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Vice President Kamala Harris interviewed her running mates over the weekend, but it’s still unclear who she’ll pick. If you’re the betting type, you might want to check out where the major candidates stand on health care.
The best tool we have to treat methamphetamine addiction is being held back by politics
When it comes to drugs like methamphetamine and cocaine, there aren’t any highly effective medications like those used to treat opioid addiction. But behavioral incentives to treat meth addiction are an established science, and offering financial rewards like gift cards to people who can prove they’ve cut down or stopped using meth is particularly effective, STAT’s Lev Facher reports. So is the U.S. looking to provide this kind of high-quality treatment?
Not really. The Biden administration has expressed support for such rewards, known formally as contingency management. But there has long been a $75 annual cap on the amount of money that can be given to patients under programs funded by some federal programs, and the Biden administration has refused to increase it. Read more about the current political landscape.
45%
That’s the percentage of insured working-age adults who said they received a bill or were charged a copay for a medical service in the past year that they thought should have been free or covered by insurance, according to a new report from the Commonwealth Fund. Less than half of those people said they disputed the bills. But nearly two in five who disputed their bills said their insurer ultimately reduced or waived their bills.
Buying weight loss drugs online is a ‘risky business’
As shortages of blockbuster obesity and diabetes drugs continue, people have found a “far west“online prescribers who provide compound There are versions of these drugs that are not FDA approved and have not been evaluated for safety and effectiveness. Illegal online pharmacies also offer to mail the drugs without a prescription. But how safe are the products they ship?
In a new study, published in JAMA Network Open, researchers found that semaglutide ordered from illegal sites contained significantly more of the drug than labeled, and one sample even contained signs of potential bacterial contamination during manufacturing.
“It’s a very, very risky business to buy this product online,” study co-author Tim Mackey told STAT’s Katie Palmer. “Just because it’s available online, accessible, and sold over the counter doesn’t mean it’s authentic.” Read more.
Giving patients ‘full informed consent’ about mental health crises and the police
As a psychiatrist and someone who has been hospitalized while experiencing a mental health crisis, Rupinder Legha knows the dangers police can pose and the prison-like conditions of an emergency room. Yet calling 911 or going to the nearest emergency room is the standard advice any clinician will give to someone experiencing an acute mental health crisis.
In light of Sonya Massey’s death and so many others who have been killed while in need of mental health support, Legha proposes a new medical standard for responding to mental health emergencies: “full informed consent” that gives patients a clearer idea of the potential risks of police intervention and emergency room visits. In an editorial for PLOS Mental Health, she also recommends exploring other options when possible so that people in crisis can remain at home with family monitoring them and with the support of a healthcare provider.
“As health care providers, we can no longer sit idly by while another death receives intense media attention,” Legha writes. “We owe people much more than that.”
WHO chief questions whether MPOX is a public health emergency
Last Monday, we learned that researchers were planning a clinical trial to test whether the MPOX vaccine could protect people exposed to the infection from getting sick or reduce the severity of the disease. The stakes are high, because hundreds of people in the Democratic Republic of Congo have died from the disease this year. Now, virus sequencing shows that the deadly variant has also spread to Uganda and Kenya, according to a ScienceInsider article published Saturday.
“I am considering convening an International Health Regulations Emergency Committee to advise me on whether the mpox outbreak should be declared a public health emergency of international concern,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement to the outlet.
This is the first time the agency has made a statement about a possible PHEIC related to this mpox outbreak, STAT’s Helen Branswell told me. Read STAT’s coverage of mpox to stay up to date.
How Lab Leak Theory Is Harming Science
How did COVID-19 start? The lab-leak theory, which suggests that the coronavirus was modified or even created in a Wuhan lab and then escaped, has gained popularity among policymakers and the general public. But most scientists, especially virologists, believe that the virus jumped from animals to humans.
In an essay published in First Opinion, microbiologist John P. Moore argues that the lab leak hypothesis is turning public opinion against virology research at a time when it has a critical role to play in addressing pandemic threats. “Viruses are the real threat to humanity, not virologists,” he writes. Read how Moore explains how the lab leak theory threatens real science.
What we read
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Many Gaza medical workers have been arrested or killed, according to the New York Times
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Since Roe’s Fall, Self-Managed Abortions Have Increased, KFF Health News
- Performance-enhancing drugs or placebos? The myth at the heart of the fight against doping, STAT
- The Future of Junk Food Could Be Healthy Food, Bloomberg Says
- Letters on Sonya Massey’s death, vaccine injuries and more, STAT
