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What We’re Reading: Dementia Care Initiative; Alcohol-Related Deaths in Women; Medical ID Theft
The Biden administration announces its Guiding an Improved Dementia Experience (GUIDE) Model for dementia care; women’s alcohol-related morality is growing at a faster rate than men’s; medical theft can occur in a large-scale breach or singular theft of someone’s information.
Administration Launches GUIDE Initiative For Dementia Care
The Biden administration is taking more action to uphold support and care for people with Medicare living with dementia and their unpaid caregivers, according to CMS, which announced its Guiding an Improved Dementia Experience (GUIDE) Model, with the goal of improving quality of life for people living with dementia, decreasing strain on unpaid caregivers, and helping people stay in their homes and communities. Care navigators and respite services will be key components of the alternative payment model. Applications for organizations interested in taking part in the model will open in fall 2023, and the trial is anticipated to run for 8 years starting in July 2024, reported Reuters.
Rising Alcohol-Related Mortality in Women
A new study finds deaths linked to excessive alcohol consumption are quickly increasing in the United States, especially among women, reported NBC News. Drinking is still killing more men than women, but the rate of alcohol-related deaths is growing more among women. Lead study author Ibraheem Karaye, MD, DrPH, of Hofstra University, told NBC News that previous studies are detailing that women are drinking larger amounts of alcohol, with binging becoming more common, which could at least partially explain increasing rates of complications like cirrhosis. After analyzing 20 years of CDC data, Karaye and his colleagues found that women’s alcohol-related mortality increased by 14.7%, compared with 12.5% in men.
Reasonable Fear of Medical ID Theft
Following HCA Healthcare’s announcement in July that the personal identification data of approximately 11 million HCA patients in 20 states had been revealed in a breach, people might be understandably concerned that their personal medical data and identities could be stolen, according to KFF Health News. Customers should be aware that “medical identity” fraud can happen in multiple ways, from a large-scale rupture to individual theft of someone’s data. Medical identity thieves might not only steal personal data like Social Security number, but also medical records and care information, which can present implications for the person’s care, detailed Eva Velasquez, president and CEO of the Identity Theft Resource Center, to KFF Health News.
Urticaria Diagnosis Challenged by Overlapping Pruritic Skin Conditions
April 23rd 2025Urticaria is complicated to diagnose by its symptomatic overlap with other skin conditions and the frequent misclassification in literature of distinct pathologies like vasculitic urticaria and bullous pemphigus.
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New Research Challenges Assumptions About Hospital-Physician Integration, Medicare Patient Mix
April 22nd 2025On this episode of Managed Care Cast, Brady Post, PhD, lead author of a study published in the April 2025 issue of The American Journal of Managed Care®, challenges the claim that hospital-employed physicians serve a more complex patient mix.
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Personalized Care Key as Tirzepatide Use Expands Rapidly
April 15th 2025Using commercial insurance claims data and the US launch of tirzepatide as their dividing point, John Ostrominski, MD, Harvard Medical School, and his team studied trends in the use of both glucose-lowering and weight-lowering medications, comparing outcomes between adults with and without type 2 diabetes.
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ACOs’ Focus on Rooting Out Fraud Aligns With CMS Vision Under Oz
April 23rd 2025Accountable care organizations (ACOs) are increasingly playing the role of data sleuths as they identify and report trends of anomalous billing in hopes of salvaging their shared savings. This mission dovetails with that of CMS, which under the new administration plans to prioritize rooting out fraud, waste, and abuse.
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