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EVERYTHING
How Medicaid (Already) Tracks ‘Waste, Fraud, and Abuse’
What: The words “waste, fraud, and abuse” have been thrown around a lot lately in Washington, and in general, who would be against eliminating that? But there is little evidence of nefarious spending of the magnitude required to pay for the massive billionaire tax cuts that Trump wants. KFF has an explainer on “program integrity” in Medicaid – including the important point that most day-to-day payments are made by *state* governments. (Medicaid covers nearly 40% of births in the United States.)
Key line: “What is known about fraud in Medicaid is that it’s not unique to Medicaid (fraud also occurs in Medicare and private health insurance) and is mostly committed by providers. There are checks on fraud, waste, and abuse at both the federal and the state levels, as described in the sections above. GAO and MACPAC recommendations to reduce fraud and abuse may involve additional investments in oversight and transparency but not reductions in federal funding.”
Source: KFF
The Real Threats to Women’s Health Research in Trump’s America
What: Founding CEO of Tia Carolyn Witte has a new publication called XX Factor, and she recently sat down with Kathryn Schubert to talk about the real threats versus bluster on research in women’s health. (Spoiler: there are real threats ahead.) But some good news is that the Biden executive order on women’s health research still appears to be in effect.
Key line: “Of greatest concern to us right now are the large-scale reductions to our health workforce — from agencies including NIH, CDC, FDA, and more. These cuts are worrisome for many reasons, but to name a few we fear they could cause research delays, stifle innovation, reduce the ability of these agencies to attract the nation’s top scientific talent, and put America’s standing as a global scientific leader in jeopardy.” – Kathryn Shubert
Source: XX Factor
FERTILITY
Birth Rate for Women 40+ Jumps 127%
What: NBC News digs into fertility stats released earlier this month from the federal government and explains that the fertility rate has significantly increased for women over 40. From 1990 to 2023, the fertility rate for that age group jumped 127%. On the flip side, a record low number of teenagers are giving birth.
Key line: “’There’s a flip in the age distribution,’ said Elizabeth Wildsmith, a family demographer and sociologist at Child Trends, a nonpartisan research group.”
Source: NBC News
PREGNANCY + POSTPARTUM
A New Way to Flag High Blood Pressure Postpartum?
What: A study of over 800 low-income Hispanic women found that those who had clinically normal blood pressure throughout their pregnancy and did not experience a drop in second trimester had a nearly five times higher risk of developing high blood pressure in the five years after birth.
Key line: “’This group of women would not be identified as having higher long-term hypertension risk by any of the current clinical criteria, since their blood pressure remained below diagnostic thresholds and most did not have other traditional risk factors,’ said Shohreh Farzan, PhD, associate professor of population and public health sciences at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and the study’s senior author. The findings suggest that tracking blood pressure patterns during pregnancy could help identify this underrecognized group and plan interventions that may prevent cardiovascular disease, said the study’s first author, Zhongzheng (Jason) Niu, PhD.”
Source: Keck School of Medicine USC
ABORTION ACCESS
What’s Really Going on In Texas
What: Mother Jones’ Madison Pauly reminds us of the pregnant women who have died in Texas due to abortion bans, after their state AG arrested a midwife for allegedly performing an abortion. She also covers the New York doctor indicted by Texas, and the state AG’s history with corruption accusations.
Key line: “Experts attribute the increasing danger of being pregnant in Texas to doctors delaying or withholding treatments out of fear of running afoul of the state abortion ban, which only provides a narrow exception to save the life of a patient. It’s unsurprising then that these charges are coming from Paxton, the three-term state attorney general who survived a 16-count impeachment effort in 2023.”
Source: Mother Jones
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