Biden just left access to trans health care vulnerable to Trump’s whims
Late last week, the Biden administration announced it had finalized federal rules protecting trans people from discrimination in health care facilities. It’s the latest move the White House has taken to try to stem the relentless attacks on access to gender-affirming care by red-state legislatures over the last few years.
The rule resets Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, which protects patients from discrimination based on sex, to include gender identity. President Joe Biden’s version of the rule returns the protections to what they were when the law was initially implemented by the Obama administration in 2016. The restored rule brings the landmark health care law in alignment with how the conservative Supreme Court defined sex discrimination in Bostock v. Clayton County, a 2020 ruling that banned employment discrimination against LGBTQ people.
The 2024 US Trans Survey showed that 24% of all trans people did not see a doctor when they needed to in the last 12 months due to fear of mistreatment.
Biden’s decision is a small but important step in the fight back against the onslaught of right-wing attacks in conservative state legislatures. But it’s a far cry from the guaranteed protections trans people need.
In 2018, the Trump administration finalized its own rule to define sex as sex assigned at birth, ostensibly legalizing discrimination against trans people by medical providers. The back-and-forth between successive Democratic and Republican presidencies has left trans people in legal limbo on the federal level as the national political rhetoric against us has ramped up to extremes over recent years.
The renewed rule gives Biden’s Health and Human Services agency more leverage to punish health care providers and state health policies that discriminate against trans people. It also gives the agency and plaintiffs in federal lawsuits an additional basis to sue
A Season Of Health Breaches, A Season Of Changes
The recent hack of Change Healthcare underlines the critical need for systemic enhancements in … [+]
As spring ushers in a season of transformation, the healthcare sector finds itself at a crossroads, compelled to evolve rapidly in response to a series of recent, high-profile cyberattacks. One of the most significant incidents is the hack of Change Healthcare, a pivotal player in the U.S. healthcare system and a subsidiary of UnitedHealth. This organization, responsible for processing insurance and billing for hundreds of thousands of hospitals, pharmacies, and medical practices, holds sensitive health information on nearly half of all Americans. The breach profoundly impacted major entities like UnitedHealth, Walgreens, and CVS, carrying hefty financial repercussions and deeply affecting patient health. This incident underlines the critical need for systemic enhancements in cybersecurity and urgent reforms to safeguard sensitive data across the industry.
“Change” Was Changed
Following a cyberattack on February 21, UnitedHealth’s Change Healthcare continues to process over $14 billion of backlogged claims. UnitedHealth Group announced expectations for major clearinghouses to resume operations after a month-long effort to recover services that were disrupted nationwide, prompting a federal investigation. While critical services at Change Healthcare have been restored, UnitedHealth is cooperating with a HIPAA compliance investigation initiated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Addressing these issues will occupy Change Healthcare for the foreseeable future.
The outage, caused by a cyberattack from the ransomware gang known as ‘Blackcat,’ disrupted prescription deliveries and affected pharmacies across the country for multiple days. The breach continues to be investigated. Despite a recent crackdown on Blackcat, which included seizing its websites and decrypting keys, the hacker gang struck major businesses prior to this event and continues to threaten retaliation against critical infrastructure and
UK universities and schools urged to ban alcohol industry-backed health advice
Public health experts are calling for a ban on alcohol industry funded education programs in UK universities and schools, which they say normalize drinking and downplay the long term health risks of alcohol.
They include an industry-backed “freshers’ week survival guide” for university students and a theater based educational program in schools funded by Diageo, one of the world’s biggest alcoholic beverage companies, reports an investigation by The BMJ.
The call follows a successful campaign in Ireland that has led to educational programs funded by the alcohol industry being removed from schools.
But in the UK, universities continue to welcome initiatives funded by Drinkaware—a charity funded by major alcohol producers and retailers, venues and restaurant groups—intended to educate students about “responsible” drinking skills.
In universities, for example, Drinkaware materials are distributed to students, including a free cup to measure alcohol units and a wheel with the number of units and calories in popular drinks, while a “freshers’ week survival guide,” advises students to eat carbohydrates or protein before going out and drink plenty of water.
Drinkaware claimed “the cup and wheel help people understand how much they are drinking.” It added that it had quoted directly from the chief medical officer’s guidelines and that the stated aim of the guidelines is to inform people but not to stop them drinking alcohol, “as it is considered a normal activity.”
But Mark Petticrew at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said this focuses on the short term effects of getting drunk. “Food has no relevance to the longer term harms of alcohol, including cardiovascular disease, cancers and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders,” he argues.
May van Schalkwyk at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine added that the material selectively quotes from the chief medical
Newfoundland faces health care staffing crunch after private agency won’t release its travel nurses
Newfoundland and Labrador health officials are facing a staffing crunch after a temporary nurse agency refused to let its nurses continue to work in the province for another employer.
Toronto-based Canadian Health Labs had two contracts to send registered nurses from other parts of Canada to hospitals and nursing homes in Newfoundland that were left severely short-handed because of the pandemic.
Under a mutual non-poaching clause in the contracts, CHL cannot hire away local workers and, in return, nurses that the agency sent to Newfoundland cannot be employed by local health authorities for a year after the end of a contract, unless the company gives permission in writing.
Six nurses and three other people with first-hand knowledge have told The Globe and Mail that CHL has refused to release interested nurses from the clause.
Four nurses interviewed by The Globe said they would have been willing to stay in Newfoundland and take a pay cut to work for the public system but were not allowed to by CFL.
In response to questions from The Globe, CHL e-mailed a short written statement stating that, “CHL’s contracts contain standard business terms.”
At the time that one contract expired on Tuesday, CHL provided 31 registered nurses to Newfoundland’s Central Health region, an area that includes Gander and Grand Falls-Windsor, two of the province’s largest towns.
Yvette Coffey, the president of Registered Nurses’ Union Newfoundland & Labrador, said the expiry of the Central contract and the province’s inability to retain CHL’s nurses will have an impact on care. Her union members in Central have not been informed what steps officials will take to remedy the loss of those 31 RNs.
“If they don’t have any relief, they’re either going to have to close services, or they’re not going to get any summer holidays,” she
Looking for Reliable Health Info?
Before the internet, it wasn’t easy to find health information. Books were an option or you might have found pamphlets about a medical condition in the waiting room at the doctors’ office.
Of course, you could ask the doctor. Talking with your health care team remains the gold standard when you need guidance, but the additional options for self-guided education in the form of online health information have exploded over the last 20 years.
If only all of it was trustworthy, valid and vetted by medical experts.
Last month, in an article published by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Medical News, a public health expert at Purdue University said consumers should use caution, especially when social media sites, like TikTok and X, serve up new content from unfamiliar accounts. The info might not be true and the account’s content could be generated by a bot or artificial intelligence rather than a human being, said Laura Schwab-Reese, MA, PhD, an associate professor at Purdue University’s Department of Public Health. These health-related social media posts also could be a ploy to get you to buy something.
“If the platforms are showing you what to watch or read, you don’t know who is producing the content or why,” Schwab-Reese said.
For people managing rare diseases, the search for reliable medical information has an added dimension of difficulty. There are fewer authoritative sources for rare conditions and less is known because they haven’t been researched as thoroughly. Here are five steps that can steer you toward high-quality health information:
- Visit the websites of patient advocacy organizations, including the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD) and EURORDIS, which serves rare disease patients in Europe. Find links to patient organizations here for these conditions:
Hemophilia A
Hemophilia B
von Willebrand Disease
How Students Embrace Eco-Friendly Fashion Choices
In recent years, there has been a growing awareness of the environmental impact of the fashion industry. From water pollution caused by textile dyes to unethical labor practices and excessive waste, the dark side of fast fashion has become impossible to ignore. As a result, a new generation of conscious consumers has emerged, demanding more eco-friendly and sustainable fashion choices.
At the forefront of this movement are students, who are increasingly embracing sustainable fashion as a way to express their values and make a positive impact on the planet. Students are increasingly embracing eco-friendly fashion choices as a means to express their values and contribute to sustainability efforts, and with the option to seek writing help from professional services that offer to do my paper for me, they can explore and advocate for environmentally-conscious trends with confidence and impact. From thrift shopping to ethical brands, students are finding creative ways to look stylish while minimizing their environmental footprint.
Thrifting: The Ultimate in Sustainable Fashion
One of the most popular eco-friendly fashion choices among students is thrifting. Thrift stores offer a treasure trove of unique and affordable clothing options, allowing students to indulge their creativity while reducing waste and supporting local communities.
“Thrifting is not only a sustainable way to shop, but it’s also a lot of fun,” says Emma, a college student and avid thrifter. “Every time I go to a thrift store, it’s like a treasure hunt. You never know what gems you’ll find, and each piece has its own story.”
By choosing secondhand clothing, students are extending the life cycle of garments and preventing them from ending up in landfills. Additionally, thrift stores often support charitable causes, making thrifting a socially conscious choice.
Ethical and Sustainable Fashion Brands
Students are enthusiastically embracing eco-friendly fashion choices as a
PBS NewsHour | How to tell fact from fiction with gut health advice | Season 2024
>> GO ON SOCIAL MEDIA THESE DAYSES AND YOU’RE BOMB BARDED WITH ADS AND INFLUENCERS TOUTING ALL SORTS OF PROMISES PROMISING TO RID YOU OF DIGESTIVE TRACT COMPLAINTS, SUPPLEMENTS, JUICE DIETS, ALL PROMOTING WHAT’S CALLED GUT HOLT.
AND INTHAT MA STORY CANCERS OF THE INTESTINES ARE ON THE RISE.
HOW DO WE SEPARATE THE FACTS FROM THE FADS?
DR. SADIK IS AN ASSISTANT PROFESSOR AT THE PENNSYLVANIA SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AND ALSO ON THE CHIN CAL GUIDELINES COMMITTEE OF THE AMERICAN COST TRA INTERLOGICAL ASSOCIATION.
WHY ALL THIS FOCUS ON GUT HEALTH?
>> WE’RE DEFINITELY SEEING A RISE IN GASP TROUGH INTESTINAL DISEASES.
AND THEY CAN RAKE FROM HEARTBURN TO HEMORRHOIDS TO COLON CANCER AND ESPECIALLY RECENTLY WE’RE SEEING AN UPTICK IN COLO RESTRICTION ECTAL CANCER PARTICULARLY AMONG YOUNG INDIVIDUALS AND IT’S THE LEADING CAUSE OF CANCER DEATH IN MEN UNDER 50.
>> IS THERE A LEADING FACTOR FOR THAT RISE?
>> ONE IS A WESTERN DIET, ONE THAT IS HIGH IN FAST FOODS, PROCESSED FOODS.
MORE MEAT, LESS DIVERSE VEGETABLES AND OTHER LIFESTYLE CHOICES LIKE TOBACCO USE, ALCOHOL USE AND MORE SEDENTARY BEHAVIOR.
EMERGING RESEARCH ON THE MICROORGANISMS THAT LIVE IN YOUR GUT SHOW THAT THERE IS A LINK BETWEEN THOSE FUNCTIONS AND YOUR IMMUNE FUNCTION, YOUR CARDIOVASCULAR HEALTH, METABOLIC HEALTH AND INFORMERS SYSTEM.
WHAT WE EXPOSE OUR GUT TO CAN HAVE IMPACT ON OVERALL HEALTH AS WELL.
>> WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST MISCONTENTIONS YOU HEAR FROM YOUR PATIENTS IN YOUR PRACTICE AND DO THEY ASK YOU ABOUT PRODUCTS AND PROCEDURES THAT DON’T HAVE ANY USE?
>> YES, ONE OF THE MOST COMMON THINGS I’M ASKED ABOUT IS ABOUT DOING COLON CLEANSES THIS WHICH IS THIS CONCEPT THAT WE NEED TO DETOXIFY OR GUT.
BUT COLON CLEANSE IS NOT NECESSARY.
OUR LIVER AND KIDNEY, DETOX — DETOXIFY OUR BODIES
Critics question Ontario watchdog’s decision to keep health-care worker shortage data confidential
A team leader nurse gets updates from another nurse while they treat patients inside the intensive care unit of Humber River Hospital in Toronto, on April 20, 2021.CARLOS OSORIO/Reuters
Health care stakeholders and an expert on privacy are criticizing a recent ruling that allows the government of Ontario to keep details of the province’s shortages of nurses, personal support workers and doctors confidential.
Alec Fadel, an adjudicator at the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, was ruling on a bid by journalists at Global News to obtain human-resources data from the Ministry of Health through a freedom of information request.
Mr. Fadel acknowledged in his decision, released April 16, that there is “compelling public interest” in disclosing the figures. But he said this did not outweigh the Ministry of Health’s concerns that releasing detailed data could have a negative impact on the province’s ability to negotiate with doctors, nurses or private staffing agencies.
The Global News journalists will not seek a judicial review of the decision, they said.
Critics decried Mr. Fadel’s decision, saying he had relied too heavily on the government’s claim that making those figures public would be harmful to its relations with health professionals or private staffing agencies.
“This ruling is wrong-headed. The rationale for it really just doesn’t hold water. And I think it’s a dangerous ruling for Ontario,” Natalie Mehra, executive director of the non-profit Ontario Health Coalition, said in an interview.
She alluded to recent closings of emergency rooms, birthing units and outpatient labs in the province. “There couldn’t be a more pressing public interest than to know the data about the extent of the staffing shortages and whether or not the staffing plans of the government are adequate.”
Ms. Mehra also noted that the
The Fashion Influencers of the French Revolution
Most days, Anne Higonnet is able to keep her cool. She’s a distinguished professor of art history at Barnard College and Columbia University. Her research has been supported by the Guggenheim and Harvard Radcliffe Institute fellowships. She chooses her words, her tone and her clothing carefully. One day in 2017, though, as Higonnet was quietly working at the Morgan Library & Museum, decorum flew out the windows. She did something slightly unscholarly: She yelped.
“I began to hop up and down, which is a little bit rude,” Higonnet said. “Everyone is polite and quiet in these reading rooms, but inside, all researchers have that loud moment when you’re just so excited. I went to the librarians and said, ‘I’m so sorry I made so much noise, but you have something you don’t even know that you have.’”
That something was an extremely rare and complete set of fashion plates from the Journal des Dames et des Modes, a pre-Vogue, pre-Harper’s Bazaar magazine that launched in Paris in 1797, amid the French Revolution.
The publication documented a brief but crucial period in which clothing, especially women’s clothing, became an unprecedented force of cultural and social change. Corsets, heavy wigs and other restrictive sartorial norms were tossed off to make way for flowing, transparent dresses, handbags as statement pieces and toucan feathers sewn into white crepe dresses — a look that Joséphine Bonaparte, future empress of France, wore to a ball.
The discovery of the plates shed light on the role of fashion in the French Revolution, and on the contributions of the three audacious women who led the charge — a story that Higonnet tells in her new book, “Liberty Equality Fashion: The Women Who Styled the French Revolution.”
Higonnet’s three muses are Bonaparte, Térézia Tallien and Juliette Récamier. These close
Medicaid renewed for over 140K Michigan residents
The renewals come as Michigan’s Department of Health and Human Services works to maintain Medicaid coverage for those in the state who are eligible
NEWS RELEASE
MICHIGAN DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
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The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) renewed Medicaid and Healthy Michigan Plan coverage for an additional 141,471 people whose eligibility was up for redetermination in March, bringing the total to more than 1.5 million.
This announcement comes during Medicaid Awareness Month, which recognizes Medicaid as the largest insurance program in the United States.
The department is continuing its efforts to maintain Medicaid coverage for eligible Michiganders. During the COVID-19 pandemic, people continued to receive Medicaid coverage without having to renew annually under the Families First Coronavirus Act. The federal Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 ended the pause on annual redeterminations. Michigan reinstated the renewal process beginning in May 2023.
“As part of Medicaid Awareness Month, we are encouraging Michigan residents to submit their renewal paperwork to continue their access to quality, affordable health care,” said Elizabeth Hertel, MDHHS director. “Maintaining health care coverage for as many residents as possible continues to be our goal, whether it’s for routine check-ups or health care challenges. I’m pleased we’ve been able to renew Medicaid and Healthy Michigan Plan coverage for more than 1.5 million people so far.”
In addition to Governor’s proclamation, Meghan Groen, Michigan’s Medicaid director, was featured in a video that provided an overview of Medicaid benefits and reminded Michiganders to watch for their renewal packet and submit needed information to ensure they keep their health care coverage.
Over the past several months, MDHHS has used numerous strategies approved by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to help make the renewal process easier and to reduce the number of