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Latest News Around the Web

Medicare’s new drug price cap goes into effect

The Hill (12/31, Choi ) reported, “A key cost-saving provision of the Inflation Reduction Act goes into effect in the new year, limiting annual out-of-pocket spending on prescription drugs to $2,000 for Medicare beneficiaries.” As of “Jan. 1, 2025, an estimated 19 million Medicare beneficiaries will see their out-of-pocket Medicare Part D spending capped at $2,000 for the year.” The “annual cap will be indexed to the rate of inflation every year going forward.” The Hill added, “An interim spending cap of roughly $3,500 was put in place in 2024.”

Related Links:

— “Medicare’s new drug price cap kicks in Jan. 1,” Joseph Choi, The Hill, December 31, 2024

One-Third Of Americans Have Made New Year’s Resolutions Related To Mental Health Heading Into 2025, Poll Finds

Psychiatric News (12/31) reported, “One-third of Americans (33%) have made New Year’s resolutions related to mental health heading into 2025, according to the latest APA Healthy Minds Monthly poll.” That “represents a 5% increase over last year and the highest rate since APA began polling on this question in 2021.”

Related Links:

— “More Americans Are Making Mental Health Resolutions for 2025,” Psychiatric News, December 31, 2024

Drug Overdose Deaths In San Francisco Plummeted In 2024, Preliminary Data Indicate

The Los Angeles Times (1/1, Wiley ) reports that “drug overdose deaths in San Francisco plummeted in 2024, according to preliminary data compiled by city health officials.” The Times adds, “San Francisco public health experts attributed the decline in fatal drug use in the city to the widespread availability of naloxone…as well as buprenorphine and methadone, prescription medications that treat opioid addiction long-term.”

Related Links:

— “Drug overdose deaths plummet in San Francisco. What’s changed?,” Hannah Wiley, Los Angeles Times, January 1, 2025

Health warning labels on alcohol should include cancer risk warning, Surgeon General says

The Washington Post (1/3, A1, Ho , Nirappil ) reported, “Health warning labels on alcohol should be updated to include a cancer risk warning, the U.S. surgeon general said Friday, adding that recommended limits for alcohol consumption should also be reassessed, given the increased risk of certain cancers.” The consumption of alcohol “is the third-leading preventable cause of cancer in the United States behind tobacco and obesity, Vivek H. Murthy said in an advisory [PDF].” Alcohol consumption “contributes to 100,000 cancer cases and 20,000 related deaths each year, he added.”

CNN (1/3, Tinker, Tirrell , Goodman ) reported, “The American Medical Association, which has long recognized alcohol as a cancer risk, cheered the new advisory.” In a statement, AMA President Bruce A. Scott, MD, said, “Today’s advisory, coupled with a push to update the Surgeon General’s health warning label on alcoholic beverages, will bolster awareness, improve health, and save lives.”

Related Links:

— “US surgeon general sounds alarm about link between alcohol and cancer,” Ben Tinker, Meg Tirrell and Brenda Goodman, CNN, January 3, 2025

Biden Signs Bill Extending Key Telehealth Service Flexibilities For Medicare Beneficiaries

Psychiatric News (1/3) reported, “Key telehealth service flexibilities will be extended for Medicare beneficiaries until March 31, 2025, as part of the American Relief Act, signed by President Biden on December 21.” Under “the Relief Act, Medicare beneficiaries can continue to receive telehealth services from any location, including their homes.” The bill also “extends the waiver of the requirement for an initial in-person visit prior to a telemental health visit and also continues the extension of telehealth services to federally qualified health centers and rural health centers.”

Related Links:

— “Congress Extends Telehealth Flexibilities for Medicare Beneficiaries,” Psychiatric News, January 3, 2025

Foundation News

Amazon Smile Celebrates With Extra Donations For Organizations

Amazon celebrated its #1 ranking in customer satisfaction by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) On March 16th, 2017. The ACSI surveyed over 10,000 customers to measure perceptions of quality and value across retailers nationwide. March 16th only, Amazon donated 5% (10 times the usual donation rate) of the price of eligible AmazonSmile purchases to the Maryland Foundation For Psychiatry Inc.

While the amount is lower now, you can still make your purchases count at smile.amazon.com/ch/52-1701356.

New PSA Examines Anxiety from Political and Social Media

The Foundation has released a new Public Service Announcement now playing on local Maryland radio stations. It examines the wide variety of feelings people experience after a particularly divisive political campaign or a significant event getting 24 hour coverage across networks and online. Those feelings can include alienation from family and friends, anger at a system or event out of their control, and grief or helplessness at what may come. There are things that can be done to help, ranging from breaks from Facebook and Twitter and similar sites to seeking actual help from professionals.

Listen to the PSA on our home page or on our PSA collection here, where you can listen to or download other advice given in past PSAs, also.

“This is My Brave” Event Coming December 7

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This is my Brave – Baltimore event will be held Wednesday, December 7.
Doors Open at 5 PM – Show starts at 6 PM at Towson University’s West Village Commons, Towson, MD 21252. The Maryland Foundation for Psychiatry is supporting this inspiring, monologue-based production featuring people sharing their stories of living with and recovering from mental illness through original essay, poetry, dance and music.

Foundation Establishes Anti-Stigma Advocacy Award

The Maryland Foundation for Psychiatry has established the Anti-Stigma Advocacy Award. It is designed to recognize a worthy piece published in a major newspaper that accomplishes one or more of the following:

  • Shares with the public their experience with mental illness in themselves, a family member, or simply in the community.
  • Helps others to overcome their inability to talk about mental illness or their own mental illness.
  • Imparts particularly insightful observations on the general subject of mental illness.
  • A Maryland author and/or newspaper is preferred.

The award carries a $500 prize, and has its own dedicated page here.

The winner for 2016 is Amy McDowell Marlow.

“My dad killed himself when I was 13. He hid his depression. I won’t hide mine.”
Published February 9, 2016 in the Washington Post

In this piece, Ms. Marlow gives a very poignant description of dealing with her own depression and emotional experiences beginning in childhood while dealing with a parent’s depression and eventual suicide.

New PSA Examines Prisons, Inmates and Mental Health

The Maryland Foundation for Psychiatry, Inc.’s latest public service announcement on local Maryland radio stations focuses on mental health care in the United States prison system. It examines the problem of mental illness being the reason for incarceration in the first place, and the lack of care once a person is behind bars.

Prisons, Inmates and Mental HealthPrisons, Inmates and Mental Health

You can listen to the ad using the player in the upper right of the website’s homepage. All past public service spots are also available for listening or to download on our Radio Advertisements page.