PHARMACISTS: DO NO HARM, BUT MORE GOOD
As overdose numbers continue to rise, pharmacists can take a more active role in reducing patient overdose risk by providing naloxone to the friends and family of those at risk. Some pharmacists continue to have misconceptions about potential legal risks of dispensing naloxone not prescribed in a traditional physician-patient relationship. These authors outline the recent legal and regulatory innovations that encourage the prescription and dispensing of naloxone. Thirty-six states provide special protection from civil liability for pharmacists dispensing naloxone, and 32 states provide protection from potential criminal action and pharmacy board disciplinary action.
CAN’T GET NO SATISFACTION
Feeling satisfied with life is associated with better physical and mental health and lower health care costs. No wonder that researchers have looked for interventions to enhance our sense of well-being. This randomized trial called Fun for Wellness offered 24-hour access to 152 online “challenges” that included games and exercises to enhance skills thought to promote well-being (e.g. how to set a goal, how to collect positive emotions). There was no measurable positive effect of the intervention. As with any internet-based intervention, it was hard to keep people engaged, even with the prospect of arriving at “the best your life can be.”
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HEALTH INSURANCE REDUCES POVERTY
A recent Health Affairs article pioneers a new way to gauge the impact of health insurance. Dahlia Remler, Sanders Korenman, and Rosemary Hyson developed a measure of poverty which differs from the Census Bureau’s measure of poverty by taking health into account. Through this measure, they demonstrated that public health insurance programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and premium subsidies on an exchange, reduced poverty rates by 4.6 percentage points. Children younger than 18 years of age benefited particularly from Medicaid and CHIP, with a 5.3% reduction in poverty. But the strongest overall effect was a 17.1% reduction in poverty experienced by people on Medicaid. —Qing Wai Wong, PHP Fellow
Health Affairs Vol. 36, No. 10, 1828–1837. "Estimating The Effects Of Health Insurance And Other Social Programs On Poverty Under The Affordable Care Act," Dahlia K. Remler, Sanders D. Korenman, and Rosemary T. Hyson. Published: October 2017. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2017.0331
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