UnitedHealth pushed employees to follow an algorithm to cut off Medicare patients' rehab care

The nation's largest health insurance company pressured its medical staff to cut off payments for seriously ill patients in lockstep with a computer algorithm's calculations, denying rehabilitation care for older and disabled Americans as profits soared, a STAT investigation has found. Read more.

By Casey Ross and Bob Herman

Jaida Grey Eagle for STAT

How the Bad River Tribe flipped the script on the Native American opioid crisis

Bad River's story has become a case study in all that is going right in the fight against drug deaths. Here, local community leaders and outside public health experts see the basis of a model for preventing drug-related harms on Native American land, and in rural communities more generally, from coast to coast. Read more.

By Lev Facher

Thumỹ Phan for STAT

Life scientists' flight to biotech labs stalls important academic research

Academia is in the midst of an unprecedented exodus of life science researchers, many of whom are leaving for lucrative jobs in the private sector. It's already having a detrimental impact on basic research, slowing the pace of scientific progress. Faculty struggling to recruit and retain researchers spoke openly about promising hypotheses going untested, grant dollars sitting unused, and projects languishing in limbo for months to years. Read more.

By Jonathan Wosen

More great reads from STAT this week

Even as Wegovy rides high, interest surges in weight loss drugs that preserve muscle
Patients loved Carbon Health's diabetes program. That couldn't save it
Key questions (and answers) about the historic approval of a CRISPR-based medicine
What antidepressants are saying 30 years after the publication of 'Listening to Prozac'
Novo Nordisk wants to be a cardiovascular company, too, with sights set on inflammation
Hospitals say violence against health workers is surging. Tech companies are stepping in to help