In a piece for the New York Times (6/13, Subscription Publication), Parker Marie Molloy, a freelance journalist and activist, praises HHS for overturning the “decades-old ban on Medicare coverage for gender-confirming surgeries,” but warns that state-level restrictions remain. These, she says, leave “many, many” people without such coverage. Molloy concludes by urging readers to “stop fearing what we don’t understand, and push to end the anti-transgender stigma that empowers politicians and insurance companies to deny relatively inexpensive, lifesaving medical treatment.”

However, in a piece for the Wall Street Journal (6/13, Mchugh, Subscription Publication), Dr. Paul McHugh, former psychiatrist in chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital, argues that simply providing surgery for transgendered individuals will not solve their underlying mental health issues.

Related Links:

— “Under the Skin: The Next Fight for Transgender Insurance Equality,” Parker Marie Malloy, New York Times, June 12, 2014.

MedPage Today (6/13, Brown) reports that according to a study published in the June 11 issue of JAMA Psychiatry, expectant mothers “who had symptoms consistent with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depressive disorder [MDD] were four times more likely to deliver preterm than women without symptoms.” While other studies have “shown that women who took antidepressants and benzodiazepine had higher risk of a preterm delivery…the risk associated with PTSD and a major depressive episode (OR 4.08, 95% CI 1.27-13.15) was separate from that risk,” the study of 2,654 women revealed.

Related Links:

— “Preterm Births Higher With PTSD, Depression,” Parker Brown, MedPage Today, June 12, 2014.

Modern Healthcare (6/11, Conn, Subscription Publication) reports that yesterday, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration conducted a “daylong ‘listening session,’” the subject of which was “whether patients of federally funded drug and alcohol abuse programs should continue to enjoy some of the most stringent privacy protections in all of US healthcare.”

Last month, SAMHSA gave written notice “that it was considering amending the rule covering drug and alcohol abuse records because some complain the rule’s more stringent privacy protections present barriers to record-sharing” which, some critics charge “impinge on the ability of new care models such as accountable care organizations and patient-centered medical homes to provide coordinated care at lower costs.”

Related Links:

— “Limits on sharing substance abuse patients’ records under debate,” Joseph Conn, Modern Healthcare, June 11, 2014. (Requires registration)

The Kaiser Health News (6/11, Hancock) “Capsules” blog reported that according to a National Bureau of Economic Review working paper produced by researchers at Purdue and Indiana Universities, “expanded coverage for young adults under the Affordable Care Act substantially raised inpatient hospital visits related to mental health.” Economist Kosali Simon, of Indiana University, who helped author the paper, pointed out that “greater hospital use by the newly insured might be caused by inadequate outpatient resources to treat mental-health patients earlier and less expensively.”

Related Links:

— “Study: Health Law Boosts Hospital Psych Care For Young Adults,” Jay Hancock, Kaiser Health News, June 11, 2014.

The CBS News (6/12, Firger) website reported that “some experts say it’s past time to start thinking about mass violence as a public health crisis.” Instead of “just continuing to debate gun reform and the failings of the mental health system, they say the way to stop the cycle is to treat gun violence as a disease and involve health care workers in combatting it.”

In April 2013, JAMA Internal Medicine published an article stating: “The secretary of Health and Human Services, the Surgeon General, the director of the CDC, and the director of the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control should be allowed to protect the public health by working to reduce injuries and deaths from firearms, in the same way that they work to reduce injuries and deaths from poisonings, motor vehicle traffic accidents, and falls.”

Related Links:

— “Is gun violence a public health issue?,” Jessica Firgir, CBS News, June 11, 2014.