The New York Times (4/19, Ndugga, Frakt) reports, “American deaths from misuse of substances, including alcohol, have increased over the past two decades, but not uniformly across various demographic groups.” For example, “overall rates of alcohol abuse and related deaths have consistently and significantly increased for white non-Hispanic Americans, while Black Americans have experienced a much slower and less significant incline, and some other groups have had declines.”

Related Links:

— “What’s Behind the Growth in Alcohol Consumption? ” Nambi Ndugga and Austin Frakt, The New York Times, April 19, 2021

Modern Healthcare (4/16, Tepper, Subscription Publication) reported, “As members of Congress decide how to expand access to telehealth after the pandemic, one of the biggest questions has centered around how much Medicare” healthcare professionals “should be paid for virtual care.” And “while the rates Medicare pays for telehealth and in-person services are currently the same, that arrangement – along with several other CMS telehealth waivers – expires at the end of the public health emergency absent Congressional action,” so healthcare professionals are now “pressuring Congress and CMS to keep payment parity – or something close to it – after the pandemic ends.”

Related Links:

— “Modern Healthcare (requires login and subscription)

Healio (4/16, Weller) reported, “Even with health insurance, people with opioid use disorder [OUD] receive lower quality preventive and chronic care as well as lower quality care coordination,” investigators concluded after conducting “a cross-sectional study using deidentified data from 125,973 people (55.1% women; 62.1% white; mean age, 59 years).” The study “evaluated quality of care by matching the outpatient data of 79,372 adults with OUD who had commercial or Medicare Advantage insurance with 46,601 comparators across preventive care, chronic illness care and care coordination.” The findings were published online April 8 in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “ “Madison Weller, Healio, April 16, 2021

According to the Washington Post (4/16, Chesler), across the US, poison control centers are reporting “a spike in the number of children who have ingested THC after eating their parents’ edibles, rising from just 19 cases in 2010, before recreational pot was legalized in any state, to 554 cases last year.” Some officials at the centers “attribute the rise in large part to a growing number of states having legalized marijuana.” Now, there are “36 that allow marijuana for medical use – and 18 of them now allow adult recreational use or have recently approved laws to do so – with a number of others moving in that direction.”

Related Links:

— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)

HealthDay (4/15, Preidt) reports researchers at the University of Minnesota found that “Americans’ eating habits have changed for the worse during the COVID-19 pandemic, including an increase in eating disorders.” The findings were published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders.

Related Links:

— “Bingeing, Stress Snacking: How the Pandemic Is Changing Eating Habits ” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, April 15, 2021