January 22, 2025
A New Edition of Journal of Medical Ethics Is Now Available
Journal of Medical Ethics (vol. 51, no. 1, 2025) is available online by subscription only. Articles include:
Healthcare
January 21, 2025
Amid Wildfire Trauma, L.A. County Dispatches Mental Health Workers to Evacuees
(KFF Health News) – That evening, the 49-year-old volunteered for a 14-hour shift at the city’s evacuation center, as did colleagues who had also been activated for emergency medical duty. Running on adrenaline and little sleep after finding shelter for … Read More
January 17, 2025
Insulin Prices Dropped. But Some Poor Patients Are Paying More.
(New York Times) – A law that coaxed companies to lower the price of drugs came with a little-known consequence: smaller discounts for low-income health clinics. The decision to make these medications more affordable for large swaths of patients has … Read More
January 16, 2025
How a Company Makes Millions Off a Hospital Program Meant to Help the Poor
(New York Times) – A private business has helped supercharge a controversial federal drug program. Patients and insurers have been left with big bills. The intention behind the program was for a small number of safety-net providers to have access … Read More
January 16, 2025
A New Edition of The New England Journal of Medicine Is Now Available
The New England Journal of Medicine (vol. 391, no. 22, 2024) is available online by subscription only. Articles include:
January 14, 2025
A new Supreme Court case seeks to make it harder to get screened for cancer
(Vox) – The Supreme Court announced on Friday that it will hear Becerra v. Braidwood Management, the latest in a long line of lawsuits seeking to undermine the Affordable Care Act, the landmark health reform law that President Barack Obama … Read More
January 13, 2025
JPMorgan Hosts First Major Healthcare Gathering Since Death of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO
(Wall Street Journal) – Healthcare industry leaders gathering in San Francisco for an annual conference typically discuss dealmaking, bestselling drugs and how to entice their next big investor. This year another topic is foremost on their minds: Staying safe. The … Read More
January 13, 2025
A New Edition of Journal of Bioethical Inquiry Is Now Available
Journal of Bioethical Inquiry (vol. 21, no. 3, 2024) is available online by subscription only. Articles include:
January 9, 2025
Private equity reduces patient care while enriching investors, Senate report finds
(NBC News) – The bipartisan investigation of hospital systems purchased by Apollo Global Management and Leonard Green & Partners reinforced the findings of past academic research. A yearlong bipartisan congressional investigation into two private equity-backed U.S. hospital systems found that patient care … Read More
January 7, 2025
New rules will ban medical debt from your credit report
(NPR) – The federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Tuesday issued new regulations barring medical debts from American credit reports, enacting a major new consumer protection just days before President Joe Biden is set to leave office. The rules ban … Read More
January 7, 2025
A New Edition of The New England Journal of Medicine AI Is Now Available
The New England Journal of Medicine AI (vol. 2, no. 1, 2025) is available online by subscription only. Articles include:
January 6, 2025
Health Insurers Limit Coverage of Prosthetic Limbs, Questioning Their Medical Necessity
(KFF Health News) – “Insurance covers a knee replacement if it’s covered with skin, but if it’s covered with plastic, it’s not going to cover it,” said Jeffrey Cain, a family physician and former chair of the board of the … Read More
January 6, 2025
Why Medicaid cuts could be a ‘crisis’ for people with disabilities
(STAT News) – Advocates worry about cuts to long-term care as well as home- and community-based services The changes would dramatically alter states’ budgets and could curtail or end care for millions of people with disabilities. Two expensive programs in … Read More
January 6, 2025
More states crank up oversight of health insurers
(Axios) – Mounting public anger over health insurance is leading more state legislatures to eye tighter oversight of the industry, starting with its use of AI to screen claims and issue denials. Why it matters: While congressional scrutiny of the … Read More
January 6, 2025
Billing patients to email docs eased provider workloads
(Axios) – Charging patients to message their doctors through portals could reduce health worker burnout and modestly lightened clinicians’ workloads at the Mayo Clinic, researchers said. Why it matters: More health systems have been charging to answer patient queries since … Read More
January 3, 2025
How UnitedHealth Became an American Goliath
(Wall Street Journal) – From a humble base, it gobbled up big chunks of the U.S. health system, including doctor practices, pharmacy-benefits managers and medical billing services UnitedHealth recorded $372 billion in revenue last year—making it about the same size … Read More
January 3, 2025
New Articles from BMC Medical Ethics Are Now Available
BMC Medical Ethics has new articles available online. Articles include:
December 31, 2024
Her Mental Health Treatment Was Helping. That’s Why Insurance Cut Off Her Coverage.
(ProPublica) – Health insurers frequently review patients’ progress to see if they can be moved down to a lower — and almost always cheaper — level of care. That can cut both ways. They sometimes cite a lack of progress … Read More
December 30, 2024
Senate Intel report critical of CIA response to ‘Havana syndrome’
(The Hill) – A report from the Senate Intelligence Committee offers a critical look at the CIA’s handling of cases of unexplained health incidents, determining its approach hindered its ability to care for staff and alienated employees. The Friday report on … Read More
December 30, 2024
UnitedHealth’s Army of Doctors Helped It Collect Billions More From Medicare
(Wall Street Journal) – The government’s Medicare Advantage system, which uses private insurers to provide health benefits to seniors and disabled people, pays the companies based on how sick patients are, to cover the higher costs of sicker patients. Medicare … Read More
December 27, 2024
Shrinking waistlines and growing profits: the weight-loss drug boom
(The Guardian) – Drugs such as Wegovy and Mounjaro are an attractive prospect for online businesses and traditional pharmacies as well as the firms that make them It is a trend rooted in profit-making. Adverts featuring prescription-only weight-loss medications are … Read More
December 27, 2024
Bird flu virus shows mutations in first severe human case in US, CDC says
(Reuters via Yahoo! News) – The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday its analysis of samples from the first severe case of bird flu in the country last week showed mutations not seen in samples from … Read More
December 27, 2024
These people used Narcan to save lives. Here’s how they did it.
(The Washington Post) – Overdose deaths have reached record levels in the United States in recent years. Despite signs of decline, the number of people dying nationwide from overdoses has eclipsed 100,000 annually between 2020 and 2023, according to national … Read More
December 27, 2024
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Wants to Ban Drug Ads on TV. It Wouldn’t Be Easy.
(New York Times) – Since the late 1990s, drug companies have spent tens of billions of dollars on television ads, drumming up demand for their products with cheerful jingles and scenes of dancing patients. Now, some people up for top … Read More
December 27, 2024
Pig kidney transplants, new schizophrenia drug: Here are 5 of the biggest medical breakthroughs in 2024
(ABC) – From a pig kidney transplant to restoring genetic deafness, 2024 was a year full of medical breakthroughs. The breakthroughs include the discovery of a cause of an autoimmune disease, the development of a “game-changing” drug and potential hope … Read More
