July 16, 2024
A New Edition of The New England Journal of Medicine Is Now Available
The New England Journal of Medicine (vol. 390, no. 19, 2024) is available online by subscription only. Articles include:
Healthcare
July 15, 2024
The New Holy Grail for Weight-Loss Drugs Is Sleep Apnea
(Wall Street Journal) – Whether millions of people will be able to afford one of the hot new weight-loss drugs could hinge on whether they cure the sleep apnea of people like Damon Sedgwick. Sedgwick, a technology business analyst in … Read More
July 12, 2024
A New Edition of Journal of Medical Ethics Is Now Available
Journal of Medical Ethics (vol. 50, no. 7, 2024) is available online by subscription only. Articles include: “Consent to Testing for Brain Death” by Barry Lyons and Mary Donnelly “Questioning our Presumptions about the Presumption of Capacity” by Isabel Marie Astrachan, Alexander … Read More
July 11, 2024
FTC Poised to Sue Drug Middlemen Over Insulin Prices
(Axios) – The Federal Trade Commission plans to sue the three biggest prescription drug middlemen for allegedly using negotiating tactics to steer patients to use more expensive drugs, including insulins, according to a source familiar with the matter. Why it … Read More
July 11, 2024
A New Edition of The New England Journal of Medicine AI Is Now Available
The New England Journal of Medicine AI (vol. 1, no. 4, 2024) is available online by subscription only. Articles include: “Trials of AI Interventions Must Be Preregistered” by J.M. Drazen and C.J. Haug “Health Care Cost Reductions with Machine Learning–Directed … Read More
July 10, 2024
F.T.C. Slams Middlemen for High Drug Prices, Reversing Hands-Off Approach
(New York Times) – In a report, the regulator sharply criticized pharmacy benefit managers, a turnaround from its longstanding tolerance of their practices. The Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday sharply criticized pharmacy benefit managers, saying in a scathing 71-page report … Read More
July 10, 2024
In Constant Battle With Insurers, Doctors Reach for a Cudgel: A.I.
(New York Times) – As health plans increasingly rely on technology to deny treatment, physicians are fighting back with chatbots that synthesize research and make the case. Over the course of Dr. Tariq’s 12-year career, these stories had become more … Read More
July 9, 2024
A New Edition of The New England Journal of Medicine AI Is Now Available
The New England Journal of Medicine AI (vol. 1, no. 3, 2024) is available online by subscription only. Articles include: “Policy in Progress — The Race to Frame AI in Health Care” by I. Kohane “To Do No Harm — … Read More
July 8, 2024
Insurers Pocketed $50 Billion From Medicare for Diseases No Doctor Treated
(Wall Street Journal) – Private insurers involved in the government’s Medicare Advantage program made hundreds of thousands of questionable diagnoses that triggered extra taxpayer-funded payments from 2018 to 2021, including outright wrong ones like Lee’s, a Wall Street Journal analysis … Read More
July 4, 2024
Medicare Explores a New Way to Support Caregivers of Dementia Patients
(NPR) – In hopes of easing that burden, Medicare, the federal government’s health insurance program for people 65 and over, is launching an eight-year pilot project this summer with a groundbreaking plan. The government will pay to directly support the … Read More
July 3, 2024
A New Edition of Bioethics Is Now Available
Bioethics (vol. 38, no. 6, 2024) is available online by subscription only. Articles include: “Mobile Health Technology and Empowerment” by Karola V. Kreitmair “Can digital Health Democratize Health Care?” by Tereza Hendl and Ayush Shukla “Does a Lack of Emotions … Read More
July 2, 2024
A New Edition of The New England Journal of Medicine AI Is Now Available
The New England Journal of Medicine AI (vol. 1, no. 1, 2024) is available online by subscription only. Articles include: “Injecting Artificial Intelligence into Medicine” by I.S. Kohane “Why We Support and Encourage the Use of Large Language Models in … Read More
July 1, 2024
Courts Become the New Health Policy Arena
(Axios) – If courts weren’t already exerting outsized influence over health policy, they’re much closer to being final arbiters now that the Supreme Court has scrapped the decades-old doctrine that gave the Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Medicare and … Read More
June 28, 2024
House Committee Passes Bill That Would Allow Medicare to Cover Weight Loss Drugs
(NBC News) – The vote, by the Ways and Means Committee, is one of the first steps needed to reverse a more than two-decades-old ban prohibiting the government from paying for the drugs. For more than two decades, a law … Read More
June 26, 2024
In States That Won’t Pay for Obesity Drugs, ‘They May as Well Have Never Been Created’
(New York Times) – Some private insurers help pay for medications to treat obesity, but most Medicaid programs do so only to manage diabetes, and Medicare covers Wegovy and Zepbound only when they are prescribed for heart problems. Over the … Read More
June 25, 2024
Mail-Order Drugs Were Supposed to Keep Costs Down. It’s Doing the Opposite.
(Wall Street Journal) – One employer was paying about $100 for a prescription for a generic antidepressant, though it could be bought elsewhere for about $12. At the urging of firms that manage their drug benefits, employers turned to mail-order … Read More
June 24, 2024
Another Casualty of Soaring Health Costs: Jobs
(Axios) – Rising health care prices have measurably increased unemployment in the United States, according to a new study in the National Bureau of Economic Research. Why it matters: Surging health care costs don’t just hit Americans in their pocketbooks — they could be … Read More
June 21, 2024
The Opaque Industry Secretly Inflating Prices for Prescription Drugs
(New York Times) – Americans are paying too much for prescription drugs. It is a common, longstanding complaint. And the culprits seem obvious: Drug companies. Insurers. A dysfunctional federal government. But there is another collection of powerful forces that often … Read More
June 18, 2024
Half of U.S. Military Bases in the Country Are in ‘Health Care Deserts’
(NPR) – For hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops and their families, when the Pentagon orders them to find health care off base there is none. An NPR analysis found that 50% of active duty military installations stand within federally designated health professional shortage … Read More
June 13, 2024
Medical-Targeted Ransomware Is Breaking Records After Change Healthcare’s $22M Payout
(Wired) – When Change Healthcare paid $22 million in March to a ransomware gang that had crippled the company along with hundreds of hospitals, medical practices, and pharmacies across the US, the cybersecurity industry warned that Change’s extortion payment would … Read More
June 12, 2024
US Senate Panel to Weigh Novo Nordisk Subpoena Over Ozempic, Wegovy Prices
(Reuters) – The U.S. Senate health panel said on Tuesday it would vote this month on whether to subpoena Novo Nordisk to answer questions about U.S. prices for weight loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, which are far higher than those … Read More
June 12, 2024
Cancer Patients Say This Hospital Turned Them Away
(NBC News) – Eleven other cancer patients and seven current and former Memorial clinicians described a facility in which both insured and uninsured patients requiring an array of treatments were regularly met with denials of care or demands for up-front … Read More
June 11, 2024
Supreme Court Will Hear Case Claiming US Underpays Hospitals Serving Needy Patients
(Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a lawsuit by more than 200 hospitals that serve low-income populations accusing the federal government of shortchanging them on Medicare funding by about $1.5 billion per year. The hospitals, located … Read More
June 7, 2024
The Health Care Workforce Crisis Is Already Here
(Axios) – Demoralized doctors and nurses are leaving the field, hospitals are sounding the alarm about workforce shortages and employees are increasingly unionizing and even going on strike in high-profile disputes with their employers. Why it matters: Dire forecasts of … Read More
June 6, 2024
Supreme Court Sides with Native American Tribes in Health Care Funding Dispute with Government
(ABC News) – The Supreme Court sided with Native American tribes Thursday in a dispute with the federal government over the cost of health care when tribes run programs in their own communities. The 5-4 decision means the government will … Read More
