KFF Health News.Indeed, Oz said during his June press conference that “violence in the streets” prompted the Trump administration to take on the issue of prior authorization reform in the private insurance industry.Still, the administration is expanding the use of prior authorization in Medicare. CMS spokesperson Alexx Pons said both initiatives “serve the same goal of protecting patients and Medicare dollars.”Unanswered questionsThe pilot program, WISeR — short for “Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction” — will test the use of an AI algorithm in making prior authorization decisions for some Medicare services, including skin and tissue substitutes, electrical nerve stimulator implants, and knee arthroscopy.The federal government says such procedures are particularly vulnerable to “fraud, waste, and abuse” and could be held in check by prior authorization.Other procedures may be added to the list. But services that are inpatient-only, emergency or “would pose a substantial risk to patients if significantly delayed” would not be subject to the AI model’s assessment, according to the federal announcement.While the use of AI in health insurance isn’t new, Medicare has been slow to adopt the private-sector tools. Medicare has historically used prior authorization in a limited way, with contractors who aren’t incentivized to deny services. But experts who have studied the plan believe the federal pilot could change that.Pons told KFF Health News that no Medicare request will be denied before being reviewed by a “qualified human clinician,” and that vendors “are prohibited from compensation arrangements tied to denial rates.” While the government says vendors will be rewarded for savings, Pons said multiple safeguards will “remove any incentive to deny medically appropriate care.”“Shared savings arrangements mean that vendors financially benefit when less care is delivered,” a structure that can create a powerful incentive for companies to deny medically necessary care, said Jennifer Brackeen, senior director of government affairs for the Washington State Hospital Association.And doctors and policy experts say that’s only one concern.Rathi said the plan “is not fully fleshed out” and relies on “messy and subjective” measures. The model, he said, ultimately depends on contractors to assess their own results, a choice that makes the results potentially suspect.“I’m not sure they know, even, how they’re going to figure out whether this is helping or hurting patients,” he said.Pons said the use of AI in the Medicare pilot will be “subject to strict oversight to ensure transparency, accountability, and alignment with Medicare rules and patient protection.”“CMS remains committed to ensuring that automated tools support, not replace, clinically sound decision-making,” he said.Experts agree that AI is theoretically capable of expediting what has been a cumbersome process marked by delays and denials that can harm patients’ health. Health insurers have argued that AI eliminates human error and bias and will save the health care system money. These companies have also insisted that humans, not computers, are ultimately reviewing coverage decisions.But some scholars are doubtful that’s routinely happening. “I think that there’s also probably a little bit of ambiguity over what constitutes ‘meaningful human review,’” said Amy Killelea, an assistant research professor at the Center on Health Insurance Reforms at Georgetown University.A 2023 report published by ProPublica found that, over a two-month period, doctors at Cigna who reviewed requests for payment spent an average of only 1.2 seconds on each case.Cigna spokesperson Justine Sessions told KFF Health News that the company does not use AI to deny care or claims. The ProPublica investigation referenced a “simple software-driven process that helped accelerate payments to clinicians for common, relatively low-cost tests and treatments, and it is not powered by AI,” Sessions said. “It was not used for prior authorizations.”And yet class-action lawsuits filed against major health insurers have alleged that flawed AI models undermine doctor recommendations and fail to take patients’ unique needs into account, forcing some people to shoulder the financial burden of their care.Meanwhile, a survey of physicians published by the American Medical Association in February found that 61% think AI is “increasing prior authorization denials, exacerbating avoidable patient harms and escalating unnecessary waste now and into the future.”Chris Bond, a spokesperson for the insurers’ trade group AHIP, told KFF Health News that the organization is “zeroed in” on implementing the commitments made to the government. Those include reducing the scope of prior authorization and making sure that communications with patients about denials and appeals are easy to understand.‘This is a pilot’The Medicare pilot program underscores ongoing concerns about prior authorization and raises new ones.While private health insurers have been opaque about how they use AI and the extent to which they use prior authorization, policy researchers believe these algorithms are often programmed to automatically deny high-cost care.“The more expensive it is, the more likely it is to be denied,” said Jennifer Oliva, a professor at the Maurer School of Law at Indiana University-Bloomington, whose work focuses on AI regulation and health coverage.Oliva explained in a recent paper for the Indiana Law Journal that when a patient is expected to die within a few years, health insurers are “motivated to rely on the algorithm.” As time passes and the patient or their provider is forced to appeal a denial, the chance of the patient dying during that process increases. The longer an appeal, the less likely the health insurer is to pay the claim, Oliva said.“The No. 1 thing to do is make it very, very difficult for people to get high-cost services,” she said.As the use of AI by health insurers is poised to grow, insurance company algorithms amount to a “regulatory blind spot” and demand more scrutiny, said Carmel Shachar, a faculty director at Harvard Law School’s Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation.The WISeR pilot is “an interesting step” toward using AI to ensure that Medicare dollars are purchasing high-quality health care, she said. But the lack of details makes it difficult to determine whether it will work.Politicians are grappling with some of the same questions.“How is this being tested in the first place? How are you going to make sure that it is working and not denying care or producing higher rates of care denial?” asked DelBene, who signed an August letter to Oz with other Democrats demanding answers about the AI program. But Democrats aren’t the only ones worried.Murphy, who co-chairs the House GOP Doctors Caucus, acknowledged that many physicians are concerned the WISeR pilot could overreach into their practice of medicine if the AI algorithm denies doctor-recommended care.Meanwhile, House members of both parties recently supported a measure proposed by Rep. Lois Frankel, a Florida Democrat, to block funding for the pilot in the fiscal 2026 budget of the Department of Health and Human Services.AI in health care is here to stay, Murphy said, but it remains to be seen whether the WISeR pilot will save Medicare money or contribute to the problems already posed by prior authorization.“This is a pilot, and I’m open to see what’s going to happen with this,” Murphy said, “but I will always, always err on the side that doctors know what’s best for their patients.”Lauren Sausser and Darius Tahir | KFF Health NewsLauren Sausser and Darius Tahir | KFF Health News
September 26, 2025
Sept. 25, 2025, 6:42 PM EDT / Updated Sept. 25, 2025, 7:30 PM EDTBy Matt LavietesThe parents of a girl who remains missing after the flooding that hit Texas this summer said they were “devastated” by Camp Mystic’s plans to reopen next year.Cile Steward was among the 27 campers and counselors killed in July’s catastrophic floods in Kerr County.“Our families remain trapped in the deepest throes of grief, yet your communications treat our never-ending nightmare as little more than a brief pause before resuming business as usual,” her parents, Cici and Will Steward, wrote in a letter Wednesday that was obtained by NBC News. In a letter to camp families Monday, Camp Mystic officials detailed plans to partially open next summer. It said the area of the camp along the Guadalupe River that was destroyed by the floodwaters will not reopen next year.“As we work to finalize plans, we will do so in a way that is mindful of those we have lost,” the letter said.The camp also said it will build a memorial to those killed in the flooding.“Our decision to partially reopen areas of the camp is informed by our faith and our commitment to continue the nearly century-long mission and ministry of Camp Mystic to provide a Christian camping experience for girls that allows them to grow physically, mentally and spiritually,” the camp said in a statement Thursday.A search and rescue volunteer holds a Camp Mystic shirt and backpack, in Comfort, Texas, on July 6. Danielle Villasana for The Washington Post via Getty Images fileIn their letter, the Stewards allege that the camp’s owners did not consult them before deciding to partially reopen.”Had you paused to reflect … you might have spared grieving families the additional anguish your decisions now cause,” they wrote. “Instead, your communications have only intensified our grief.”The camp said Thursday that it notified the parents about the memorial because they “wanted them to be informed” and “welcome their participation as the process develops.”Many of the parents who lost daughters have criticized the camp over its safety measures and preparedness and advocated for legislative change.”Cile must be recovered, and you must fully confront and account for your role in the events and failures that caused the deaths of our daughters,” the Stewards wrote. “Anything less dishonors the children who were killed while in your care — at a time when their safety was your primary responsibility.”This month, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed legislation to strengthen camp safety, prohibiting cabins from being in dangerous parts of flood zones and requiring camp operators to develop detailed evacuation plans, among other things.Camp Mystic’s letter to families said that its leaders are “working with engineers and other experts to determine how we will implement the changes required” under the newly passed bills.Matt LavietesMatt Lavietes is a reporter for NBC News.
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