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Health Insurers Must Count Co-Pays as Patient Costs, Court Rules
A district judge struck down a federal rule implemented under the Trump administration that allowed health insurers to ignore co-pay assistance when tabulating a patient’s out-of-pocket costs. The ruling is a win for people who need expensive prescription drugs, notably those with HIV, hepatitis, cancer, arthritis, diabetes and multiple...
Study Finds Disparities in Pediatric Asthma Treatment
Black children with asthma are less likely to be transported to a hospital by emergency medical services (EMS) despite being more likely to have severe asthma episodes compared with white children, according to a study. Published in Prehospital Emergency Care, the study sought to understand how prehospital treatment and hospital...
She Received Chemo in Two States. Why Did It Cost So Much More in Alaska?
Emily Gebel was trying to figure out why she was having trouble breastfeeding. That’s when she felt a lump. Gebel, a mother of two, went to her primary care doctor in Juneau, Alaska, who referred her for testing, she said. Her 9-month-old was asleep in her arms when she...
Black People Less Likely to Be Eligible for Hepatitis B Treatment
Black people are less likely to meet the criteria for chronic hepatitis B treatment, but among those who do, the likelihood of starting therapy did not differ significantly by race or socioeconomic factors, according to study results reported in JAMA Network Open. An estimated 2.4 million people in the United...
Don’t Forget the F/U After Your Lung Cancer Screening
For the last 10 years, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has advised that adults between the ages of 50 and 80 who have a 20 pack-year smoking history and currently smoke (or have quit within the past 15 years) should receive a low-dose computed tomography (CT) every year to check for lung cancer.
Is coffee good or bad for you?
Coffee often gets a bad rap, perhaps due to the notion that anything so enjoyable must be bad for you. But in fact, studies show that coffee has numerous health benefits. Coffee’s effect on the liver has the largest body of evidence. Studies have found that coffee may reduce the risk of liver fibrosis and cirrhosis, fatty liver disease, alcohol-related liver disease and liver cancer. An analysis comparing countries with and without heavy coffee consumption suggests that drinking two cups a day could reduce the number of liver-related deaths by more than 450,000 a year worldwide. Another study found that drinking three cups a day cut the risk of death in half for people with both HIV and hepatitis C.
Healthy Recipe: Tangy Braised Kale With Tomato
Braised kale is a quick, easy, and delicious way to eat your greens. In this pretty dish, the cancer-fighting veggie lead — the cruciferous superstar kale — is backed up by lycopene-rich cooked tomatoes and protein-packed peas. Serve it with some quinoa or steamed brown rice to transform it from a side into a main dish.
Florida Man Pleads Guilty to Distributing Over $16M in Altered HIV Meds
A Miami man has pleaded guilty to setting up companies in several states in order to sell at least $16.7 million in adulterated and misbranded HIV meds, notably Truvada and Biktarvy. He faces a maximum of five years in prison. Armando Herrera and his co-conspirators established companies in California, Colorado,...
New Medicare Advantage Plans Tailor Offerings to Asian Americans, Latinos, and LGBTQ+
As Medicare Advantage continues to gain popularity among seniors, three Southern California companies are pioneering new types of plans that target cultural and ethnic communities with special offerings and native-language practitioners. Clever Care Health Plan, based in Huntington Beach, and Alignment Health, based in nearby Orange, both have plans aimed...
Dare to Dream a Better Future for Children With Blood Cancers
Did you know that blood cancer is the most common cancer diagnosis for children, accounting for 40% of pediatric cancer cases? In fact, nearly 55,000 children and adolescents in the United States currently have blood cancer or are in remission from blood cancer. Advances in medicine have given most of...
NIH Designates People With Disabilities as a Population With Health Disparities
Today [September 26], Eliseo J. Pérez-Stable, MD, director of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD), designated people with disabilities as a population with health disparities for research supported by the National Institutes of Health. The decision was made in consultation with Robert Otto Valdez, PhD,...
How Will Rural Americans Fare During Medicaid Unwinding? Experts Fear They’re on Their Own
Abby Madore covers a lot of ground each day at work. A staffer at a community health center in Carson City, Nevada, Madore spends her days helping low-income residents understand their health insurance options, including Medicaid. Her phone is always ringing, she said, as she fields calls from clients who dial in from the state’s remote reaches seeking help.
SARS-CoV-2 Infects Coronary Arteries, Increases Plaque Inflammation
SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can directly infect the arteries of the heart and cause the fatty plaque inside arteries to become highly inflamed, increasing the risk of heart attack and stroke, according to a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. The findings, published in the journal Nature Cardiovascular Research, may help explain why certain people who get COVID-19 have a greater chance of developing cardiovascular disease, or if they already have it, develop more heart-related complications.
Magic Johnson on HIV Awareness in 2023, Grandkids, Marriage
Last week, the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation (ETAF) honored NBA Hall of Fame legend, philanthropist and businessman Earvin “Magic” Johnson and his wife, Cookie Johnson—also a philanthropist and entrepreneur—at the fourth annual Elizabeth Taylor Ball to End AIDS fundraising gala. Cohosts Angela Bassett and Courtney B....
Psilocybin Improves Depression in People With Cancer
Psilocybin therapy along with group and individual counseling can ameliorate the severity of depression for people with cancer, according to study results published in JAMA Oncology. In a commentary on the same topic in BMJ, experts urged doctors to explore “magic mushrooms” as a way to ease cancer-related anxiety and distress.
NIH Releases Strategic Plan for Research on Herpes Simplex Virus
In response to the persistent health challenges of herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) and HSV-2, today [September 19] the National Institutes of Health released the Strategic Plan for Herpes Simplex Virus Research. An NIH-wide HSV Working Group developed the plan, informed by feedback from more than 100 representatives of the...
New Cancer Diagnoses Fell Abruptly Early in the COVID-19 Pandemic
New diagnoses of six major cancer types in the United States fell abruptly in early 2020, coinciding with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to findings from part 2 of the latest Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer. The volume of pathology reports also declined...
‘Dr. Google’ Meets Its Match: Dr. ChatGPT
As a fourth-year ophthalmology resident at Emory University School of Medicine, Riley Lyons’ biggest responsibilities include triage: When a patient comes in with an eye-related complaint, Lyons must make an immediate assessment of its urgency. He often finds patients have already turned to “Dr. Google.” Online, Lyons said, they...
Heartburn Med Zantac Does Not Increase Cancer Risk
For decades, people relied on ranitidine, sold under the brand name Zantac, to treat gastroesophageal reflux disease, or acid reflux, the main symptom of which is heartburn, and peptic ulcer disease. Then, in 2020, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found a human carcinogen linked to increased cancer risk in some ranitidine medications and requested withdrawal of all prescription and over-the-counter medications containing ranitidine in 2020.
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Real Health is the leading health magazine for African Americans in the United States. Launched in 2004, the goal of Real Health is to help African Americans of all ages achieve optimum health and wellness—physically, mentally and emotionally—by offering readers current, accurate information based on the latest science through well-researched stories that educate, entertain, uplift and motivate members of the community at large to be their best selves.
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