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States Target School Cell Phone Use At least four states have banned or severely restricted the use of smart phones in schools in the current legislative biennium. Florida became the first state to do...
Compounded Weight-Loss Drugs Creating Headaches for State Regulators With popular weight-loss drugs like Mounjaro, Ozempic and Wegovy in short supply, many doctors, pharmacies and other providers have...
In their seminal book on the American health care system, legendary investigative reporters Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele offered a disturbing metaphor for the illogical nature of medical pricing...
PA Lawmakers Pass Bill Regulating PBMs The Pennsylvania legislature passed a bill ( HB 1993 ) aimed at increasing oversight of pharmacy benefit managers. If signed by Gov. Josh Shapiro (D), the measure...
In a sign of the times, states have begun pursuing bills that require disclosure of the use of artificial intelligence. In March, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) signed SB 149 , making the state the first...
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) said he ordered the state’s Department of Corrections to purchase 30,000 doses of the abortion pill mifepristone last month, and UW Medicine has bought 10,000 doses as well, giving the state about a four-year supply of the drug. The governor said the move was “an insurance policy” ahead of a federal court ruling in a Texas case that could limit the availability of abortion medication.
Lawmakers in the state have also introduced a bill (SB 5768) that would authorize the Department of Corrections “to acquire, sell, deliver, distribute, and dispense abortion medications.” (SEATTLE TIMES, STATE NET)
State lawmakers have introduced 117 bills restricting healthcare access for LGBTQ individuals, according to a database compiled by the American Civil Liberties Union. The measures are part of a record number targeting LGBTQ rights this year, making such legislation “one of the defining characteristics of red-state governance across the nation,” as Pluribus News put it. (PLURIBUS NEWS)
At least eight states have adopted or are considering imposing limits on hospital facility fees charged for telehealth visits or visits to medical clinics owned by hospitals rather than visits to hospitals themselves. Those states include Connecticut, where lawmakers enacted such limits last year (SB 2), and Colorado, where similar restrictions have been proposed this year (HB 1215). (PLURIBUS NEWS, STATE NET)
The Missouri Senate unanimously passed a bill (SB 106) that would prohibit healthcare providers or medical students from performing anal, pelvic or prostate examinations on anesthetized or unconscious patients without the patients’ “specific informed consent.”
Such exams are legal in 29 states and considered beneficial for med students.
Missouri’s House unanimously passed a similar bill (HB 283). Each measure needs to be approved by the other chamber to advance to the desk of Gov. Mike Parson (R). Similar efforts to ban the practice in Missouri have failed the past three years. (MISSOURI INDEPENDENT, STATE NET)
A pair of hospitals in Ohio—Valor Health in Emmett and Bonner General Health in Sandpoint—said they will stop providing maternity care. Officials at Valor said it had been “unsustainably expensive to recruit and retain a full team of high quality, broad-spectrum nurses to work in a rural setting,” while Bonner blamed its decision not only on staffing shortages but also on the state’s anti-abortion stance. (IDAHO CAPITAL SUN, KAISER HEALTH NEWS)
—Compiled by KOREY CLARK
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