Latest KFF Health News Stories
First Edition: December 9, 2019
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Longer Looks: The Psychology Of Voting; Overexcited Neurons And Artificial Intelligence; And More
Each week, KHN finds interesting reads from around the Web.
Opinion writers weigh in on curbing the costs of pharmaceuticals and other issues.
Media outlets report on news from Texas, North Carolina, Connecticut, California, Minnesota, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, and Missouri.
A task force assembled by Gov. Ralph Northam several months after a racist photo of him was found in his medical school yearbook recommended removing nearly 100 overtly discriminatory and racist laws still on the books.
Army-funded studies report there is a significant and growing proportion of soldiers entering the military with psychiatric disorders, requiring wider availability of mental health care for troops, even those who have never experienced combat. Public health news is on studies on dangers of PFAS, aging, face injuries from cellphones, time-restricted eating, postpartum depression among women of color, measles’ steady comeback, raising boys these days, diabetes risks for preemies, and traumas brought on by patients, as well.
Public health officials are concerned that despite wide-scale publicity intended to deter vaping, especially in the wake of recent illnesses and deaths, not only did the practice continue to surge, but students also did not seem to be particularly alarmed about e-cigarettes. What’s more is that students also reported using other nicotine products, revealing a widespread problem with addiction not limited to just vaping. Meanwhile, a tale of two states shows the effects of what happens when there’s a vaping ban in one.
Medicare Advisory Commission Deems Payments To Ambulatory Surgical Centers As Already High Enough
Eliminating the increase would produce cost savings for Medicare without hurting access to care or the willingness of ambulatory surgical centers to deliver services to Medicare beneficiaries, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission ruled. In other news, Saturday is the deadline for Medicare enrollment, but some advocates are calling for flexibility because of the difficulties some beneficiaries have encountered while trying to sign up.
“Our students find it objectionable to walk into a building that says Sackler on it when they come in here to get their medical education,” said Dr. Harris A. Berman, the dean of the Tufts University School of Medicine. Tufts won’t return the money Sackler has donated over the years, but will instead set up an endowment to help combat the epidemic.
The ruling from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals says so long as there is no option of sleeping indoors, the government cannot criminalize indigent, homeless people for sleeping outdoors on public property. But dissenters say the decision shackles the hands of law enforcement who are trying to deal with an escalating homeless crisis.
“Becoming a first-generation professional would have been impossible without access to safe and legal abortion services,” one signer wrote. The Supreme Court is set to hold oral arguments on the case, which centers around hospital admitting privileges, in March.
Giants like 23andMe continue to dominate, but smaller firms like Veritas have had to pare back expectations. Veritas was known as one of the few companies providing whole-genome sequencing.
Gilead suspended development of the safer drug for five years, in what advocates claim was a tactic to extend its monopoly on the profits from the older treatment. In other pharmaceutical news: Biogen tries to make a case for its Alzheimer’s drug but some remain unpersuaded; Sage Therapuetics’ shares plummet after bad news on depression treatment; biotech investors say they’re not worried about Congress; and more.
Presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg is calling for a ban on all assault weapons, mandatory permits for gun purchasers and a new position in the White House to coordinate gun violence prevention. Bloomberg revealed the plan in Aurora, Colo., the site of a 2012 massacre at a movie theater.
But while the growth in health care usage slowed last year, larger hikes in prices more than offset it. Overall, national health care spending rose to $3.65 trillion in 2018, up 4.6% from 2017, according to an annual report by nonpartisan economic HHS experts. Retail prescription drug prices dipped by 1%, the first drop since 1973.
Trump Directs Feuding Health Leaders Azar, Verma To Smooth Things Over With Each Other
An escalating personal rift between HHS Secretary Alex Azar and CMS Chief Seema Verma has caught President Donald Trump’s attention. Politico reports that he has directed the two public officials to settle their feud.
After the death, Border Patrol said that an agent had found Carlos Gregorio Hernandez Vasquez, a 16-year-old Guatemalan migrant, “unresponsive” after checking in on him and deemed the death a “tragic loss.” But ProPublica has obtained video that documents the boy’s last hours, and it shows that Border Patrol agents and health care workers at the holding facility missed increasingly obvious signs that his condition was perilous.
But the vote would give House Democrats an election talking point and let them show that they can govern despite the impeachment proceedings. The legislation would allow HHS to negotiate lower prices for up to 250 drugs per year, with the lower prices applied to people with private insurance as well as Medicare.
First Edition: December 6, 2019
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Research Roundup: Fetal Alcohol Syndrome; Rural Health Care; Medicare Plans; And More
Each week, KHN compiles a selection of recently released health policy studies and briefs.
