politics (Dems)
Biden dropped out. What does that mean for the Dems' health care policy this election?
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President Biden has officially ended his bid for a second term in the White House and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to take his place, he announced yesterday. STAT's DC team reports that while Harris shares similar views as Biden on many issues, she stands left of the president on health care.
Harris has positioned herself as tougher on the industry by endorsing a transition to Medicare for All (though she still envisioned some sort of role for private plans) and calling for more aggressive drug pricing policies than Biden has been willing to employ. But her strongest health care issue by far is her advocacy for reproductive rights following the fall of Roe v. Wade. She was the first vice president to visit an abortion provider. Unlike Biden, who earlier in his political career held anti-abortion views, Harris has been consistent in her support of access to abortions.
Read more from STAT's Rachel Cohrs Zhang and Sarah Owermohle on Harris's health care positions, and check out their story on what reproductive rights advocates and others in health and medicine think about Harris. And don't forget — she'll only become the official nominee if the party backs her at the convention next month. Read more from STAT's John Wilkerson and Rachel about the other potential nominees.
politics (GOP)
Trump campaign provides details on his ear wound after rallying the base on health care at the RNC
Former President Donald Trump required no stitches after a gunshot grazed his ear at a campaign rally July 13, his former White House doctor said in a memo released Saturday by Trump's campaign. The bullet passed less than a quarter inch from the former president's head, causing a two-centimeter-wide wound and "significant bleeding, followed by marked swelling of the entire upper ear," Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) said in the letter. But "given the broad and blunt nature of the wound itself, no sutures were required," Jackson wrote.
Experts in trauma medicine told STAT earlier last week that the ear was likely to heal and fill in without stitches. The update comes after a week of public appearances at the RNC's campaign convention, where Trump appeared with a large bandage on his right ear and told attendees that the bullet came perilously close to killing him.
On Thursday night, Trump gave a 90-minute acceptance speech for the Republican nomination to the presidency. While the vast majority of his hour-and-a-half speech rallied convention-goers on the economy, border control, and foreign relations, the former president hit on some health care issues, such as Right to Try legislation, that have polled well with voters even if they have seen little impact so far.
Read more in two stories from STAT's Sarah Owermohle on how the wound is healing and what health care issues Trump did and didn't touch in his nomination acceptance speech last week.
health tech
Health systems scramble after global outages
A global outage to Microsoft systems disrupted care at health systems across the country Friday, STAT's health tech team reports. Hospital networks including Mass General Brigham canceled all non-urgent appointments and surgeries. Others, like Cincinnati Children's, were able to keep a regular schedule, but warned about delays.
The issue seemingly stemmed from a software update by the cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike, which then disabled computers running Microsoft Windows. While the use of Microsoft machines and software is extensive in health care, some systems, like Johns Hopkins Medicine, were not affected.
Studies show that patient outcomes during cyberattacks are worse — and while this outage isn't a hack, it still cripples many of the same systems. Read more on the latest.
medicine
Prior authorization hurts patient care: Survey
Seventy-eight percent of physicians say that the prior authorization process "often or sometimes" leads their patients to abandon treatment, according to an AMA survey of 1,000 practicing physicians. Prior authorization requires clinicians to get approval from an insurer to pay for a medication or service before actually providing it.
The vast majority of physicians surveyed (94%) responded that prior authorization sometimes, often, or always delays patients trying to access necessary care. Almost 20% said that prior authorization has resulted in a serious adverse event that hospitalized someone.
The stakes are high and insurers have a lot of power, which is why clinicians were outraged last summer when UnitedHealthcare attempted to instate a prior authorization policy for colonoscopies. Earlier this year, the Biden administration finalized a rule forcing insurance companies to give specific reasons for denying coverage.
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