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ACA enrollment platforms suspended over alleged foreign access to consumer data

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Suspicions that U.S. consumers’ personal information could be accessed from India led regulators to abruptly bar two large private sector enrollment websites from accessing the Affordable Care Act marketplace in August.

New details about the suspensions come in legal filings made late Friday stemming from an effort by the two to regain access...Read more

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US uninsured rate was stable in 2023, even as states' Medicaid purge began

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

The proportion of Americans without health insurance remained stable in 2023, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday, close to the record low the Biden administration achieved in 2022 through expansions of public programs, including the Affordable Care Act.

About 8% of Americans were uninsured, a statistically insignificant increase of just 0.1 ...Read more

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New mammogram rule gives women more details to guard against breast cancer

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

ATLANTA – A new federal rule takes effect Tuesday that could potentially help more women spot breast cancer earlier. The FDA will require mammogram providers across the country to notify women if they have dense breast tissue, and recommend they consult with their doctor about whether they need additional screening.

While many women are ...Read more

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Patients suffer when Indian Health Service doesn't pay for outside care

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

When the Indian Health Service can’t provide medical care to Native Americans, the federal agency can refer them elsewhere. But each year, it rejects tens of thousands of requests to fund those appointments, forcing patients to go without treatment or pay daunting medical bills out of their own pockets.

In theory, Native Americans are ...Read more

Tess Crowley/Chicago Tribune/TNS

With marijuana at a new level of scrutiny, here's what the research says

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

CHICAGO -- “Illinois Democrats legalized marijuana,” proclaims a new billboard in Chicago. The ad, paid for by Gov. JB Pritzker’s campaign fund, takes credit for a change that polls show is supported by about two-thirds of Americans.

Chicagoan Sheila Hogan, one of 140,000 people registered in the state to use medical cannabis, believes in...Read more

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As record heat sweeps the US, some people must choose between food and energy bills

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — During the heat dome that blanketed much of the Southeast in June, Stacey Freeman used window units to cool her poorly insulated mobile home in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Over the winter, the 44-year-old mom relied on space heaters.

In both instances, her energy bills reached hundreds of dollars a month.

“Sometimes I ...Read more

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Boom, now bust: Budget cuts and layoffs take hold in public health

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Even as federal aid poured into state budgets in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, public health leaders warned of a boom-and-bust funding cycle on the horizon as the emergency ended and federal grants sunsetted. Now, that drought has become reality and state governments are slashing budgets that feed local health departments.

Congress ...Read more

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How did a Missouri resident catch bird flu spreading in livestock? What we know so far

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

A mysterious human case of the H5N1 bird flu was recently discovered in Missouri — and experts are still working to determine how the patient was infected.

The avian flu has been circulating among poultry and wild birds since 2022, but made the interspecies jump to dairy cows earlier in 2024. Just over a dozen humans have been infected in the...Read more

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Blood test at birth could eventually identify babies at increased risk of SIDS

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Researchers at UC San Francisco have found that newborns with an unusual pattern of metabolites in their blood — the byproducts created when the body processes energy — were far more likely to die from sudden infant death syndrome, adding to a growing body of research suggesting that babies who die from SIDS may have underlying conditions ...Read more

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Cannabis Research Institute opens in Chicago, looking to dig deep into marijuana

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

CHICAGO — Nearly a year and a half after it was announced, the Cannabis Research Institute is getting operations underway in Chicago, with the goal of studying, among other things, how marijuana could help or harm people.

The institute’s leader hopes to break new ground in finding medical uses for cannabis, possibly for the treatment of ...Read more

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Ask the Pediatrician: 10 tips to keep children healthy and happy in school

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

As the school year begins, every family wants their children to be healthy, active and ready to learn.

To prepare children and teens to be at their best – physically, mentally, socially and emotionally – the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends regular visits with the pediatrician, as well as immunizations that help keep all family ...Read more

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Errors in Deloitte-run Medicaid systems can cost millions and take years to fix

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

The computer systems run by the consulting giant Deloitte that millions of Americans rely on for Medicaid and other government benefits are prone to errors that can take years and hundreds of millions of dollars to update. While states wait for fixes from Deloitte, beneficiaries risk losing access to health care and food.

Changes needed to fix ...Read more

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Understanding CAR-T cell therapy for cancer: Mayo Clinic expert explains how it works

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

World Lymphoma Day is September 15

ROCHESTER, Minn. — For many doctors and researchers, immunotherapy that uses someone’s own immune system to target and attack cancer cells is the next and best frontier of cancer treatment. Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, or CAR-T cell therapy, is one type of immunotherapy. Sometimes likened to a...Read more

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Cures for rare diseases now exist. Employers don't want to pay

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

As a wave of gene therapies with multimillion-dollar price tags hit the market, many employers are dropping coverage and leaving families in a bind.

For Amanda Reed, the blows came one after another, a gut-punch introduction to motherhood.

Newborn screening this spring revealed her twin boys had a rare inherited condition called spinal ...Read more

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Starmer blames Tories for 'broken' health service in England

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Prime Minister Keir Starmer blamed his Conservative predecessors for leaving England’s health service in a “broken” state, in his latest effort to frame the political narrative ahead of what’s expected to be a difficult budget proposal next month.

Successive Tory-led governments dealt “unforgiveable” damage to the National Health ...Read more

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New treatment could be “game-changing tool” in fight against Alzheimer's, CSU research finds

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

DENVER — Laboratory mice with cognitive issues including Alzheimer’s disease showed improved memory skills within a couple of weeks of treatment with a new medicine tested at Colorado State University.

The combination of drugs targets two brain proteins critical in neuroinflammation, which is involved in brain aging and Alzheimer’s, ...Read more

As eastern equine encephalitis spreads, a neurologist explains how to stay safe during this latest outbreak of the ‘triple E’ virus

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

The 2024 outbreak of eastern equine encephalitis – known as triple E or EEE – has caused six reported and confirmed human disease cases in five states, including one death, as of Sept. 4, 2024.

EEE surfaces nearly every year in the U.S., but with another outbreak of West Nile virus also spreading across the country, health ...Read more

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Health agencies scramble to prepare for new mpox strain

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

WASHINGTON — State and federal health agencies are gearing up to respond to a new strain of mpox — the virus formerly known as monkeypox — if the new strain spreads to the United States.

But this time, they are doing so with fewer resources.

Both an mpox public health emergency declaration and federal pandemic preparedness law were still...Read more

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Massachusetts reports another EEE case, raising risk levels: 'Mosquito season is not over'

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Another EEE case has been reported in the Bay State, raising the risk levels in several communities as health officials remind people to keep using bug spray and reschedule outdoor evening events.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health on Thursday announced an additional human case of Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE) and one more human ...Read more

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As interest from families wanes, pediatricians scale back on COVID shots

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

When pediatrician Eric Ball opened a refrigerator full of childhood vaccines, all the expected shots were there — DTaP, polio, pneumococcal vaccine — except one.

“This is where we usually store our COVID vaccines, but we don’t have any right now because they all expired at the end of last year and we had to dispose of them,” said Ball...Read more