Doctors Should Be Urged To Offer PrEP To All Patients At High Risk Of HIV, Task Force Recommends
If new guidelines from the United States Preventive Services Task Force are approved, it would expand access to the medication that's effective against preventing HIV since most private health plans are required under the Affordable Care Act to cover the full cost of services recommended by the panel. “This is definitely fantastic news and validates everything science has been saying all along,” said Dr. Aaron Lord, a physician at New York University School of Medicine. "When taken daily, there’s very good evidence that the chance of acquiring H.I.V. is essentially zero."
The New York Times:
Task Force Calls For Offering PrEP To All At High Risk For H.I.V.
An influential government task force has drafted a recommendation that would for the first time urge doctors to offer a daily prophylactic pill to patients who are at risk for contracting H.I.V. The recommendation would include all men and women whose sexual behavior, sex partners or drug use place them at high risk of contracting the virus that causes AIDS. (Rabin, 11/20)
In other national health care news —
The Associated Press:
Feds Re-Approve New Rules For Kentucky Medicaid
The Trump administration has again approved new rules for some of Kentucky's Medicaid population, requiring them to either get a job, volunteer in the community or go to school to keep their government-funded health coverage. The Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services announced the approval on Tuesday, nearly five months after a federal judge blocked the state's first attempt. (11/20)
The Washington Post:
Some Veterans With ALS Were Deprived Of Health Care Benefits, VA Watchdog Finds
The Veterans Affairs Department’s internal watchdog has uncovered widespread errors in how the agency awards benefits to some of its most vulnerable patients: those diagnosed with the devastating neurological disease Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. VA Inspector General Michael Missal, in a review released Tuesday, found that dozens of veterans suffering from ALS were deprived of financial support because staff mishandled their benefits claims. (Rein, 11/20)
The Wall Street Journal:
Apple In Talks To Give Veterans Access To Electronic Medical Records
Apple Inc. is in discussions with the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide portable electronic health records to military veterans, a partnership that would simplify patients’ hospital visits and allow the technology giant to tap millions of new customers, according to people familiar with the effort and emails reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Under the plans being discussed, Apple would create special software tools allowing the VA’s estimated nine million veterans currently enrolled in the system to transfer their health records to iPhones and provide engineering support to the agency. Apple in January announced its foray into the electronic-records field with a feature that allows patients to import and store medical information. (Kesling and Mickle, 11/20)
NPR/ProPublica:
A CPAP Machine Can Help Some Get Better Sleep But Insurers Don't Make It Easy
As many CPAP users discover, the life-altering device comes with caveats: Health insurance companies are often tracking whether patients use them. If they aren't, the insurers might not cover the machines or the supplies that go with them. And, faced with the popularity of CPAPs — which can cost $400 to $800 — and their need for replacement filters, face masks and hoses, health insurers have deployed a host of tactics that can make the therapy more expensive or even price it out of reach. (Allen, 11/21)
NPR:
Critically Ill Children Who Received Wishes Cut Their Health Care Costs
Researchers looked back at the cases of nearly 1,000 children with serious illnesses who were treated at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. Half the children had received wishes and the other half hadn't. The children granted wishes were substantially less likely to visit the emergency department or to have an unplanned hospital admission within two years as compared with children who hadn't received wishes. (Researchers matched the children's personal and disease characteristics in the study.) "My hypothesis is that these kids, when they come back, are more engaged with their families and medical providers, and perhaps they're more adherent to their treatment plan," says the study's lead author Dr. Anup D. Patel, section chief of neurology at Nationwide Children's Hospital and an associate professor of pediatrics at Ohio State University College of Medicine in Columbus. (Haelle, 11/20)