The New York Times (4/21, A14, Pear, Subscription Publication) reports that the Medicare bill signed last week by President Obama will end the imprinting of Social Security numbers on Medicare cards. Rep. Sam Johnson (R-TX), who pushed for the change, said, “The Social Security number is the key to identity theft, and thieves are having a field day with seniors’ Medicare cards.” Congress provided $320 million over four years to pay for the change. The Times adds that the inspector general of Social Security in 2008 called for immediate action to remove Social Security from Medicare cards, but HHS has “lagged behind other federal agencies” in removing the numbers from identification cards, the Government Accountability Office said.

Related Links:

— “New Cards for Medicare Recipients Will Omit Social Security Numbers,”Robert Pear, The New York Times, April 20, 2015.

The Washington Examiner (4/20, Cunningham) reported that Medicaid plans got an “initial roadmap from the federal government earlier this month, with a rule proposing directions for how they should conform to a 2008 law known as mental health parity.” The law requires insurers to cover mental health services on the same level as physical health services. Notably, the rule does not lift “a longstanding federal ban on using federal Medicaid dollars for stays in private psychiatric hospitals and state mental hospitals.” According to the article, this “has some mental health advocates worried, amid recent concerns that the seriously mentally ill are getting marginalized.” Harsh Trivedi, MD, chairman of the American Psychiatric Association’s Council on Healthcare Systems and Financing, “said the APA wants the final rule to be clearer on exactly how insurers must ensure parity for long-term care for” people with mental illnesses.

Related Links:

— “Psych wards not covered by Medicaid mental health rule,”Paige Cunningham, The Washington Examiner, April 20, 2015.

Based on Federal data released on Thursday and published in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, use of e-cigarettes “tripled from 2013 to 2014” among US middle and high school students, reaching 13 percent and exceeding the percentage of those that smoke traditional cigarettes. According to the data, the number of young people using tobacco products in “some form” in 2014 rose for the first time in “years” to 4.6 million. David Muir of ABC World News (4/16, story 11, 0:15, Muir) referred to the rate increase as a “stunning number.”

TIME (4/17, Worland) reports that a study published online April 15 in the journal Occupational & Environmental Medicine suggests that almost “17% of emergency medical service (EMS) workers who responded to the 9/11 terrorist attacks display symptoms of depression and 7% show signs of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).” The study, which was “conducted by researchers for the New York Fire Department, evaluated the health of nearly 2,300 New York City Fire Department EMS workers over a 12-year period.” Besides PTSD and depression, “EMS workers experienced a number of conditions that affected their physical health, including 12% who experienced acid reflux disease and 3% who experienced cancer.”

HealthDay (4/17, Reinberg) reports that an increased risk for sinus infections as well as for obstructive airway disease was also increased in EMS workers. What’s more, “those who arrived at the scene right after the attack were most at risk of these physical and psychological conditions, researchers said.” Unfortunately, “EMS workers and other individuals who were exposed to the World Trade Center disaster remain at high risk of developing additional health problems…said” Mayris Webber, DrPH, of the New York City Fire Department’s Bureau of Health Services.

Related Links:

— “Health Problems Linger for 9/11 First Responders,” Justin Worland, Time, April 16, 2015.

HealthDay (4/17, Preidt) reports that a new study from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) suggests that “nearly one in 10 full-time workers in the United States has had a recent substance abuse problem.” Specifically, an “analysis of data gathered between 2008 and 2012 from more than 111,500 adults with full-time jobs revealed that 9.5 percent of them had an alcohol or illicit-drug disorder in the previous year.” Commenting on the study, SAMHSA Administrator Pamela Hyde said, “Every segment of the community needs to help tackle this problem, including employers.” Hyde added, “By developing and actively promoting workplace programs such as Employee Assistance Programs for helping employees deal with substance use problems, employers can significantly improve the health, well-being, and productivity of their employees.”

Related Links:

— “Substance Abuse Reported by About 1 in 10 American Workers,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, April 6, 2015.

HealthDay (4/16, Preidt) reports that a study recently published in the American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse “identifies factors that increase teens’ risk of using hashish,” and the investigators, affiliated with NYU’s Center for Drug Use and HIV Research, “found that the risk factors for regular marijuana use were often much stronger risk factors for using hashish.” They found that other “robust risk factor[s]” were the use of other illicit drugs or alcohol and cigarette smoking. HealthDay adds that the study was based on “data gathered from more than 10,500 high school seniors across the United States between 2007 and 2011.”

Related Links:

— “1 in 10 U.S. Teens Has Tried Hashish,” Robert Preidt, Health Day, April 15, 2015.

NPR (4/15) reports in its “Shots” blog that “studies show that young people often hesitate to get certain types of medical care, such as mental and behavioral health care, birth control and sexual health screenings, because they don’t want their parents to find out through insurance statements.” Several states are working to rectify the problem “but none has a foolproof solution.” Abigail English, president of the Center for Adolescent Health and the Law, says the “issue of maintaining confidentiality while a dependent is one that has existed for a long time” and is just now receiving attention because of the increase in dependents under the ACA.

Related Links:

— “When Keeping A Secret Trumps The Need For Care,” Maanvi Singh, National Public Radio, April 15, 2015.

The Education Week (4/16, Mader) “Rural Education” blog reports that researchers at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center found after analyzing “data from 1996 to 2010 from the National Center for Health Statistics” that “suicide rates among youth ages 10 to 24 are nearly twice as high in rural communities than in urban areas.”

The authors said “isolation and lack of access to health care, especially mental health care,” were factors, and they suggested that school-based programs would improve access to care. The piece mentions other recent studies exploring the problem in Alaska and on Native American reservations. The study (4/16) appeared online March 9 in JAMA Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “Study: Youth Suicide Rates Higher in Rural Areas,” Jackie Mader , Education Week, April 15, 2015.

The Washington Post (4/16, Svrluga) reports on the suicide Monday of a sophomore at the College of William & Mary, illustrating how the incident, the fourth this year at the Virginia university, raises “concerns about the challenges college students handle on a daily basis and the mental health struggles students can face.” The article notes that William & Mary’s associate vice president for health and wellness “cautioned that it is easy to over-connect academic stress and the risk of suicide,” and that a history of mental health issues was a better predictor for suicide.

Related Links:

— “Suicide at William & Mary, fourth student death this year, triggers concern,” Susan Svrluga, Washington Post, April 15, 2015.

HealthDay (4/15, Thompson) reports a new study published online in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research suggests that “drinkers who smoke marijuana as they imbibe are twice as likely to drive drunk compared with people who stick to alcohol alone.” The study of data on nearly 9,000 people also revealed that “these ‘simultaneous’ users are also three times more likely to face social troubles as a result of drinking and marijuana – drunken brawls, broken marriages, damaged relationships and ruined careers among them.”

Related Links:

— “Pot Plus Booze Doubles Odds for Drunk Driving, Study Says,” Dennis Thompson, HealthDay, April 14, 2015.