The shortage of primary care doctors is a national problem. To cope, a large health system in Massachusetts is using an AI tool to screen patients and refer them to other care.
Martha Bebinger
WBUR
Posted inNPR
After NIH grant cuts, breast cancer research at Harvard slowed, and lab workers left
Amid NIH funding delays, reversals and uncertainty, a scientist at Harvard who studies breast cancer has lost one-third of her lab employees and wonders if she can continue her research experiments.
Posted inNPR
Why these doctors started writing medical ‘prescriptions’ for solar power
Doctors in Boston got tired of writing letters to power companies asking them to help vulnerable patients. Then they realized the solar panels on the hospital roof might offer a solution.
Posted inNPR
Instead of sodas, these vending machines offer needles and Narcan to fight overdoses
Groups trying to reduce overdose deaths and the spread of infectious diseases are using vending machines to get clean needles, pipes, wound care kits, Narcan and other safety supplies to drug users.
Posted inArticle, Health, Politics
How 2020 Democrats’ Health Care Plans Would Rock Hospital Budgets In Mass.
In this election season, when tackling health care costs is a top voter concern, the Democratic primary candidates are offering different visions for reform, and have spent debates arguing over the costs of those plans. What has gotten less attention, and what is at the heart of any reform, is the biggest factor in health care […]
Posted inArticle, Health
Progress Slows In Massachusetts: Death Rates Flat In Opioid Crisis
Overdose deaths tied to opioids dropped 3% in Massachusetts from 2016 to 2017 and another 2% from 2017 to 2018. But progress slowed last year.
Posted inArticle, Health
Opioid Overdose Deaths In Mass. Are Down 11% So Far This Year
Opioid-related overdose deaths in Massachusetts are down an estimated 11% in the first six months of 2019, compared with the same period last year. The preliminary data from the state Department of Public Health show a trend that started in 2016, despite a continued increase in the presence of fentanyl in fatalities. It’s now in 92% of […]
Posted inArticle, Health
Insurers Harvard Pilgrim And Tufts Health Plan Say They’ll Merge
Tufts Health Plan and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, the second- and third-largest health insurers in Massachusetts, respectively, say they plan to merge. The still-to-be-named entity would have nearly 2.4 million members in Massachusetts, Maine, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. “Our communities and consumers today face four major hurdles in health care: affordability, access, quality […]
Posted inArticle, Health
Most Mass. Counties Have Among The Highest Rates Of Dispensing Overdose-Reversal Drug
Massachusetts has among the highest rates of dispensing naloxone, the drug that can reverse an opioid overdose, according to new federal data.Among counties nationwide, Franklin County in western Massachusetts last year had the fourth-highest rate of prescriptions for naloxone — commonly sold under the brand name Narcan — with more than 2,200 prescriptions filled for every 100,000 […]
Posted inArticle, Health
Massachusetts Moves To Negotiate Medicaid Drug Prices
On Monday, Massachusetts legislators passed steps designed to reduce spending on the most costly drugs covered by MassHealth, the state Medicaid program. Gov. Charlie Baker is reviewing the plan, a spokesman for his office said. It included much of what the Republican governor initially proposed in January to curb drug costs that he says have nearly […]
