Latest KFF Health News Stories
A report warns that artificial intelligence can be easily duped with tiny pieces of data. The authors say bad actors could hack into records and make it seem like there’s an illness there that isn’t. But more likely is that doctors, hospitals and other organizations could manipulate the A.I. in billing or insurance software in an effort to maximize the money coming their way. In other health technology news: a day of reckoning is coming for digital health, the FDA calls for tighter security of electronic health records following a KHN report, and data breaches from the states.
NYC Mayor and potential 2020 presidential hopeful Bill de Blasio is talking up his plan to tackle mental health issues in the city, but there is little concrete evidence to demonstrate that the expensive proposal has seen any success.
The move toward privatization of veterans health care has been a hot-topic issue for years on Capitol Hill. Now as the Trump administration is preparing for the shift, Democrats are pushing back, saying leaders have left them out of the planning process.
The drug costs $34,000 and women have to stay at a medical center for more than 60 hours to receive the injection. So while many researchers were excited about the new drug, other experts say it is unlikely to help many who need it.
Drug after drug after drug that targeted a brain compound called beta amyloid have failed over the years. “We are running out of excuses” for why beta-amyloid treatments aren’t working, said Zaven Khachaturian, editor-in-chief of the medical journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia. But drugmakers “keep trying, hoping that the path they are on is going to give blockbuster drugs.”
Economists say that part of the reason price transparency won’t do much to the market is not only because consumers don’t pay list prices but they also don’t really choose which medication they’re buying. And, unlike with toothpaste or soda, it’s not easy for a consumer to switch brands of medicine. In other pharmaceutical news: pharmacy benefits managers will have their day getting grilled by lawmakers, how the NAFTA deal may hinge on intellectual property protections for pharma products, and more.
Sixty-nine percent of the 20,700 air ambulance transports–which cost up to $40,600–taken in 2017 by privately insured patients were out of network, meaning that the costs may not be fully covered, a Government Accountability Office report finds. And it will only get worse: Companies have hiked their prices by 60 percent, despite states’ efforts to put controls in place. In other health care costs news: the price tag on treating sepsis, surprise medical bills, and what the U.S. is spending on health care.
Amid reports on women giving birth while shackled to hospital beds, a new report tries to give solid data that looks at the reality of women who are behind bars. “The fact that nobody had collected this data before signals just how much this population is neglected,” said Dr. Carolyn Sufrin of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Miss. Governor Signs Restrictive Fetal ‘Heartbeat Bill’ Designed To Challenge Roe V. Wade
The new Mississippi bill prohibits the abortion of a fetus with a detectable heartbeat, before the point where a woman may be aware she is pregnant. Although similar “heartbeat bills” have failed in court countless times, the measure is part of a wave of restrictive state-level legislation that is geared toward challenging Roe v. Wade in the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, in the federal House, there’s no longer a single Republican who supports abortion rights.
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Opinion writers weigh in on these health care issues and others.
Research Roundup: Work Requirements; Sleep Problems And Autism; And Daily Aspirin
Each week, KHN compiles a selection of recently released health policy studies and briefs.
Media outlets report on news from Rhode Island, Tennessee, Ohio, Texas, Massachusetts, D.C., Florida, California, Virginia, New York, Maryland, Texas, Minnesota and Georgia.
News on the state legislatures comes out of Georgia, Florida, Connecticut, California, Maryland, Ohio and Virginia.
The risk is “low enough that you can’t say, ‘just don’t prescribe Adderall,’” said Dr. Lauren Moran, the study’s lead author. “But from a public health perspective, there’s so many millions of people being prescribed these medications that it actually leads to thousands of people at increased risk of psychosis.” In other public health news: Zika, sugary drinks, depression and more.
It only took six days since New Zealand’s largest massacre for the government to change gun ownership laws. But the country’s constitution does not guarantee the right to own a gun and the gun lobby isn’t as strong as in the U.S., where efforts to change laws have been mostly at the state level.
The practice of letting kids get chickenpox from sick friends or neighbors is a holdover from the days before the vaccination became widely available, and doctors say the method can lead to dangerous complications or death. Meanwhile, experts are using actual examples of social media activists attacking doctors and others advocating for vaccinations in order to better understand the resistance.
“There just aren’t enough places and schools to get trained for how many people we need in those roles,” said economist Tara Sinclair. An aging population and increase in wealth has contributed to higher demand for health care services, and the skills gap is only going to have a greater impact on the booming industry as it grows. In other health industry news: costly insurance, a hospital whistleblower case, health stocks, state employee premiums, cheating doctors and more.
Expected Shortfalls For Black Lung Fund Will Be Covered By Taxpayers Instead Of Coal Companies
In January, the tax rate coal companies pay to support the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund was cut in half, leaving sick miners and their advocates fearing future benefit cuts from a fund that is already about some $4 billion in debt. The Department of Labor said in a statement Wednesday that it is obligated to continue paying benefits to sick miners, so a shortfall would be covered by borrowing from taxpayers. In other environmental health news: unsafe drinking water, manufacturing industry’s lingering effects on health, coal ash and more.
HHS Secretary Alex Azar and FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb wrote that the government will step in if even further than it already has if the e-cigarette industry doesn’t take an active role in curbing the epidemic. Meanwhile, in a podcast, Gottlieb talks about his work at the agency and if he’ll ever return to the government.
