The United States is amidst a crisis in population health related to opioid dependence and abuse.
Public Health
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.
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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.
Seventy percent of adults aged 55 to 64 cite affordability as one of the main reasons they purchase a short-term health plan, according to a survey from online health insurance platform eHealth.
Low-income and high-income women who were switched to high-deductible health plans experienced delays in breast cancer diagnostic testing, early stage diagnosis and chemotherapy initiation, compared to women remaining in low-deductible plans, according to a study published in Health Affairs.