Sharp Uptick in Gender-Affirming Hormone Therapy Visits After ACA’s Passage
Healthcare visits for transgender-related diagnoses and gender-affirming hormone therapy (GAHT) have been rising, researchers reported, suggesting it as an opportunity for HIV prevention. Within a commercial health plan database, the proportion of adults with a transgender-related diagnosis code increased by 30.8% each year from 2014 to 2021 (13.4 to 113.9 per 100,000 enrolled persons) for […]
Nurse Home-Visit Program Shows No Benefit for Prenatal Care Uptake
Sending registered nurses out on home visits throughout pregnancy failed to move the needle when it came to improving uptake of prenatal care, a randomized trial involving Medicaid patients found. Use of prenatal care services and receipt of recommended guideline-based prenatal care were similar whether patients received the intensive program or were assigned to a […]
Fewer Emergency Department Visits End With Opioid Prescriptions
Fewer emergency department (ED) visits end with a prescription for opioids, CDC survey data showed. The percentage of ED visits with an opioid prescribed at discharge fell from 12.2% in 2017-2018 to 8.1% in 2019-2020, reported Loredana Santo, MD, MPH, and Susan Schappert, MA, of the National Center for Health Statistics in Hyattsville, Maryland, in […]
High-Intensity Billing for ‘Treat and Release’ ED Visits Has Shot Up Since 2006
High-intensity billing during “treat and release” emergency department (ED) visits rose dramatically over the last two decades, according to an observational study. From 2006 to 2019, the share of treat-and-release visits at the ED (those where patients were not admitted) that included high-intensity billing jumped from 4.8% to 19.2%, reported researchers led by Alexander Janke, […]
Battery-Related ED Visits in Kids ‘Remain Too Frequent,’ Study Suggests
Rates of pediatric battery-related emergency department (ED) visits increased significantly from 2010 to 2017, with children ages 5 and younger making up the majority of cases, an observational study showed. Among a nationally representative sample, an estimated 70,322 (95% CI 51,275-89,369) battery-related ED visits occurred during the study period (9.5 visits per 100,000 children annually), […]
Paternal alcohol use increases frequency of fetal development issues
Prenatal visits have traditionally focused almost exclusively on the behavior of mothers, but new research from the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences (CVMBS) continues to suggest that science should be looking more closely at the fathers’ behavior as well. Dr. Michael Golding, an associate professor in the CVMBS’ Department of Veterinary […]
Opioid Overdoses Rose by a Third During Pandemic – MedicineNet Health News
Latest Mental Health News FRIDAY, July 30, 2021 Opioid overdose-related visits to U.S. emergency departments rose by nearly one-third during the COVID-19 pandemic last year. That’s the key finding in a new analysis of data from 25 emergency departments in Alabama, Colorado, Connecticut, North Carolina, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. “COVID-19, and the disruptions […]