Martha Bebinger, WBUR

marthab@wbur.org
@mbebinger

Why Hoarding Of Hydroxychloroquine Needs To Stop

KFF Health News Original

Six states — Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas —  have taken steps to limit inappropriate prescriptions for the medicine and preserve supplies for patients who take it for lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.

Trusting Injection Drug Users With IV Antibiotics At Home: It Can Work

KFF Health News Original

When patients need long-term treatment with intravenous antibiotics, hospitals usually let them manage their treatment at home — but not if they have a history of injection drug use. A Boston program wants to change that.

In Massachusetts, Minors Need Permission For Abortion, But That Could Change

KFF Health News Original

A parental consent requirement for minors who seek abortions is still on the books in left-leaning Massachusetts, as well as about two dozen other states. But a proposed Massachusetts law seeks to repeal that consent requirement and shore up the right to abortion in case the Supreme Court strikes down the federal right to the procedure.

Meth Trip Or Mental Illness? Police Who Need To Know Often Can’t Tell

KFF Health News Original

The calming techniques that officers learn during training to intervene in a mental health crisis don’t seem to work as well when a suspect is high on meth. Meth calls can be much more dangerous, police say.

¿Tu médico te ha preguntado sobre el cambio climático?

KFF Health News Original

La Organización Mundial de la Salud llama al cambio climático “el mayor desafío para la salud del siglo XXI”, y una docena de sociedades médicas estadounidenses instan a la acción para limitar el calentamiento global.

Massachusetts Stroke Patient Receives ‘Outrageous’ $474,725 Medical Flight Bill

KFF Health News Original

After a 34-year-old woman suffered a stroke in Kansas, doctors there arranged for her to be transferred to a Boston hospital, via an Angel MedFlight Learjet. The woman and her father believed the cost of the medical flight would be covered by her private insurance. Then they got the bill.

Nurse Denied Life Insurance Because She Carries Naloxone

KFF Health News Original

The U.S. surgeon general has called on “bystanders” to be equipped with the opioid reversal drug to save lives. But when a nurse answered that call, her application for life insurance was denied. Why?

As States Try To Rein In Drug Spending, Feds Slap Down One Bold Medicaid Move

KFF Health News Original

Medicaid drug spending doubled in five years in Massachusetts. The state wanted to exclude expensive drugs that weren’t proven to work better than existing alternatives from its Medicaid plan, but the federal government blocked the effort.

After Opioid Overdose, Only 30 Percent Get Medicine To Treat Addiction

KFF Health News Original

Patients revived from an opioid overdose who get methadone or Suboxone treatment for addiction afterward are much more likely to be alive a year later, says a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.