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Penny Wingard, 58, of Charlotte, North Carolina, worries she won鈥檛 ever get out from under her medical debt despite new policies that are supposed to prevent medical debt from harming people鈥檚 credit scores.
New policies to prevent unpaid medical bills from harming people鈥檚 credit scores are on the way. But the concessions made by top credit reporting companies may fall short for those with the largest debt 鈥 especially Black Americans in the South.
The July launch of the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline was celebrated by many mental health providers and advocates, but it triggered concerns, too, from people who say using the service could lead to increased law enforcement involvement or forced hospitalization.
Medical debt is most prevalent in the Southeast, where states have not expanded Medicaid and have few consumer protection laws. Now, North Carolina is considering two bills that could change that, making the state a leader in protecting patients from high medical bills.
Joe Pitzo was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2018. After surgery, the bills topped $350,000. 鈥淭his just took a major toll on my credit,鈥 Joe said. 鈥淚t went down to next to nothing.鈥
People talk about the sacrifices they made when health care forced them into debt.
Despite a consensus that patients should be able to get mental health care from primary care doctors, insurance policies and financial incentives may not support that.
Three years after a government site launched to connect Americans to treatment, finding addiction care is still a struggle.
A bill one family considered paid wrongfully resurfaced, resurrecting painful memories. It鈥檚 a scenario that鈥檚 not uncommon but grievously unsettling.
As overdoses surge and opioid settlement dollars flow, funding to North Carolina rehab foreshadows national discussion about the best approaches to treatment.
Harm-reduction groups say that requiring a doctor to sign off on their orders of the overdose reversal drug is one of the biggest barriers they face in obtaining the lifesaving medication.
The scientific term is 鈥減ostvention,鈥 and it informs how to navigate the emotional challenges that follow such a tragedy.
A West Virginia pharmacy cleared a Drug Enforcement Administration investigation. But it shut down anyway, highlighting how the agency鈥檚 policies reduce the availability of buprenorphine, an important tool for recovery from opioid addiction.
In a practice dating to the 1980s, many hospitals require people with alcohol-related liver disease to complete a period of sobriety before they can be added to the waiting list for a liver. But this thinking may be changing.
A patient from Dallas got a PCR test in a free-standing suburban emergency room. The out-of-network charge: $54,000.
Despite widespread consensus on the importance of addiction treatment in the ER, many hospitals fail to screen for substance use, offer medications to treat opioid use disorder or connect patients to follow-up care. But some are working to change that.
Suicides have risen among Black, Hispanic and other communities of color during covid. But the rates were already escalating before the pandemic struck.
North Carolina claims to be the 鈥淣ation鈥檚 Most Military Friendly State.鈥 Now veterans are trying to capitalize on this dedication to the troops to persuade lawmakers to pass medical marijuana legislation. It鈥檚 an advocacy model that has led to success for pro-cannabis efforts elsewhere.
Two intractable failings of the U.S. health care system 鈥 addiction treatment and medical costs 鈥 come to a head in the ER, where patients desperate for addiction treatment arrive, only to find the facility may not be equipped to deal with substance use or, if they are, treatment is prohibitively expensive.
Young women have closed the gender gap for excessive drinking. And that was before the pandemic. The trend is particularly troubling because women are at greater risk for blackouts, liver disease, cardiovascular diseases and certain cancers linked to alcohol use.
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