Opioid Case Spotlights Use of AI for Health-Care Fraud

A software developer’s scheme to rig alerts to doctors so they would write more opioid prescriptions shows that bringing artificial intelligence into health-care decision-making has opened up new possibilities for fraud.

Practice Fusion Inc. created an electronic health records system and took $1 million in kickbacks from a drugmaker in return for sending the alerts, the Justice Department said in announcing it had reached a deferred prosecution agreement with the company. Reuters reported Tuesday that Purdue Pharma is the drugmaker, identified in court documents as “Pharma Co. X.”

The case highlights a weakness in federal regulations for electronic health records, ...