public health
More docs are screening for social risk. Does it work?
It's become more and more clear that social determinants of health play a key role in shaping risk for diseases and chronic conditions. In 2017, just 15% of physician practices screened patients for five common social risks, including food insecurity, housing instability, and interpersonal violence. New survey data published Friday in JAMA Network Open found that by 2022, that percentage increased to 27%.
It's a substantial increase, but the research shows that screening is "still vastly underperformed," two physicians who weren't involved write in an accompanying commentary. There's also a lack of data on whether this screening is actually associated with improved health outcomes.
More research is needed. But in the meantime, it remains clear that social factors are key drivers of health. In the same issue of the same journal, I read a study that found some of the same social risks were associated with nonadherence to cancer screenings.
policy
Medicaid cuts would be a 'crisis' for people with disabilities
President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to cut corporate tax rates and extend the cuts to individuals that Republicans passed the last time he was in office. He also says he'll keep Medicare and Social Security intact. To make that math work, Republicans are eyeing deep cuts to Medicaid. Nobody has laid out a concrete plan yet, but ideas like adding work requirements, spending caps, or changing reimbursement rates have been mentioned. Experts say that changes like these could effectively end the federal government's role as a financial backstop that guarantees individual health coverage, and people with disabilities are especially at risk.
"Medicaid is probably the one thing that helps people with disabilities or can help people with disabilities at every stage of their life," nonprofit CEO and advocate Katy Neas told STAT's Timmy Broderick. "It is the one place that pays for things that nobody else pays for." Read more.
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