According to Kaiser Health News (1/13, Larson), Montana state “lawmakers from both parties have shown support for a plan to stop the practice of committing people with Alzheimer’s disease, other types of dementia, or traumatic brain injuries” (TBI) “without their consent to the troubled Montana State Hospital and instead direct them to treatment in their communities.” However, “a budget estimate attached to the proposed legislation raises questions about whether Montana communities, many of which are still reeling from past budget cuts and insufficient Medicaid reimbursement rates, will have the capacity to care for them by July 2025, when involuntary commitments would cease under the plan.”

Related Links:

— “Ending Involuntary Commitments Would Shift Burden of Dementia Care to Strapped Communities ” Keely Larson, Kaiser Health News, January 13, 2023

NPR (1/16, Chatterjee) reports, “The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline received over 1.7 million calls, texts and chats in its first five months,” a figure that is “nearly half a million more than the old 10-digit Suicide Prevention Lifeline fielded during the same period the year before.” According to federal data “the Lifeline responded to 154,585 more contacts – including calls, text messages and chats – in November 2022 than the same month the year before,” and “the average wait time to speak to a counselor also fell – from close to three minutes in November 2021, to 36 seconds last November.”

Related Links:

— “988 Lifeline sees boost in use and funding in first months “Rhitu Chatterjee, NPR, January 16, 2023

HealthIT Security (1/12, McKeon) reports, “Cloud adoption has been on the rise in the healthcare sector for years for good reason as more organizations lean into digital transformation.” However, “despite rapid adoption, cloud technologies are not immune to security threats,” as “data from Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) company Netskope” revealed that “more than 400 distinct cloud applications delivered malware in 2022.” The report noted, “Cloud malware delivery increased in 2022 after having remained constant in 2021, caused by an increase in the total number of apps abused to deliver malware and the quantity of malware downloads coming from the most popular apps.”

Related Links:

— “Cybersecurity Risks Spike Within Cloud-Based Apps, Report Shows ” Jill McKeon, HealthIT Security , January 12, 2023

mHealth Intelligence (1/12, Melchionna) reports, “Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Fair Health Monthly Telehealth Regional tracker reported that telehealth use fell nationally and in every US census region last October, except usage in the Northeast.” The tracker found that “nationally, telehealth use dropped 3.7 percent, from 5.4 percent of medical claim lines in September to 5.2 percent in October.” Furthermore, “at the national level and in most regions, COVID-19 diagnoses fell,” while “acute respiratory diseases and infections rose in the diagnoses rankings.”

Related Links:

— “New Data Shows Telehealth Usage Drops by 4% Nationally Mark Melchionna” , mHealth Intelligence, January 12, 2023

Bloomberg (1/11, Pham) reports, “The effects of long COVID tend to resolve within a year of mild infection, with vaccinated people at lower risk of breathing difficulties compared with unvaccinated people, according to a study” in which “researchers examined the health records of almost 2 million people in Israel who tested for COVID-19 over a 19-month period.” More than “70 long COVID conditions were analyzed within a group of infected and matched uninfected members.”

NBC News (1/11, Edwards) reports “symptoms – such as chest pain, cough, muscle aches and hair loss – tended to fade away within a year.” The findings were published in The BMJ.

CNN (1/11, LaMotte) reports, “Only slight differences appeared between men and women in the study, but children had fewer early symptoms than adults, which were mostly gone by year’s end.”

Related Links:

— “Long Covid Study Shows Symptoms Fading for Mild Infections “Lisa Pham, Bloomberg, January 11, 2023