Latest KFF Health News Stories
First Edition: August 30, 2019
NOTE TO READERS: KHN’s First Edition will not be published Sept. 2. Look for it again in your inbox Sept 3.
California Requires Suicide Prevention Phone Number On Student IDs
The new law, a response to escalating suicide rates among teens, is intended to ensure students know that immediate help is available if they need it.
They Got Estimates Before Surgery — And A Bill After That Was 50% More
Patients are often told to be smart consumers and shop around for health care before they use it. What happens when people actually take that advice?
Shopping At The Apotheke: Compare German Pharmacies With Your Corner Drugstore
Germany’s pharmacies provide insights into the country’s low drug prices and strict regulations. But they’re still businesses.
‘Locally Grown’ Insurance Companies Help Fortify Washington State Market
The individual insurance market in Washington is dominated by companies that do business only in the Pacific Northwest, and the state’s insurance commissioner credits them with helping keep premium rates lower than in other states.
Opinion writers weigh in on these public health issues and others.
Media outlets report on news from Florida, Georgia, New Mexico, Ohio, Texas, Connecticut, California, Louisiana, Iowa, Michigan, Massachusetts, New York, Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin and District of Columbia.
Research Roundup: Plant Vs. Meat Diets; Cancer Treatments; And Title X Funding
Each week, KHN compiles a selection of recently released health policy studies and briefs.
Instead of loading patients up with as much chemotherapy as a patient’s body can take, oncologist Dr. Robert Gatenby tried a different approach. In other public health news: women caretakers, red-light deaths, nature as a cure, tattoos and allergic reactions, and exercise.
The new study showed that when a woman gives birth by cesarean section, autism in the child is 33% more likely and the odds of ADHD increase by 17%. But experts say the truth is more nuanced than those startling numbers suggest, mostly because there could be a third factor at play that researchers didn’t take into account.
Pinterest Plans To Limit Vaccine-Related Search Results To Those Coming From Health Organizations
The company is the latest social media organization to take action against anti-vaccination information that spreads like wildfire through such sites. Meanwhile, officials say there’s a “reasonable chance” the country will lose its measles elimination status because of the recent outbreaks.
The Nashville Tennessean dives into the story of the Reeves-Sain shop in Murfreesboro, Tenn., where DEA data shows that even if the company supplied every single nursing home and hospice patient in the Southern U.S., the pharmacy would have outnumbered patients with opioid pills by about 13 to 1. Other news on the opioid crisis comes out of Washington state and North Carolina.
The Obama-era rule required that patients be informed of their right to language interpretation services. The change is part of a larger Trump administration proposal that also would relax nondiscrimination protections in health care for LGBTQ populations, women and people with disabilities. Meanwhile, clinics are already reporting a “chilling effect” from the White House’s “public charge” change and officials in California ask a judge to block the new rule.
Advocates Ask Nebraska Supreme Court To Force State To Implement Medicaid Expansion Faster
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of two Nebraska residents who are currently uninsured but would be eligible for expanded Medicaid. State officials have argued they need to implement expansion methodically, and the 2020 implementation date gives them time to make sure the rollout is relatively glitch-free. Medicaid news comes out of Kansas and Connecticut as well.
Up to 30 percent of prescriptions don’t get filled because patients don’t know if they’ll be able to afford the drug. When prescribing medication, doctors should take that into consideration, experts say. “The best drug in the world isn’t going to be effective if the patient doesn’t take it,” said Dana Goldman, a health economist. In other pharmaceutical news: Medicare’s duplicate payments, concerns about anti-depressants, high hep C drug prices, blood pressure medication and more.
Experts throughout the country are starting to suspect that marijuana oil rather than nicotine is the culprit in the cases. FDA and CDC officials say they’re doing the painstaking work of unraveling the mystery of what connects the illnesses, but many are frustrated that more hasn’t been done to alert the public.
Juul Offers Over $100M In Incentives To Retailers To Adopt Electronic Age Verification Systems
The company has drawn fire from agencies, Congress and states over the teen vaping epidemic. By May 2021, Juul will stop selling through any retailer that hasn’t adopted the age-verification system, which blocks the sale until the customer’s license has been scanned.
The notice of violation against the University of Vermont Medical Center is the Office for Civil Rights’ first such action since Director Roger Severino launched the Division of Conscience and Religious Freedom in 2018. The unnamed nurse says she was misled into thinking the procedure was related to a miscarriage and feared for her job when she found out it was an abortion. University of Vermont Medical Center disputes the events described by the nurse.
First Edition: August 29, 2019
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Governor’s ‘Mental Health Czar’ Seeks New Blueprint For Care In California
Thomas Insel, who ran the National Institute of Mental Health for 13 years before casting his lot with Silicon Valley, is taking a temporary break from his senior position at a health care startup to advise Gov. Gavin Newsom on how to remake mental health care in the Golden State.