KFF Health News Weekly Edition: May 19, 2023

When Older Parents Resist Help or Advice, Use These Tips to Cope
By Judith Graham Dealing with a stubborn or resistant older parent can be a difficult problem for adult children. Family caregivers and professionals have some hard-won lessons on how to manage these evolving relationships.

Remote Work: An Underestimated Benefit for Family Caregivers
By Joanne Kenen The debate about whether employees should be required to return to the workplace has generally focused on commuting, convenience, and child care. A fourth C, caregiving, has rarely been mentioned.

An AI Chatbot May Be Your Next Therapist. Will It Actually Help Your Mental Health?
By Elisabeth Rosenthal Given a dire shortage of human behavioral health providers in the U.S., it may prove tempting for insurers to offer up apps and chatbots to meet the federal mental health parity requirement. But artificial intelligence, by definition fake, can’t master the empathic flow between patient and doctor that’s central to therapy.

Study Reveals Staggering Toll of Being Black in America: 1.6M Excess Deaths Over 22 Years
By Liz Szabo The profound and painful loss — 80 million years of life, compared with the white population — is a call to action to improve the health of Black Americans, especially infants, mothers, and seniors, researchers say.

State Lawmakers Eye Forced Treatment to Address Overlap in Homelessness and Mental Illness
By April Dembosky, KQED and Amelia Templeton, Oregon Public Broadcasting and Carrie Feibel, NPR Democratic politicians in California and Oregon are reconsidering the restrictions of involuntary commitment laws. They argue that not helping people who are seriously ill and living in squalor on the streets is inhumane.

Michael Milken Wants to Speed Up Cures
By Mark Kreidler In his new book, “Faster Cures,” the former “junk bond king,” now a philanthropist, promotes business principles as catalysts for medical breakthroughs.

Journalists Give Status Reports on the ‘Personhood’ Debate and the HIV Epidemic
KFF Health News and California Healthline staff made the rounds on national and local media this week to discuss their stories. Here’s a collection of their appearances.

As More Hospitals Create Police Forces, Critics Warn of Pitfalls
By Renuka Rayasam Nearly 30 states have active or proposed laws authorizing independent hospital police forces. Groups representing nurses and hospitals say the laws address the daily realities of patients who become aggressive or agitated. But critics worry about unintended consequences.

New Mexico Program to Reduce Maternity Care Deserts in Rural Areas Fights for Survival
By Sarah Jane Tribble A federally funded program in remote New Mexico has helped hundreds of pregnant mothers stay healthy, but it’s running out of time and money despite a growing national maternity care crisis. The four-year, nearly $3 million grant has provided telehealth, coordinated care, and social services to mothers in need.

Lawyer Fees Draw Scrutiny as Camp Lejeune Claims Stack Up
By Michelle Andrews The Camp Lejeune Justice Act, which became law last year, created a pathway for veterans and their families to pursue damage claims against the government for toxic exposure at the military base. Now, advocates and lawmakers worry high lawyer fees could shortchange those injured.

A Rural County’s Choice: Use Opioid Funds to Pay Off Debt, or Pay Them Forward to Curb Crisis
By Aneri Pattani Greene County, Tennessee, so far has received more than $2.7 million from regional and national settlements with opioid manufacturers and distributors. But most of the money is not going to help people and families harmed by addiction.

Thousands Face Medicaid Whiplash in South Dakota and North Carolina
By Arielle Zionts Thousands of South Dakotans are being knocked off Medicaid, only to be eligible to requalify several months later. Even more enrollees are likely to experience a temporary loss of coverage in North Carolina.

A Covid Test Medicare Scam May Be a Trial Run for Further Fraud
By Susan Jaffe Before the covid-19 public health emergency ended, Medicare advocates around the country noticed a rise in complaints from beneficiaries who received at-home covid tests they never requested. Bad actors may have used seniors’ Medicare information to improperly bill the federal government — and could do it again, say federal investigators.

What the Health? From KFF Health News: The Abortion Pill Goes Back to Court
A three-judge appeals court panel heard testimony this week about revoking the FDA’s 22-year-old approval of a key pill used in medication abortion and miscarriage management. The judges all have track records of siding with abortion foes. Meanwhile, as the standoff over raising the federal debt ceiling continues in Washington, a major sticking point is whether to impose work requirements on recipients of Medicaid coverage. Victoria Knight of Axios, Rachel Roubein of The Washington Post, and Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Call join KFF Health News chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more.

Watch: 5th Circuit Judges Question Two-Decade-Old Approval of Abortion Pill
By Sarah Varney The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans heard oral arguments Wednesday in a case brought by conservative Christian abortion opponents seeking to revoke FDA approval of mifepristone, a medication used in more than half of abortions in the U.S.

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