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Letters to the Editor is a periodic characteristic. We welcome all feedback and can publish a range. We edit for size and readability and require full names.
A registered nurse who works in New Jersey’s Matawan-Aberdeen Regional School District reacted on X, previously often known as Twitter, to KFF Health News’ investigative collaboration with Cox Media Group on the federal authorities’s try and claw again cash it has overpaid to Social Security beneficiaries: “Social Security Overpays Billions to People, Many on Disability. Then It Demands the Money Back” (Sept. 15).
Can I simply say to inform people that they solely have 30 days to pay again any overpayments that they doubtless weren’t even conscious of till they obtained the discover, is loopy!https://t.co/CfaWrd9VVQ
— Sheila Caldwell (@SCaldwell7201) September 17, 2023
— Sheila Caldwell, Aberdeen, New Jersey
A regulation professor on the S.J. Quinney College of Law on the University of Utah additionally chimed in on X:
Important @KFF @KFFHealthNewsexposé on Social Security making errors and sending individuals ludicrous payments to to get well overpayments. One disabled lady acquired a invoice for $60,175.90 out of the blue. The company suffers from underfunding/understaffinghttps://t.co/0vNfROIVe9
— Daniel G. Aaron, MD, JD (@MedlawDan) September 18, 2023
— Daniel G. Aaron, Salt Lake City
For Shame, UnitedHealthcare
Thank you for shining a light-weight on probably the most infuriating insurance coverage obstacles in all of medication: prior authorization (“Doctors and Patients Try to Shame Insurers Online to Reverse Prior Authorization Denials,” Aug. 23).
During the pandemic, many individuals skipped or couldn’t entry routine medical care resembling colonoscopies and endoscopies. Research has lengthy proven that these companies are underutilized, particularly amongst communities of coloration, which is one cause for continued disparities in colorectal most cancers and different gastrointestinal illnesses.
As the demand for routine diagnostic and surveillance procedures grows, it’s essential to make sure that sufferers will not be caught up in bureaucratic crimson tape. Unfortunately, the nation’s largest and most worthwhile insurer, UnitedHealthcare, is slowly, quietly working to increase prior authorization to those key types of gastrointestinal care.
While UHC publicly pledged to slash prior authorization, we should decide them by their actions, not their phrases. Since UHC made that promise this spring — a transfer welcomed by medical doctors and sufferers throughout the nation — the insurer additionally introduced troubling new prior authorization necessities for colonoscopies and endoscopies for its 27 million business beneficiaries. The insurer deliberate to start implementing prior authorization for these important procedures beginning June 1 however briefly halted the plan after main outcry from sufferers and gastroenterologists.
Yet, the risk lingers. Right now, UHC is asking medical doctors to take part in a burdensome “Advanced Notification program,” which forces physicians to submit every kind of information that the insurer will use to tell its deliberate “Gold Card” prior authorization program in 2024.
Physicians see by means of this ruse. While UHC claims no sufferers are being denied the colonoscopies and endoscopies that might assist save their lives, the executive burden Advanced Notification causes is clogging already backlogged workplaces, particularly small practices. Even worse, the gastroenterological neighborhood fears that thousands and thousands of sufferers could face UHC’s prior authorization necessities in a matter of months — but the insurer has did not coordinate with specialty societies or transparently talk how this system will function or how UHC will guarantee affected person care shouldn’t be disrupted.
This concern impacts all of us. If UHC is allowed to disclaim or delay colonoscopies and endoscopies, the place will it finish? Diagnostic mammograms? Pap smears? Lung most cancers screenings? And will different insurers observe swimsuit with equally oppressive prior authorization insurance policies?
UHC should instantly reverse course on its alarming insurance policies to make sure streamlined entry to care. In the meantime, gastroenterologists will proceed to carry the road for our sufferers.
— Lawrence Kim, vice chairman of the American Gastroenterological Association, Lone Tree, Colorado
The branding director for Norwood, a well being care staffing and consulting firm in Texas, posted on X that publicly shaming insurers could show a wise technique.
Good; shameful practices deserve public shaming: Doctors and Patients Try to Shame Insurers Online to Reverse Prior Authorization Denials https://t.co/OvbTUXOkOR through @kffhealthnews
— Brian Murphy (@NorwoodCDI) August 23, 2023
— Brian Murphy, Austin, Texas
Reaction was additionally strong on Threads:
How New York Is Tackling Tobacco Use Among Youths
I simply learn Liz Szabo’s piece on baby nicotine poisonings (“Doctors Sound Alarm About Child Nicotine Poisoning as Vapes Flood the US Market,” Aug. 3). The reporting illuminated a vital but lesser-known concern concerning the harms of those e-liquids. The response does name for a mixed public well being effort, so I wished to share additional data concerning New York state coverage (talked about within the piece) that has proven to achieve success in decreasing the sale and use of vapes and conventional, flamable cigarettes. This policy-level intervention’s outcomes indicate that fewer younger youngsters are being uncovered to/have entry to those merchandise primarily based on decreased charges of smoking and vaping use and initiation amongst older siblings or adults round them. I hope this data proves helpful to your nationwide viewers who could contemplate these insurance policies within the context of their state’s.
The New York State Department of Health launched three new reviews that point out that the present tobacco management insurance policies adopted within the state have helped successfully cut back tobacco use and initiation, together with smoking and vaping. The evidence-based approaches bolstered ongoing decreases in youth vaping charges; between 2018 and 2022, charges declined by about 32%. Youth tobacco use (of any tobacco product) additionally declined by 32%, from 30.6% in 2018 to twenty.8% in 2022. This vital decline brings New York nearer to attaining the Prevention Agenda purpose of lowering highschool youth tobacco use to 19.7% by 2024.
While that is nice progress, tobacco nonetheless is the No. 1 reason for preventable illness within the United States — it’s estimated that it kills 480,000 adults within the U.S. yearly — and there are nonetheless points with regulation and a scarcity of protecting packaging on vapes.
NYC Treats Tobacco works with well being care organizations in New York City to make sure they successfully display and deal with their sufferers for tobacco use.
— Avani B. Ansari, MPH, CHES, venture coordinator for NYC Treats Tobacco, New York City
An group that advocates for insurance policies selling alternatives and wellness for kids posted this on X:
Thousands of children a 12 months are uncovered to the liquid nicotine in e-cigarettes, also called vapes. For a toddler, even a number of drops might be deadly. Doctors sound alarm about baby nicotine poisoning as vapes flood the US market: https://t.co/3IHV8L1UKX
— KY Youth Advocates (@KYYouth) August 14, 2023
— Kentucky Youth Advocates, Jeffersontown, Kentucky
And a Georgia state consultant shared her two cents on X concerning Liz Szabo’s earlier protection on youth vaping:
Youth vaping is on the rise, with the trade advertising and marketing merchandise blatantly focused to youngsters + teenagers.The unregulated nicotine in e-cigs (⬆️ 76% over 5y) can addict youngsters in simply days.My payments #HR43 and #HB192 purpose to review + disincentivize youth vaping.https://t.co/p5NGJd8gAw
— Dr. Michelle Au (@AuforGA) June 27, 2023
— Michelle Au, Johns Creek, Georgia