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Section: Health

C.D.C.: Suicide Rates Up 30% Since 1999

Suicide rates are up by 30 percent across the nation since 1999, federal health officials reported Thursday. And only about half the people who died by suicide had a known mental health condition, even though depression had been thought to be the major cause of suicide, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. While […]

June 11, 2018

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For Colored Folks Who Have Considered Suicide

The high-profile deaths of celebrities Avicii, Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain have forced important conversations about mental illness. Many of those conversations focus on how people who seemingly “have it all” could feel so isolated that ending their life seemed like the only solution.

June 9, 2018

Patient Freedom

Free markets in medicine are not “broken”; they have not been allowed to work since 1944 when wartime federal policies began disturbing market forces. Federal control of prices and service delivery further expanded following the Medicare Act of 1965. In 2010, Obamacare crushed medical insurance plans, doctors, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, medical device makers and home […]

June 6, 2018

2 States Propose Hikes for Obamacare Plans

ObamaCare insurers in New York and Washington state are proposing double-digit rate hikes for 2019, citing recent and upcoming changes to the law. In New York, 14 insurers are asking state regulators to approve an average rate hike of 24 percent, while 11 insurers in Washington state want to increase premiums by an average of 19.08 percent. New […]

June 6, 2018

Use of Tribe’s Sovereignty Called Risk to Patent System

Allergan Plc faced a skeptical appeals court Monday as the company defended its use of an American Indian tribe’s sovereign immunity to avoid challenges to its patents from generic-drug makers. Two of three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington questioned whether Allergan was seeking to circumvent review by the Patent and […]

June 6, 2018

Project Taps Black Women’s Influence to Get Men Treated

Glenn E. Simmons Jr. knows firsthand the power of the woman in African American culture. “It was my mother who was adamant about certain things going a certain way,” he said. It’s often true that women are the leaders in black families, Simmons said, which is why he was on board with a colleague’s effort […]

June 6, 2018

Older Adults Shun Patient Portals

A new poll suggests that many older adults still aren’t using online systems to communicate with the doctors and other health care providers they rely on—despite the widespread availability of such systems. Only about half of people aged 50 to 80 have set up an account on a secure online access site, or “patient portal,” […]

June 6, 2018

Patient Portals

Report: Long Wait Times and Bad Data Afflict VA Program

The Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014 (Choice Act) was meant to address serious problems with wait times for veterans’ access to care by opening a door to the private sector. A report released today by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), however, found that the flawed implementation of the Choice Program led to […]

June 6, 2018

Medical Bondage: Book Details Roots of Modern Gynecology

In her new award-winning book, Medical Bondage: Race, Gender, and the Origins of American Gynecology, historian Deirdre Cooper Owens describes the experimental work of early American gynecologists, including Dr. James Marion Sims, “the father of modern gynecology.” Beginning in 1844, Sims famously performed his experiments on enslaved women in Alabama, including Anarcha, Lucy, and Betsy, who he leased for the […]

June 6, 2018

Medical Bondage

Many Women with Breast Cancer Can Skip Chemo, Research Finds

Tens of thousands of patients diagnosed early each year with the most common type of breast cancer can now safely avoid chemotherapy treatment without worrying if it is the right choice, according to groundbreaking research presented for the first time Sunday at a gathering of international oncologists in Chicago. The findings, which were also published Sunday in […]

June 6, 2018

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Reducing Maternal Deaths

For so many expectant mothers, anxiety can build from the moment they find out a little one is on the way. One thing they shouldn’t have to worry about is dying during pregnancy or childbirth, but that’s a real possibility for too many women, particularly those who are African-American and live right here in Pennsylvania. […]

June 4, 2018

Black Moms Babies

East Carolina Plans School to Address Disparities

For East Carolina University, a planned School of Rural Public Health – slated to open in August 2020 – will aid in addressing health disparities faced by people living in the eastern part of the state. “It is our mission to work collectively to provide and to train the next generation of public health workforce […]

June 4, 2018

East Carolina University

Drug Rep Admits to Bribing Doctors to Prescribe

A former sales representative for a major drug manufacturer has admitted to charges she helped fuel the opioid addiction crisis by bribing doctors to prescribe a potent painkiller, authorities said. Michelle Breitenbach, who worked for the pharmaceutical company Insys Therapeutics, Inc., pleaded guilty Wednesday to a second-degree charge of conspiracy to commit commercial bribery, according to the state […]

June 4, 2018

F.D.A. Issues Policies to Open Path for Generics

Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD, has released new policies to crack down on brand drug manufacturers that try to block the entry of generic drugs to the market. Brand drugmakers are using FDA Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) requirements to block timely generic entry, Gottlieb said. The REMS are required from manufacturers […]

June 4, 2018

N.J. Enacts Law to Protect Healthcare Mandate

The goal of state officials to take back control of the health insurance marketplace may have been reached Wednesday, when Gov. Phil Murphy signed two bills dealing with coverage. The bills, from Sens. Joe Vitale (D-Woodbridge) and Troy Singleton (D-Moorestown), protect the individual mandate and create a reinsurance program at the state level, the latter […]

June 4, 2018

Healthcare Mandate

Trump Signs ‘Right-to-Try’ Law

In a ceremony at the White House on Wednesday, President Donald Trump signed Right to Try legislation into law. The law will allow patients with life-threatening conditions to ask drugmakers for medicines that have not yet been FDA-approved but that have at least completed phase 1 testing. The patient must have run out of approved treatment options and must […]

June 4, 2018

Democratic Governors Threaten to Sue over Planned Parenthood Funds

The nation’s 14 Democratic governors are threatening to sue the Trump administration if it follows through on a proposal that would partially defund Planned Parenthood. “If this reckless policy is finalized as written, we will have no choice but to explore all possible avenues, including legal options, to block it from harming the women in our states,” […]

June 4, 2018

Planned Parenthood Funds

Why Hurricane Maria Killed Thousands, Not Dozens

On its own, Hurricane Maria doesn’t seem to have killed a large segment of Puerto Rico’s population. The real culprit, it seems, was the loss of electricity, water and cellphone service in the following weeks and months after the hurricane’s impact, which fatally deprived thousands of the island’s residents of the medical care they desperately needed. Puerto […]

June 4, 2018

Hurricane Maria