Population Health
At its annual meeting this week, the American Medical Association adopted new policies encourage physicians to co-prescribe naloxone to patients at risk of an overdose; promote timely and appropriate access to non-opioid and non-pharmacologic treatments for pain; and support efforts to delink payments to healthcare facilities with patient satisfaction scores relating to the evaluation and management of pain.
Physicians at the annual meeting of the American Medical Association have adopted guidance for communities on selecting among light emitting diode options, which aims to minimize the potential harmful human health and environmental effects. The group claims that conversion to improper LED technology can have adverse consequences.
The American Medical Association voted at its annual meeting to expand its existing policy on gun safety to include support for waiting periods and background checks for all firearm purchasers. The previous policy supported them, but only for purchasers of handguns; the update parallels policies endorsed by other health organizations.
Data shows that 24 million more people would become uninsured by 2021 if the Affordable Care Act is repealed following the 2016 election, according to a new report.
To help more people with prediabetes access the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Diabetes Prevention Program, the American Medical Association has adopted a policy during its annual meeting to encourage private and public health plans to include the DPP as a covered benefit for their beneficiaries.
In the wake of the worst mass shooting in American history, and with more than 6,000 deaths already in 2016 from gun violence, the American Medical Association has adopted policy calling gun violence in the United States "a public health crisis," requiring a comprehensive public health response and solution.
Support for women's health care, along with family planning resources, has been dramatically scaled back, in part because of funding restrictions placed on women's clinics that, in addition to other services, provide abortions. Also, both states declined to expand Medicaid. Those decisions, many advocates say, are putting a squeeze on the health care system's ability to educate women about Zika's risks and minimize its impact.
The joint enterprise has been successful beyond anyone's expectations, according to Russ Mohawk, president and CEO of Health Plans and Population Health Services for the Inova Health System.
In an effort to get or keep a good performance rating from the federal government, transplant centers have been labeling some patients "too sick to transplant" and dropping from the waitlist some who may been viable candidates, researchers found. In addition, despite removing more sick patients from the waiting list, one-year survival rates for patients who received transplants didn't improve.
The experiment begins Wednesday at the VA's operations in Palo Alto, California. Veterans can visit 14 "MinuteClinics" operated by CVS in the San Francisco Bay area and Sacramento, where staff will treat them for conditions such as respiratory infections, order lab tests and prescribe medications, which can be filled at CVS pharmacies. Whether the partnership will spread to other VA locales isn't yet clear.