“Specialty care, including neuropsychological assessments, are pretty critical for people with dementia to get an accurate diagnosis and set a symptom management plan,” said Wendy Yi Xu of Ohio State’s College of Public Health, in a statement accompanying the study’s publication in JAMA Network Open. “These are advanced, complex tests that most primary care physicians are not trained to perform.”    ALICIA LASEK     Primary care doctors and nurse practitioners, rather than specialists, are more likely to provide care for early-onset dementia in rural areas, putting these patie…

“For too long, Medicare has been forced to contend with Big Pharma with one hand tied behind its back – that ends when this bill is signed into law,” said Wyden. “Ever since I became the top Democrat on the Finance Committee, I have been spotlighting how the drug pricing system is broken top to bottom. At last, the Senate has begun to redefine the relationship between Medicare and Big Pharma. That work began last Congress on a bipartisan basis, and virtually the entirety of the Finance Committee’s work two years ago is included in the Inflation Reduction Act. Democrats have taken the critical next step by lifting the curse that has prevented Medicare from negotiating lower prices."

"She fought for women in poverty to get more benefits, against nuclear testing and war in general. Her thumbprint appeared on virtually all legislation to improve the status of women... She quickly moved from supporting candidates to becoming one. Service in various offices eventually led to her election to the U.S. House in 1964... Above all this book is a story of women’s entry into politics, progressing from tokens to major players. They banged on glass ceilings and pushed open stuck doors. In this effort, Rep. Patsy Mink was often leading the charge."  

"Concerns about air travel's role in disease transmission have intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers have examined how factors like aircraft boarding methods affect the exposure risk of passengers and crew members. However, stakeholders said more research involving real-world situations and human behavior is needed and could guide actions to protect public health. Stakeholders noted a lack of federal leadership to advance such research. Congress should consider directing FAA to develop and implement a strategy for research on communicable diseases in air travel, in coordination with other federal agencies and external partners." 

"In an ancillary study of the Vitamin D and Omega-3 Trial (VITAL), we tested whether supplemental vitamin D3 would result in a lower risk of fractures than placebo." 'CONCLUSIONS: Vitamin D3 supplementation did not result in a significantly lower risk of fractures than placebo among generally healthy midlife and older adults who were not selected for vitamin D deficiency, low bone mass, or osteoporosis."

"Although the Department of Education originally estimated federal Direct Loans made in the last 25 years would generate billions in income for the federal government, its current estimates show these loans will cost the government billions. Education originally estimated these loans to generate $114 billion in income for the government. Although actual costs cannot be known until the end of the loan terms, as of fiscal year 2021 these loans are estimated to cost the federal government $197 billion. This swing of $311 billion was driven both by programmatic changes and by reestimates using revised assumptions (e.g., economic factors and loan performance) as additional data became available."   GAO-22-105365Published: Jul 28, 2022. Publicly Released: Jul 29, 2022.       Jump To HIGHLIGHTS FULL REPORT GAO CONTACTS…

Sexual harassment in the workplace can cause harmful psychological, physical, occupational, and economic effects for workers. Several federal laws, executive orders, and agency directives are aimed at preventing and addressing sexual harassment at federal agencies. GAO issued a June 2020 report (GAO-20-387) that reviewed VA's efforts to prevent and address sexual harassment at the agency. In this report, GAO made seven recommendations. This testimony discusses VA's efforts to implement GAO's recommendations to 1) ensure VA's EEO structure is properly aligned; 2) improve the agency's policies to prevent and address sexual harassment of VA employees; 3) collect and analyze data to inform VA about sexual harassment of its employees; and 4) improve relevant training.

Among other responsibilities, the Task Force will monitor and evaluate all state and local legislation, regulations, and enforcement actions that threaten to: Infringe on federal legal protections relating to the provision or pursuit of reproductive care; Impair women’s ability to seek reproductive care in states where it is legal; Impair individuals’ ability to inform and counsel each other about the reproductive care that is available in other states; Ban Mifepristone based on disagreement with the FDA’s expert judgment about its safety and efficacy; or Impose criminal or civil liability on federal employees who provide reproductive health services in a manner authorized by federal law.

“The Americans with Disabilities Act embodies a national promise to eliminate discriminatory barriers and support full participation, community integration, independent living and economic self-sufficiency for people with disabilities,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “We will continue using this bedrock civil rights law to eliminate barriers and safeguard the rights of people with disabilities across the country.” Since November 2021, the department has reached settlement agreements with CVS Pharmacy Inc., Hy-Vee Inc., The Kroger Co., Meijer Inc. and Rite Aid Corporation to ensure that people with disabilities can book COVID-19 vaccine appointments and obtain vaccine information online.

"As past stories covering the Vintage 2021 estimates have suggested, domestic migration during this time period is likely driving the change. These patterns indicate that although young working-age adults are leaving the central counties of these large metro areas, they are simply relocating to other counties in the country. This may be related to the COVID-19 pandemic that created conditions enabling many workers to work from home and may have given these younger working-age adults the flexibility to relocate from areas with high concentrations of job opportunities to places with a lower cost of living or other quality of life improvements."  

Jo Freeman Writes: "This is a book about protests – which is the historical memory of what the 1960s was all about. It is also a book about professors. They are the prime subjects of the author’s chapters, even though students were often the prime actors. World War II made the difference. That conflict brought government money to scientists and the G.I. bill brought tuition payments to veterans. Money moved colleges and universities from being a finishing school for gentlemen to being a 'multiversity' where the 'knowledge industry' was a major source of revenue, progress, prestige and upward mobility."        

"The nationwide coordinated law enforcement action includes criminal charges against a telemedicine company executive, owners and executives of clinical laboratories, durable medical equipment companies, marketing organizations, and medical professionals... The charges announced today allege that the telemedicine companies arranged for medical professionals to order these expensive genetic tests and durable medical equipment regardless of whether the patients needed them, and that they were ordered without any patient interaction or with only a brief telephonic conversation. Often, these test results or durable medical equipment were not provided to the patients or were worthless to their primary care doctors... In addition to the FBI, HHS-OIG, and CPI/CMS, VA-OIG, DCIS, IRS, MFCU, DEA, and other federal and state law enforcement agencies participated in the operation.

As states grapple with the future of abortion in the U.S., Michigan, California, and Vermont could become the first states to let voters decide whether the right to abortion should be written into the state constitution. In Michigan, a proposed constitutional amendment would override a 90-year-old state law that makes abortion a felony even in cases of rape or incest. The U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade last month could revive that abortion ban — and has galvanized abortion-rights advocates to secure new protections. Some of the momentum is coming from activists getting involved for the first time. “I wanted to do something, but I had no political experience or really any experience in activism,” said Amanda Mazur, who lives in rural northwestern Michigan. “But I thought, ‘Maybe I can volunteer and just offer something tangible to the movement.’”

“Ada Limón is a poet who connects,” Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden said. “Her accessible, engaging poems ground us in where we are and who we share our world with. They speak of intimate truths, of the beauty and heartbreak that is living, in ways that help us move forward.” Limón said, “This recognition belongs to the teachers, poets, librarians and ancestors from all over the world that have been lifting up poetry for years. I am humbled by this opportunity to work in the service of poetry and to amplify poetry's ability to restore our humanity and our relationship to the world around us."