Self-insured employers are outmatched by hospitals when negotiating prices, study says
By Dave Muoio
FierceHealthcare.com—Large self-insured employers often aren’t able to leverage their market heft to bring down the price of medical services at hospitals.
The problem? Large employers’ market share is “relatively small” compared to that of local hospitals in many of the biggest U.S. labor markets, according to a recent study looking at data through 2016 published in the American Journal of Managed Care.
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Digital health dollars hit $15B high driven by telehealth investment in 2021
By Heather Landi
FierceHealthcare.com—Global venture capital funding for digital health companies hit a $15 billion high in the first half of 2021, driven in large part by telehealth investment.
Funding activity was up by 138% during the first half of 2021, compared to $6.3 billion raised in the first half of 2020, according to a report from Mercom Capital Group, a global communications and research firm.
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Public Health Experts Call on CDC To Change Its Mask Guidance
By Pien Huang
NPR.org—The summer surge in COVID-19 cases is an unwelcome surprise for health officials and experts who thought, for a brief period, that the U.S. had the coronavirus pandemic largely under control.
“This is the low season.”
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Schizophrenia linked to marijuana use disorder is on the rise, study finds
By Katie Hunt
CNN.com—The proportion of schizophrenia cases linked with problematic use of marijuana has increasd over the past 25 years, according to a new study from Denmark.
In 1995, 2% of schizophrenia diagnoses in the country were associated with cannabis use disorder.
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Hospitalized Covid-19 patients are asking for the vaccine—when it’s too late, two health care workers say
By Jason Hanna
CNN.com—As the Delta variant helps fuel a surge in Covid-19 hospitalizations in the Us, unvaccinated patients are regretting their inoculation status, two health care workers say.
“When they come in to the (hospital) system, they say, ‘Can I get vaccinated?’ And at that point, you can’t,” Alix Zacharski, an intensive care clinical nurse manager at Miami’s Jackson Health System, told CNN’s “Newsroom” Thursday.
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YouTube partners with Mass General on health content and misinformation backlash
By Heather Landi
FierceHealthcare.com—The first thing many people do when they have a health question is head online, but when it comes to COVID-19 and vaccines, the answers they’re finding might do more harm than good.
But amid the deluge of misinformation, YouTube is now stepping up to surface more credible health information.
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Social Media Is a Public Health Crisis. Let’s Treat It Like One.
By Helen Lee Bouygues
USNews.come—When it comes to social media, the red flags just keep appearing.
Amid debate, experts have found that social media use appears linked to negative mental health impacts among young people.
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U.S. Is ‘Far Away From The Peak’ Of Delta Variant, Public Health Expert Warns
By Joe Walsh
Forbes.com—As the coronavirus’ more contagious Delta variant fuels a surge in cases, the physicians and public health professor Dr. Ashish Jha offered a jarring warning on CNBC on Thursday, telling viewers infections may continue to climb for weeks—especially in undervaccinated areas.
In a Thursday evening interview with CNBC’s Stepard Smith, Jha said it’s unclear when Covid-19 cases will peak, but they would continue increasing until September.
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