Health and Disability

The Department of Veterans Affairs issued a new regulation June 18, effective immediately, that will for the first time provide benefits to some Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange who did not have “boots on the ground” during the war.

“Opening up eligibility for this deserving group of Air Force veterans and reservists is the right thing to do,” Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert McDonald said in a news release. “We thank the (Institute of Medicine) for its thorough review that provided the supporting evidence needed to ensure we can now fully compensate any former crew member who develops an Agent Orange-related disability.”

Under the 1991 Agent Orange Act, Vietnam Veterans experiencing one of 14 medical conditions linked to Agent Orange are presumptively eligible for disability benefits. The legislation, however, took away the VA’s discretion to determine eligibility, instead requiring it to defer to studies from the Institute of Medicine.

Today’s Supreme Court decision confirms that the Affordable Care Act’s tax credits are available to all eligible Americans no matter where they live. Americans in all 50 states and the District of Columbia can continue to rely on the security and peace of mind that come with affordable, quality health care coverage.

Over six million Americans and their families will sleep easier knowing they will still be able to afford health coverage. Millions more won’t have to worry about an upward spiral in their premiums because of today’s decision, even if they didn’t buy their insurance through the Marketplace. And the law’s financial assistance will be available in the next open enrollment so that others can benefit as well.

The Affordable Care Act is working to improve access, affordability and quality.

Pets not only provide companionship, they can boost health in other ways, such as emotional support and increased physical activity.

However, older people face many hurdles to pet ownership: they may be worried about the cost, and whether they are physically fit enough to take care of and feed a pet. They may also worry about what might happen to their beloved companion should they become ill or die.

In their paper, to illustrate some of these barriers to pet ownership by older people, the researchers tell the story of Janet, a 75-year-old widow who is obese, has diabetes and suffers from arthritis.

Janet, who lives independently, describes herself as a cat lover. She has had many pet cats in the past and would like to have one now.

"Defibrillators are life-saving therapies that have a lot of evidence supporting their use," says senior author Dr. Tracy Wang, an associate professor of cardiology at the Duke University School of Medicine. "But not every older patient wants one. There is a trade-off between the risks and benefits of the device. But current data suggests that we are grossly underutilizing this therapy."

ICDs shock the hearts of patients back to pumping if they experience a sudden cardiac arrest. These arrests can be fatal; according to the study authors, more than 350,000 people experience sudden cardiac death in the US every year. Research suggests that as many as 80% of these patients were eligible for ICDs but did not have one implanted.

Over 1.6 million Medicare Fee-For-Service beneficiaries rely upon electricity-dependent medical and assistive equipment, such as ventilators and wheel chairs, in our communities. Severe weather and disasters that cause power outages can be life threatening for these individuals.

How can we empower community and electricity-dependent Medicare beneficiary health resilience?

Every hospital, first responder, electric company, and community member can use the map to find the monthly total of Medicare beneficiaries with electricity-dependent equipment claims at the U.S. state, territory, county, and zip code level and turn on “real-time” NOAA severe weather tracking services to identify areas and populations that may be impacted and at risk for power outages.

Together, we can all better anticipate potential access and functional needs, emergency plan for the whole community, and assist our at-risk community members before, during, and after an emergency.

A major treatment breakthrough for total body scarring of the skin that occurs in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc), also known as scleroderma, may soon be available for the estimated 300,000 Americans who suffer with this condition. Currently, no treatment is available.

Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) researchers worked with 15 SSc patients who were treated with either one or two doses of fresolimumab, a new, unapproved drug therapy that targets a chemical mediator in the body known as TGF-beta. After seven weeks of treatment, the researchers examined the effect on skin scarring and on expression of molecular markers in the skin. In both clinical and molecular evaluations these patients showed profound decreases in skin scarring.

The researchers found that TGF-beta plays a critical role in skin scarring in patients with SSc. Although TGF-beta has long been implicated in causing scarring, this is the first clinical study to clearly show its impact on humans. The study appears online in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Expand the flexibility of Medicare Advantage plans to tailor benefits;

Make improvements to the Medicare Shared Savings Program;

Consider expanding the Comprehensive Primary Care Initiative nationally;

Reauthorize the Medicare Primary Care Incentive Payment program;

Extend the Medicaid pay parity program;

Improve the functionality of electronic health records;

Eliminate the copayment requirement for chronic care management and create codes to provide reimbursement for diabetic care management and e-consultations;

Create Medicare reimbursement for advance care planning discussions;

Achieve neutrality in payment rates based on site of service;

Ensure that quality measurement targets remain patient-centered and reflect potential differences in benefits/harms for specific populations;

Consider ways to significantly reduce or remove the cost-sharing requirement for a defined set of evidence-based common chronic condition/medication pairings;

Engage representatives of the pharmaceutical industry, health plans, patients, physicians, and other stakeholders in ongoing discussions about the increasing prices and costs associated with prescription drugs;

Support the ongoing commitment of federal funds into research on the safety, efficacy, and cost-effectiveness of telehealth activities;

Require a study on the impact that flat or reduced payment rates to rural health centers has on health care access for Medicare beneficiaries, in particular those with chronic conditions;

Support and expand upon the current efforts of CMS to make transparent the quality and cost of services provided within the Medicare program;

Encourage Medicare to support approaches that allow for true shared-decision making and patient self-management;

Support studying the effectiveness of reimbursement for Patient-Centered Specialty Practices that actively engage in collaboration and coordination with the referring clinicians; and

Integrate care for behavioral health conditions into the primary care setting.

In comparison to other memory functions, long-term musical memory in Alzheimer patients often remains intact and functional for a surprisingly long time. However, until now, the underlying causes of this phenomenon have remained in the dark. In a recent study, scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, the University of Amsterdam and INSERM Caen have pinpointed the location of musical memory for the first time and shown that this area of the brain remains largely intact despite progressive degeneration of the brain in Alzheimer patients.