Closer Look
Suicide hotlines are sending data to Facebook
Eva Redamonti/The Markup
They promise anonymity to its visitors, but websites for mental health crisis resources have been quietly sending sensitive visitor data to Facebook, The Markup reports in a story co-published with STAT. Testing by the nonprofit newsroom found that dozens of sites tied to the new 988 crisis hotline transmitted the data through Meta Pixel, a short snippet of code included on a webpage that enables advertising on Facebook. Facebook often got signals when visitors attempted to dial the emergency number by tapping on dedicated call buttons on the websites. Sometimes it got hashed — but easily unscrambled — contact info.
After The Markup contacted the 33 crisis centers it studied about their practices, some said they were unaware that the code was on their sites and they'd take steps to remove it. In an emailed statement, Meta spokesperson Emil Vazquez told The Markup, "Advertisers should not send sensitive information about people through our Business Tools." Read more.
the cost of health care
Patients with diabetes — and insurance — turn to GoFundMe to pay their costs
Living with diabetes can be expensive, even with health insurance. It can cost a person on insulin $4,800 a year for medications, doctors' visits, supplies, hospitalizations, and lost wages. As many as 40% of U.S. patients struggle to afford this, and 56% of them skip care. Some turn to GoFundMe campaigns. A new study in the Annals of Internal Medicine looked at which expenses added up to financial pain inspiring 313 campaigns.
Beyond insulin, help was sought for hospital stays, food, and for 35% of people with type 1 diabetes, diabetic alert dogs, which cost $15,000. The study authors recommend continuous glucose monitors instead. One GoFundMe page asked: "Please help us raise $3,000 so that we can buy her a continuous glucose monitor along with the monthly supplies that keep it running." Two other pleas:
- "Eating healthy is not cheap."
- "The bills are accumulating faster than his recovery."
medicaid
States are urged to slow down cutting people from Medicaid
The Biden administration's top health official urged states yesterday to put the brakes on removing people from Medicaid coverage, saying the purge that began when the pandemic health emergency ended is harming lower-income people disenrolled for "procedural reasons." In some states, about half of those whose Medicaid renewal cases were decided in April or May have lost coverage, according to data submitted to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and obtained by the Associated Press. Nearly 18 million people might lose coverage, a KFF survey projected last month.
In many cases, people lost health care coverage due to administrative reasons, such as the failure to return forms, possibly because they changed addresses, didn't receive a form, or didn't have enough information about the renewal process, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra has said. "I am deeply concerned with the number of people unnecessarily losing coverage, especially those who appear to have lost coverage for avoidable reasons that state Medicaid offices have the power to prevent or mitigate," he wrote in yesterday's letter to governors.
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