AJMC Staff

New York City health officials have declared an end to the city’s biggest measles outbreak in nearly 3 decades; Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, has proposed canceling $81 billion in existing medical debt; Vertex Pharmaceuticals is taking a chance on a start-up’s early-stage science that could potentially one day emerge as a functional cure for type 1 diabetes (T1D).

Patients with psoriasis should be opportunistically screened for obstructive sleep apnea, an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease, said the authors of a recent study.

The Trump administration reconsiders eliminating the deferred deportation of immigrants receiving life-saving treatment; CDC and FDA urge vapers to stop usage amid correlating lung illnesses; Sanders hints at proposal to eliminate medical debt.

The relationship between cognitive impairment and symptomatic convergence insufficiency in Parkinsonian disorders has not been previously investigated.

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Maine wants to take more control over its Affordable Care Act marketplace; Surgeon General Jerome Adams, MD, MPH, has issued an advisory against marijuana use in young people and pregnant people; the FDA is warning of rare occurrences of serious liver injury from use of 3 hepatitis C virus (HCV) drugs.

A new government analysis revealed that despite a previous warning, CMS failed to take steps to ensure that Medicare Part D does not also pay for drugs that should be covered under the Part A hospice benefit; with studies of antidepressants’ safety and efficacy only following patients for a few years and with more people taking antidepressants for longer periods of time, health professionals are concerned that some people taking the drugs for extended periods shouldn’t be and are thus subjecting themselves to side effects and potential health risks; Medicaid advocates in Nebraska have filed a lawsuit to try and force the state to implement Medicaid expansion no later than November 17, 2019.

The authors said their finding that preventive medications for migraine might be underutilized surprised them, given that guidelines for migraine prevention exist in the United States, Canada, and Europe.

Purdue Pharma is offering up to $12 billion to settle lawsuits over its role in the opioid epidemic; the US Preventive Services Task Force is aiming to expand its hepatitis C virus (HCV) screening recommendations to include all adults aged 18 to 79 years; the majority of Democratic voters would be more likely to support a candidate that backs a single-payer health system like Medicare for All.

Johnson & Johnson is ordered to pay $572 million for its role in Oklahoma's opioid epidemic; President Trump eliminates protection of sick immigrants to remain in the United States; a federal judge is expected to rule on the Missouri law banning abortion after 8 weeks today.

CDC continues to investigate growing cases of lung illnesses for possible correlations to vape usage; a study suggests steroid inhaler use in patients with mild asthma may be ineffective; Oklahoma judge set to decide opioid lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson today.

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Health insurers are planning to expand their Affordable Care Act (ACA) plan offerings next year; a 4-in-1 pill can cut the risk of heart attacks and strokes; employers can see substantial savings with biosimilars if they implement a targeted effort to ecourage biosimilar use.

Gilead Sciences is challenging US government patents on the HIV prevention pill Truvada; states that expanded Medicaid saw bigger increases in prescriptions for opioid addiction treatment; the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will soon begin to share the genetic analyses of nearly 200,000 people who have participated in the “All of Us” precision medicine project.

Cigna is seeking to sell its group benefits insurance business, which could be valued at $6 billion; migrants in US border detention centers will not receive the flu vaccine; 2 federal scientists tried to warn health officials and the public about the opioid crisis in 2006.

Planned Parenthood decides to withdraw from the Title X program after bid to halt Trump administration plan is rejected by courts; measles outbreaks are increasing, threatening to remove elimination status in the United States; a study finds that premature babies are not receiving necessary vaccinations.

Planned Parenthood's efforts to halt the Trump administraion's "gag rule" have been denied by a federal appeals court; e-cigarette usage is being probed by the CDC for links to reported cases of lung illnesses; public health experts warn that Trump's new administration plan will lead to ailing immigrants.

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Blood clots, or venous thromboembolism, remains a leading causes of death and healthcare spending in patients with cancer.

Researchers said taking genetic variability into account in the future will be helpful not only to understand the course of Parkinson disease but also to minimize heterogeneity in clinical trials.

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Generic drug makers are being accused of blocking a Congressional probe into their pricing practices; Illinois has become the first state to require insurance companies to pay for EpiPens for kids in cases of severe allergic reactions; Tufts Health Plan and Harvard Pilgrim Health will merge to create a new company covering 2.4 million people across New England.

Planned Parenthood plans to withdraw from Title X program, amid looming Trump Administration rule changes; a new cure accepted by the FDA for a deadly strain of tuberculosis has been found to have a 90% success rate in a patient trial; opioid distribution to patients has began to change amongst doctors with new recommendations based around set prescribing levels.

The US Preventive Services Task Force is recommending screening all adults for illicit drug use; Senator Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, is asking the FDA to perform more unannounced inspections of foreign drug manufacturing facilities; 5 years after Congress passed a law to reduce unneccessary diagnostic imaging tests, the law has yet to be implemented.

A 28% reduction in hospital admissions leads to a broader agreement, the physicians' group and payer say.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the World Health Organization, and the Congolese government announced that 2 experimental antibody-based treatments for Ebola are working so well that they will now be offered to all patients in the Democratic Republic of Congo; enrollment in insurance exchanges under the Affordable Care Act remains stable for people with lower incomes who received subsidies, but premium increases caused a 24% decline for people who did not qualify for assistance; scientists are repurposing old drugs or combining them with traditional antibiotics in an effort to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

A class-action trial begins Monday in Hartford, Connecticut seeking to end Medicare regulations around something called “observation care” in the hospital; California hospitals are providing significantly less free and discounted care to low-income patients because the Affordable Care Act reduced the number of uninsured patients; The American Academy of Pediatrics released its first policy statement about how racism affects the health and development of children and adolescents.

A recent review of biomarkers of subclinical atherosclerosis in patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) showed more severe atherosclerotic disease compared with patients who have only psoriasis.

The FDA ordered 4 companies to stop selling 44 of their flavored e-liquid and hookah tobacco products that lack the required approval for sale; CMS has yet to implement a 2014 law preventing unnecessary, expensive screening tests (magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomagraphy scans and other tests) that could harm patients and waste resources; Amarin, which is seeking FDA approval for an expansion of Vascepa labeling to include data that showed a 25% reduction in the risk of heart attacks and strokes, said the FDA has scheduled an advisory committee meeting for November 14.

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