CNN (7/25, McPhillips) reports, “At least 20 states have enacted policies restricting healthcare for transgender youth, and the loss of gender-affirming care clinics in those states has dramatically increased the average travel time to a” clinician, investigators concluded.

Healio (7/25, Monostra) reports, “Government-enacted restrictions have resulted in about half of U.S. children and adolescents aged 10 to 17 years living more than one hour from a clinic offering gender-confirming care,” investigators concluded in the findings of a research letter published in JAMA. The study identified “271 gender-confirming clinics…of which 25.8% were located in states with restrictions,” such as “Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and West Virginia.” What’s more, “an estimated 89,100 transgender adolescents live in those states, representing about 30% of all transgender youths in the U.S.”

Related Links:

— “State restrictions on gender-affirming care for children have doubled the average travel time to a provider in the US, study shows,” Deidre McPhillips, CNN, July 25, 2023

According to the AP (7/25, Megerian, Miller), on July 25, the Biden Administration “announced new rules meant to push insurance companies to increase their coverage of mental health treatments.” These “new regulations, which still need to go through a public comment period, would require insurers to study whether their customers have equal access to medical and mental health benefits and to take remedial action, if necessary.” Were the rules to be finalized, they “would force insurers to study patient outcomes to ensure the benefits are administered equally, taking into account their” clinician “network and reimbursement rates and whether prior authorization is required for care.”

Reuters (7/25, Holland) reports, “The administration…will release the text of a proposed rule change to the 2008 Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act,” that “would also provide specific examples that make clear that health plans cannot use more restrictive prior authorization, other medical management techniques or narrower networks that make it harder for people to access mental health and substance use disorder benefits.” The proposed rule change text “will be open to public comment for 60 days and administration officials said they expected it would go into effect sometime afterward.”

Related Links:

— “The Biden administration proposes new rules to push insurers to boost mental health coverage,” Zeke Miller and Chris Megerian, AP, July 25, 2023

Healio (7/24, Bascom) reports, “Replacing mayonnaise and margarine with olive oil may reduce the risk for mortality from dementia among adults in the United States,” researchers concluded after conducting “a study including 60,582 women and 31,801 men to evaluate the connections between olive oil intake and subsequent risk for dementia-related mortality, which they ascertained from death records.” The findings were presented at NUTRITION 2023. HealthDay (7/24, Norton) also covers the study.

Related Links:

— “Choosing olive oil over margarine and mayonnaise may reduce dementia mortality risk,”Emma Bascom, Healio , July 24, 2023

Healio (7/20, Weldon) reported, “Youth suicidality unexpectedly declined in the United States during school closures for COVID-19,” investigators concluded after studying “national data on 73,123 emergency department visits and hospitalizations for suicidality among children aged 10 to 12 and adolescents aged 13 to 18 years who were commercially insured from Jan. 1, 2016, to Dec. 31, 2021.” The findings were published online July 19 in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Youth suicidality unexpectedly fell during school closures for COVID-19,”Rose Weldon, Healio , July 20, 2023

Healio (7/21, Young) reported, “New county-level estimates of Alzheimer’s prevalence…may help inform allocations of funding, staffing and other resources toward caring for patients,” according to findings presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference. The study, which used “data from the Chicago Health and Aging Project and” combined “it with the National Center for Health Statistics bridged-race population estimates” to evaluate “county-specific prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease throughout the U.S. for adults aged 65 years and older.” Additionally, the study revealed “specific demographic characteristics that may contribute to higher prevalence of Alzheimer’s in these counties.”

Related Links:

— “New county-level Alzheimer’s estimates may help allocate resources,”Kate Young, Healio , July 21, 2023

Healthcare Finance News (7/21, Lagasse) reported the Department of Health and Human Services, “through its Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, is announcing awards in five grant programs devoted to combating multiple facets of substance misuse and the nation’s overdose epidemic.” The funding awards altogether total $47.8 million. They “are part of ongoing federal efforts in prevention, treatment, recovery support and harm reduction – the pillars of the HHS Overdose Prevention Strategy.”

Related Links:

— “HHS distributes $47.8 million to expand access to opioid use disorder medications,”Jeff Lagasse, Healthcare Finance News, July 21, 2023

Psychiatric News (7/21) reported, “More than one-third of people who are grieving meet the DSM-5 criteria for prolonged grief disorder,” investigators concluded after surveying “1,137 bereaved adults using the Prolonged Grief-13-Revised scale (PG-13-R), which is used to identify patients who meet the DSM-5 criteria for prolonged grief disorder.” The findings were published online July 19 in the Journal of Affective Disorders.

Related Links:

— “More Than One-Third of Bereaved May Have Prolonged Grief Disorder, Psychiatric News, July 21, 2023

MedPage Today (7/20, Sullivan) reports, “Significant differences in dementia incidence emerged based on neighborhood deprivation,” investigators concluded in “a study of 1.6 million U.S. veterans.” The study revealed that “over a mean follow-up of 11 years, older veterans in the most socioeconomically disadvantaged areas were 22% more likely to develop dementia than those in the least disadvantaged neighborhoods.” The findings were presented in a poster at the annual Alzheimer’s Association International Conference and simultaneously published online in JAMA Neurology.

Related Links:

— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

NBC News (7/19, Pandey) reported, “Hospitalizations and emergency” department (ED) “visits for suicide attempts and ideation rose nationally among children and teens from 2016 to 2021,” investigators concluded in a study that “focused on a set of more than 73,000” ED “visits and hospitalizations for suicidal ideation or suicide attempts among children and teens enrolled in commercial health insurance plans and in Medicare Advantage.” The findings were published online July 19 in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Teens have increasingly wound up in the hospital for suicidal thoughts and attempts, study shows,”Maia Pandey, NBC News , July 19, 2023

Psychiatric News (7/20) reports, “Disruptions in healthcare services during the COVID-19 pandemic did not significantly reduce the ability of adults to remain in treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD),” investigators concluded in a study that “analyzed deidentified administrative insurance claims for adults aged 18 or older who were covered by commercial insurance or Medicare Advantage from March 2018 to February 2022.” The findings of the 13,113-adult study were published online July 18 in Psychiatric Services, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association.

Related Links:

— “Study Suggests Few Disruptions in Treatment for OUD During the Pandemic, Psychiatric News, July 20, 2023