July 29, 2024
(New York Times) — It was much more accurate than primary care doctors using cognitive tests and CT scans. The findings could speed the quest for an affordable and accessible way to diagnose patients with memory problems. (Read More)
July 25, 2024
(STAT News) – UnitedHealth Group started out as a small, Minnesota health insurance company and has since morphed into a modern-day Standard Oil, exerting unmatched dominance over health care in the United States. It’s no secret that UnitedHealth is a … Read More
July 25, 2024
(MedPage Today) – Critically injured trauma patients without insurance had a higher risk of being taken off life-saving care sooner than their insured counterparts, according to findings from a retrospective cohort study of more than 300,000 U.S. adults. After adjustment … Read More
July 25, 2024
The New England Journal of Medicine AI (vol. 1, no. 6, 2024) is available online by subscription only. Articles include:
July 24, 2024
(Axios) – The Federal Trade Commission is expanding its scrutiny of the health care industry to the growing dialysis market and investigating whether dialysis giants DaVita and Fresenius Medical Care are squeezing out competitors by restricting kidney doctors from changing … Read More
July 23, 2024
(Vox) – The cash’s impact on health was a little more straightforward: it didn’t seem to do much. Despite detailed data, including blood samples from some participants and nutritional intake, “We find essentially no evidence of improvements in physical health … Read More
July 19, 2024
(KFF Health News) – The government is giving away money! So say ads on a variety of social media platforms. Consumers, the ads claim, can qualify for $1,400 or even $6,400 a month to use on groceries, rent, medical expenses, … Read More
July 16, 2024
The New England Journal of Medicine (vol. 390, no. 19, 2024) is available online by subscription only. Articles include:
July 15, 2024
(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
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
(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
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
(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
(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
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
(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
(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
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
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
(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
(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
(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
(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
(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
(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
