The Hill (3/30, Lonas ) reported a poll from the EdWeek Research Center shows that “teenagers are increasingly using social media to self-diagnose their mental health issues,” specifically, “55 percent of students use social media to self-diagnose, and 65 percent of teachers say they’ve seen the phenomenon in their classrooms.” The poll also shows that “72 percent of educators believe social media has made it easier for students to be more open about mental health struggles they are facing.”

Related Links:

— “Teens’ latest social media trend? Self-diagnosing their mental health issues,”Lexi Lonas, The Hill , March 30, 2024

The New York Times (3/30, Span ) detailed rising concern over older Americans’ drinking habits, with CDC data showing that “the annual number of alcohol-related deaths from 2020 through 2021 exceeded 178,000.” Furthermore, a National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism analysis “shows that people over 65 accounted for 38 percent of that total,” and “from 1999 to 2020, the 237 percent increase in alcohol-related deaths among those over age 55 was higher than for any age group except 25- to 34-year-olds.” The Times added that “an aging population foreshadows a continuing surge that has health care [professionals] and elder advocates worried, even if older people’s drinking behavior doesn’t change.”

Related Links:

— “The New York Times (requires login and subscription)

Psychiatric News (3/26) reports, “People who take serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and oral anticoagulants have an increased risk of multiple types of major bleeding compared with people who take only oral anticoagulants, a study…has found.” Additionally, the research “showed that bleeding risk differs depending on the type of anticoagulant.” The findings were published in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Combining SSRIs With Oral Anticoagulants Found to Increase Risk of Major Bleeding,” (3/26) reports, “People who take serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and , March 26, 2024

RevCycle Intelligence reports, “It may take some time to get paid for medical services, suggests a new survey of hospitals, health systems and post-acute care providers.” Almost “15% of medical claims submitted to private payers for reimbursement are initially denied, respondents representing over 500 organizations told Premier Inc. in the survey.”

And “an average of 3.2% of denied claims also included those that were pre-approved through the prior authorization process.” In spite of “the initial claim denial rate, over half of the claims rejected by private payers at first were paid,” Premier Inc. reported, but physicians “said that more initial denials may have been ultimately reimbursed if not for resource constraints that prevented them from pursuing payments through appeals and other means.”

Related Links:

— “Private payers initially deny nearly 15% of medical claims,” Jacqueline LaPointe, Revcycle Intelligence, March 25, 2024

Healio (3/21, Burba ) reports, “The average number of deaths from excessive alcohol use increased by 29.3% from 2016 to 2021, with an age-standardized rise in death rate from 38.1 to 47.6 per 100,000 population, according to data in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.” Investigators found that “the average number of annual deaths from excessive alcohol use increased by 5.3% from 2016 to 2019 (137,927 to 145,253) and ‘increased more sharply’ — by 22.8% — from 2018 to 2021 (145,253 to 178,307), an overall increase of 29.3% from 2016 to 2021.” Meanwhile, “the age-standardized death rates increased from 38.1 to 47.6 per 100,000 population between 2016 and 2021.”

Related Links:

Annual deaths from excessive alcohol use increased by nearly 30% from 2016 to 2021, Kate Burba, Healio, March 25, 2024