Only 3 States Get An ‘A’ On Health Care Price Transparency Report Card
Meanwhile, 43 states got failing grades, according to the 2016 Report Card on State Price Transparency Laws.
Modern Healthcare:
Price Transparency Eludes Consumers In 43 States
Just seven states achieved a passing grade for making usable healthcare price information available to consumers, a new study finds. The other 43 states failed at price transparency because they didn't collect claims data from all payers or they failed to make the data accessible to the public through a website, according to the 2016 Report Card on State Price Transparency Laws. (Barkholz, 7/26)
In other national health care news —
Reuters:
U.S. Opens Door To A Change In Blood Donation Policy For Gay Men
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration opened the door on Tuesday to a change in its blood donor deferral recommendations, which currently prohibit donations from gay men for a year following their last sexual encounter in order to reduce the risk of transmitting HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. In December the FDA overturned a 30-year ban on all blood donations from men who have sex with men, saying the change was based on science showing an indefinite ban was not necessary to prevent transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus. The FDA is now signaling it may go further. (Clarke, 7/26)
NPR:
As Opioid Epidemic Surges, Medical Schools Must Change To Keep Pace
Jonathan Goodman can recall most of the lectures he's attended at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He can recite detailed instructions given more than a year ago about how to conduct a physical. But at the end of his second year, the 27-year-old M.D.-Ph.D. student could not remember any class dedicated to addiction medicine. Then he recalled skipping class months earlier. Reviewing his syllabus, he realized he had missed the sole lecture dedicated to that topic. "I wasn't tested on it," Goodman says, with a note of surprise. (Jacewicz, 7/27)
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR:
KHN, which publishes California Healthline, will have a new editor-in-chief starting in September, Kaiser Family Foundation president and CEO Drew Altman announced yesterday. Longtime New York Times reporter Elisabeth Rosenthal will succeed John Fairhall, who is stepping down after nearly five years. Rosenthal is an award-winning journalist with deep experience in health policy reporting.