"I just feel like the whole thing was a way to make money and prey on people," said one patient. 

June 8, 2024 Check out STAT+

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Kayana Szymczak for STAT How a device maker inundated pain patients with unwanted batteries and surprise bills The story of Zynex shows how easy it is for patients like Michelle Bean (above) to become trapped in a medical device company's oversupplying scheme. The practice is rampant in health care, but rarely impacts insurers' bottom lines enough to put companies like Zynex under regulatory or legal scrutiny. As a result, patients are left to fend for themselves. Read more. By Lizzy Lawrence

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Illustration: Christine Kao/STAT; Photos: Getty, Adobe, AP, CDC and NIAID These are the bird flu questions that influenza and animal scientists desperately want answered Investigating outbreaks always takes time. But it is startling this far into this situation that so many bird flu questions appear to be no closer to answers. To get a sense of what the key questions are, STAT asked scientists who have long worked on influenza or in veterinary medicine what they viewed as the most pressing questions. Read more. By Helen Branswell Adobe A new discovery about carbon dioxide is challenging decades-old ventilation doctrine Over the last three years, researchers in the U.K. working with next-generation bioaerosol technologies have discovered that CO2 plays a critical role in determining how long viruses can stay alive in the air: The more CO2 there is, the more virus-friendly the air becomes. Read more. By Megan Molteni More great reads from STAT this week Federal officials and physician groups express outrage over revelations of recent coercive sterilizations Psychedelics companies see FDA panel's vote as a growth opportunity, not a roadblock ASCO Takeaways: Winners, snoozers, the China question, and the art of cancer care Opinion: Outdated Medicare rules prevent some dementia patients from getting the medications they need As Washington mulls new AI rules, startup leaders want a seat at the table

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