First opinion
What will save rural psychiatry services?
Adobe
This is an easy one, according to First Opinion contributor Nadir Al-Saidi: higher Medicaid payments. Al-Saidi's father runs the only private psychiatric practice in their rural Michigan town, and is the sole psychiatrist contracted at the local hospital. "If there were ever to be an empty bed in the stress unit my psychiatrist dad manages, I'm certain he would admit himself," he writes.
Having a highly Medicaid-dependent patient panel makes it almost impossible for a psychiatrist to financially support a practice, he argues. Instead, most choose to practice in urban settings where more people are covered by private insurance enrollment, making the business more lucrative. Read more from Al-Saidi on the burden facing rural clinicians and what can be done to ease it.
climate
Heat waves are linked to early deliveries, per study
Heat waves are becoming more frequent and more intense across the world, and as temperatures rise, so do health risks. It can be especially dangerous for those with cardiovascular or chronic diseases — and several studies have identified an increased risk of preterm delivery and stillbirth after heat exposure. STAT's Nalis Merelli reported yesterday on a new study that confirms the link to early deliveries at a massive scale.
The research, published last week in JAMA Network Open, looked at more than 53 million singleton births that occurred in the 50 most populous U.S. cities during the hottest months of the year between 1993 and 2017. After a heat wave, preterm births increased by 2% and early births by 1%. But the effects were uneven: Mothers who were 29 or younger, had a lower level of education, and belonged to a minority ethnic or racial group saw a 4% increase in preterm births, and a 3% increase in early deliveries. Read more.
artificial intelligence
Health insurers boast to investors about using AI, but kept quiet when STAT reached out
Health insurers are telling shareholders that they are ramping up the use of artificial intelligence and hiring talent to implement the technology across their organizations, STAT's Brittany Trang reports. A review of regulatory filings from publicly-traded insurers showed several — including Elevance, Molina, and Cigna — investing in AI with the goal of saving money. (Elevance has hired nearly 500 people to work exclusively on AI.)
The expansion comes at the same time the health insurance industry is lobbying Congress to minimize regulation of AI in health care. And all five of the insurers that Brittany contacted declined to elaborate on how they are using AI — a lack of transparency that poses problems for an industry that has already been slammed by lawmakers for using AI to guide patient care. Read more on what we know about insurers' AI ambitions.
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