Public Health

Opioid use among Blue Shield of California members with noncancer pain fell 56 percent since 2014, the health insurer said March 18.

The FDA has granted fast track designation to an emergency opioid overdose antidote manufactured by OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, according to MarketWatch.

The United States is amidst a crisis in population health related to opioid dependence and abuse.

More than half of Department of Veterans Affairs enrollees also have Medicare drug coverage, a dual system that can lead to uncoordinated and potentially unsafe opioid use, according to a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Hospitals nationwide are still turning away ambulances due to emergency room overcrowding, despite research suggesting the practice can harm patients, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Vancouver, Wash.-based PeaceHealth locked down its hospitals in Springfield, Ore., and Eugene, Ore., overnight March 7 after security officials found a suspicious man on the Springfield hospital's campus, The Register-Guard reports.

Enrollment in the Children's Health Insurance Program and child-focused Medicaid programs declined almost 600,000 in the first 11 months of 2018, according to an analysis from Stateline, part of Pew Charitable Trusts.

Older adults in rural areas particularly face affordability challenges when purchasing policies off the ACA marketplace, according to a brief from the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a class-action lawsuit filed against Cigna that accuses the health insurer of committing securities fraud, according to the New York Law Journal.

The East Alabama Medical Center in Opelika treated 63 people in the aftermath of tornadoes that devastated the Southeast, and about 12 people were sent to other hospitals, according to AL.com.