Oregon will be the first state to make affordable health care a constitutional right “Oregon will be the first state in the nation to enshrine the right to affordable health care in its constitution.
Ballot Measure 111 narrowly passed, with nearly 50.7% of voters in favor and 49.3% of voters opposed. The measure’s long-term impact on Oregon health care is unclear because it doesn’t prescribe how the state should ensure that everyone has affordable health care.
Measure 111 amends the Oregon constitution by adding: ‘It is the obligation of the state to ensure that every resident of Oregon has access to cost-effective, clinically appropriate and affordable health care as a fundamental right.’
Comment: This measure is truly a landmark for Americans. Nowhere in our Constitution or federal laws is the right to healthcare guaranteed. [The exceptions are EMTALA’s requirement to treat and the rights of prisoners to health care services.] The implementation is going to be difficult and costly, but starts with the definitions of “cost-effective, clinically appropriate and affordable health care.”
Check this site to see how close the vote was and how the majority of counties voted “No.”
About health insurance/insurers
What Will UnitedHealth’s New Trove of Claims Data Mean for Consumers? A must-read article from ProPublica.
Extra Benefits Offered by Medicare Advantage Firms Vary Worth a quick read- especially the charts.
Most Adults in Medicaid-Enrolled Families are Unaware of Medicaid Renewals Resuming in the Future
”Key Findings
Most adults with family Medicaid enrollment were not aware of the return to regular Medicaid renewals when the PHE expires.
62 percent of adults with family Medicaid enrollment reported hearing nothing at all about the forthcoming eligibility redeterminations, 16.2 percent reported hearing some, and 15.7 percent reported hearing only a little.
Only 5 percent of respondents reported hearing a lot about the return to regular Medicaid renewals.
The most common source of information for those who had heard about the resumption of renewals was media or social media (34.3%), followed by a state agency (30.6%), a health insurance company or plan (24.5%), a healthcare provider (17.8%), or somewhere else (6.5%).
Half of respondents (50.4%) who had heard from a state agency or health plan about the upcoming change received a notification about the need to renew coverage.
Just one in five (21.3%) were told how to get assistance with the renewal process.
Less than one-third (29%) were informed of the coverage options available to them if they become ineligible for Medicaid.”
About hospitals and healthcare systems
Advocate Aurora posts $310M Q3 loss “1. Advocate Aurora reported a $310.8 million loss for the third quarter and reported a $911.6 million loss for the nine months ending Sept. 30. The results are in stark contrast to the $1.5 billion recorded for the nine months ending figure in 2021.
2. Total quarterly revenue reached $3.6 billion, up 3 percent year over year. The health system reported nearly $3 billion of the revenue came from patient services. In July, Fitch affirmed an AA rating and stable outlook for the system's long-term indebtedness, and since then S&P affirmed its AA rating and Moody's affirmed an Aa3 rating as well.”
CommonSpirit reports $227M quarterly loss: 6 details “The 138-hospital health system reported $23 million income for the three months ending Sept. 30, down from $34 million over the same period last year. However, CommonSpirit received $325 million as part of the California provider fee program under the CMS-approved state plan amendment; after normalizing for the program, CommonSpirit reported a $227 million loss for the quarter.”
About the public’s health
Prevalence and global estimates of unsafe listening practices in adolescents and young adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis “Unsafe listening practices are highly prevalent worldwide and may place over 1 billion young people at risk of hearing loss. There is an urgent need to prioritise policy focused on safe listening. The World Health Organization provides comprehensive materials to aid in policy development and implementation.”
Changes in Home Births by Race and Hispanic Origin and State of Residence of Mother: United States, 2019–2020 and 2020–2021 “Following average annual increases of 2% from 1990 (0.67%) to 2019 (1.03%), the percentage of home births rose 22% from 2019 to 2020 (1.26%), and another 12% from 2020 to 2021 (1.41%). The 2021 level was the highest since at least 1990, demonstrating a higher rate of increase in home births during the first 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic. From 2020 to 2021, levels increased by 10% to 21% for each of the race and Hispanic-origin groups. For all women and non-Hispanic White women, increases occurred generally for most months of the year, although not all increases were significant. Although less pronounced and consistent, increases also were seen in home births for most months for non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic women. Between 2020 and 2021, home births increased in 41 states (changes in 11 states were not significant) and declined in 9 states and D.C. (changes in 7 states and D.C. were not significant).”
Lung cancer screening rates in US ‘simply unacceptable’ “An estimated 14.2 million Americans meet the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendation for lung cancer screening. The task force recommends annual screening with low-dose CT scan for individuals aged 50 to 80 years who have a 20 pack-year smoking history and either currently smoke or quit within the past 15 years.
Only 5.8% of Americans who meet those criteria have undergone lung cancer screening, according to the report. Analyses by state show rates are lowest in California (1%) and Nevada (1.3%) and highest in Massachusetts (16.3%)…
White individuals appeared more likely to be diagnosed at an early stage (27%) than Black (23%), Latino (23%), Asian/Pacific Islander (22%) and American Indian/Alaska Native (23%) individuals.”
Chest CT Findings in Marijuana Smokers “Airway inflammation and emphysema were more common in marijuana smokers than in nonsmokers and tobacco-only smokers, although variable interobserver agreement and concomitant cigarette smoking among the marijuana-smoking cohort limits our ability to draw strong conclusions.”
FDA Warns Firms for Selling Illegal E-cigarettes That Look Like Toys, Food, and Cartoon Characters “Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued warning letters to five firms for the unauthorized marketing of 15 different e-cigarette products. Each e-cigarette product is packaged to look like toys, food, or cartoon characters and is likely to promote use by youth. None of the manufacturers submitted a premarket application for any of the unauthorized products.”
Mode of delivery modulates the intestinal microbiota and impacts the response to vaccination “Here we assess the association between mode of delivery, gut microbiota development in the first year of life, and mucosal antigen-specific antibody responses against pneumococcal vaccination in 101 infants at age 12 months and against meningococcal vaccination in 66 infants at age 18 months. Birth by vaginal delivery is associated with higher antibody responses against both vaccines. Relative abundances of vaginal birth-associated Bifidobacterium and Escherichia coli in the first weeks of life are positively associated with anti-pneumococcal antibody responses, and relative abundance of E. coli in the same period is also positively associated with anti-meningococcal antibody responses.”
About healthcare IT
Mental Health Apps Are Not Keeping Your Data Safe “We surveyed 132 studies that tested automation technologies, such as chatbots, in online mental health initiatives. The researchers in 85 percent of the studies didn’t address, either in study design, or in reporting results, how the technologies could be used in negative ways. This was despite some of the technologies raising serious risks of harm. For example, 53 studies used public social media data—in many cases without consent—for predictive purposes like trying to determine a person’s mental health diagnosis. None of the studies we examined grappled with the potential discrimination people might experience if these data were made public.”
About healthcare personnel