| | | |   By Elizabeth Cooney | Hi! This is reporter Eric Boodman filling in for Liz. An important story about the ADA and addiction from my desk-mate Drew Joseph today! | | | Supreme Court rules in favor of insurance plan that pushed kidney failure patient to Medicare 
(RICH PEDRONCELLI/AP)
The future is murky for patients with kidney failure who get insurance coverage through their employer. Yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled that these plans can make all dialysis providers out-of-network, potentially making their services more costly for patients. The procedure involves outsourcing the kidney’s job to a machine. Without dialysis to filter waste products from the blood, a patient may die. As STAT’s Bob Herman explains, this ruling could open the door to other insurers making the same decision, which could in turn result in workers with kidney failure dropping their private plans and jumping onto Medicare. | British authorities recommend offering vaccines to anyone with high risk of monkeypox exposure Yesterday, British authorities recommended taking their monkeypox-fighting tactics one step further: Instead of offering vaccines only to close contacts of those diagnosed with the virus, they suggested broadening the eligibility to anyone at increased risk of exposure. The criteria would be similar to those for pre-exposure prophylaxis against HIV, and might include, for instance, men who have sex with men and who have several partners. Canadian officials implemented the same measure a few weeks ago, in an attempt to curb an outbreak with some tough challenges. While most cases have so far been mild, transmission seems to have gone undetected before it came to the attention of public health authorities, who are now trying to walk the fine line of getting the word out to at-risk communities without deepening stigma. | New recommendations about potential harm vs. benefit of certain supplements The American dietary supplement scene is often referred to as a “Wild West.” Rather than getting clearcut rejections or approvals, as prescription drugs do, these capsules often get a rakish sort of “buyer beware” treatment. This week, buyers are getting a little more to go on — namely, an updated U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendation about a few different substances. One is beta carotene. It makes carrots orange, is used to color margarine, and does more potential harm than good when taken as a supplement for cardiovascular health and cancer prevention, the experts concluded with moderate certainty. They found that vitamin E didn’t appear to have any benefit against heart disease or cancer, either. As for multivitamins used against these diagnoses, there wasn’t enough evidence for the panel to make a pronouncement. Buyer beware, indeed. | Beating the odds: what it took to rollout the Covid-19 vaccine and supplies Watch top supply chain leaders examine the speed and scale required to operationalize the distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine and ancillary supply kits needed to administer them. Through a series of intimate conversations, learn how the public and private sectors worked in concert to support this massive undertaking and get shots in the arms of people across the nation. View the documentary short now. | Closer look: To protect people with addiction from discrimination, the Justice Dept. turns to a long-overlooked tool: the ADA  (Mike Reddy for stat) In 2017, a man named Bryan found himself in a bind: His opioid use disorder was finally under control, with the help of Suboxone from Massachusetts General Hospital. But because of that prescription, he was denied access to the same hospital’s lung transplant program. He had cystic fibrosis, a genetic illness, and the situation was getting dire. As he put it, “You realize you’re 27 and dying.” He got help from an unexpected source: The U.S. Justice Department, which found that MGH had discriminated against Bryan under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Such cases are becoming more and more common, writes STAT reporter Drew Joseph, as government attorneys leverage the law to overcome rampant discrimination against people with substance use disorders. | In socially vulnerable neighborhoods, more locations but fewer prescriptions for Covid antivirals A new CDC analysis suggests a troubling trend: While the most socially vulnerable zip codes have more locations to get Covid-19 antiviral medications like Paxlovid, the people in those areas received the medications less often than those in less vulnerable neighborhoods. As prescribing of the drugs picked up between March and May, the researchers report, the rates at which these drugs were dispensed jumped at least 15-fold in places with low- and medium-vulnerability levels, but only five-fold in the most vulnerable communities. The issue might involve unequal access to prescribing clinicians, the authors say, as well as the end of government reimbursement of certain Covid-related costs for the uninsured. | Women underrepresented in psychiatry, cancer, and cardiovascular clinical trials, new study finds Women represent 60% of patients with psychiatric diagnoses, but only 42% of participants in that field’s clinical trials for drugs and devices, a new study has found. A similar, if less drastic, trend was also reported in other areas of medicine, with women making up 49% of the cardiovascular patient population, but only 42% of its trial enrollees, and 51% of the cancer patient population but only 41% of participants in cancer trials. The study looked at 1,433 trials on clinicaltrials.gov between 2016 and 2019. Its authors noted that the database requires data collection on biological sex but not gender, and so that was missing from their analysis. | | | | | What to read around the web today - Squirrels could make monkeypox a forever problem, The Atlantic
- The most common abortion procedures and when they occur, The Washington Post
- Biden picks former DARPA director Prabhakar as next science adviser, STAT
- DPS Director Steve McCraw says officers in Uvalde could have taken down gunman within 3 minutes had commander not hesitated, Texas Tribune
- Senate lawmakers introduce a bill to help the FDA and the U.S. Patent Office coordinate, STAT+
| Thanks for reading! More tomorrow,  | | | | Have a news tip or comment? Email Me | | | | | |
No comments