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Study: Hypertension medications can also reduce risk of colorectal cancer

Medications commonly prescribed to treat high blood pressure may also reduce patients' colorectal cancer risk, according to new research published today in Hypertension, an American Heart Association journal.

6 Jul 2020

2021 health plans granted leeway to limit consumers’ benefit from drug coupons

Without medication to manage her plaque psoriasis, Jennifer Brown's face, scalp, trunk and neck periodically become covered in painful red, flaky patches so dry they crack and bleed.

6 Jul 2020

Innovative health care service delivery model addresses challenges faced by Latino farmworkers

A University of California, Riverside, study that sought to determine barriers to health care among Spanish-speaking Latino farmworkers in rural communities has devised an innovative health care service delivery model that addresses many challenges these communities face.

2 Jul 2020

Study: Lifetime discrimination can raise the risk of hypertension in African Americans

Lifetime discrimination is a chronic stressor that may increase the risk for hypertension also known as high blood pressure, in African Americans, according to new research published today in Hypertension, an American Heart Association journal.

1 Jul 2020

Hospital executive charged in $1.4B rural hospital billing scheme

A Miami entrepreneur who led a rural hospital empire was charged in an indictment unsealed Monday in what federal prosecutors called a $1.4 billion fraudulent lab-billing scheme.

30 Jun 2020

Essential worker shoulders $1,840 pandemic debt due to COVID cost loophole

Carmen Quintero works an early shift as a supervisor at a 3M distribution warehouse that ships N95 masks to a nation under siege from the coronavirus. On March 23, she had developed a severe cough, and her voice, usually quick and enthusiastic, was barely a whisper.

30 Jun 2020

In Arizona race, McSally makes health care pledge at odds with track record

Trailing Democratic challenger Mark Kelly in one of the country's most hotly contested Senate races, Arizona Sen. Martha McSally is seeking to tie herself to an issue with across-the-aisle appeal: insurance protections for people with preexisting health conditions.

29 Jun 2020

Study shows connection between blood pressure and eye health in young children

Young children with narrow retinal artery diameters were more likely to develop higher blood pressure, and children with higher blood pressure levels were more likely to develop retinal microvascular impairment during early childhood, according to a new study published today in Hypertension, an American Heart Association journal.

29 Jun 2020

Study: SNAP benefits are critical to low-income Americans

When work requirements for a federal food safety-net program start again, many low-income Americans will lose benefits - and Black adults will be hardest hit, according to a study published today.

27 Jun 2020

IQWiG supports initial assessment of coronavirus diagnostics

As a founding member, the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) has been involved in EUnetHTA, a European network for Health Technology Assessment (HTA), since 2006.

26 Jun 2020

Irritable bowel disease heightens the risk of dementia

Scientists have long explored the link between the gut and the brain. Now, a new study shows that older adults with chronic inflammation of the digestive tract may develop dementia more than seven years earlier than those who do not have the condition.

26 Jun 2020

High deductible health plans are widening racial health gaps, study says

First-of-its-kind study finds that black cancer survivors on these plans are far more likely to struggle to afford health care and medicine than their white counterparts, while black and white cancer survivors on other types of plans are equally unlikely to face these challenges.

24 Jun 2020

Ghost bill: UVA siphons couple’s tax refund to pay 20-year-old medical debt

The notice from the Virginia tax department puzzled a Charlottesville couple last October. It said their state income tax refund had been reduced because of an outstanding medical debt to the University of Virginia Medical Center. Instead of $220, they got $110.

24 Jun 2020

Heart failure poses the greatest risk of death for people with type 2 diabetes

Heart failure posed the greatest 5-year risk of death for people newly diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes than any other heart or kidney disease, according to new research published today in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, an American Heart Association journal.

23 Jun 2020

Study confirms higher rates of positive COVID-19 cases in Latinx populations

In a new analysis of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, test results for nearly 38,000 people has found a positivity rate among Latinx populations about three times higher than for any other racial and ethnic group.

23 Jun 2020

Pandemic forced insurers to pay for in-home treatments. Will they disappear?

After seven days as an inpatient for complications related to heart problems, Glenn Shanoski was initially hesitant when doctors suggested in early April that he could cut his hospital stay short and recover at home — with high-tech 24-hour monitoring and daily visits from medical teams.

23 Jun 2020

Simulation model reveals how sugary drink tax designs could impact health gains, costs

A simulation model of different designs of taxes on sugary drinks, which are linked to obesity, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes, suggests that all tax designs would generate substantial health gains as well as lower health costs in the U.S., according to new research published today in the American Heart Association's flagship journal Circulation.

22 Jun 2020