How to deal with fresh health insurance deductibles in the new year
Many Americans with high-deductible health insurance plans face a cold reality at the start of every year. Those deductibles will have to be paid before most coverage starts. That can mean thousands of dollars in fresh health care bills. Such financial hits can be brutal for patients with cancer or...
Newly approved painkiller Journavx is ‘potentially groundbreaking’
A new painkiller that is said to be free of addiction risks may be transformative for treatment of acute pain, according to local medical professionals. “I think it could be a potentially groundbreaking medication,” said Dr. Richard Gao, anesthesiologist and chronic pain physician with Allegheny Health Network. “I definitely think...
Longtime physical therapy business in Scottdale sold to regional group
George Hoffman can only speculate about how a new ownership group will run his former business, Scottdale Rehabilitation. But he’s pretty sure about one thing — they won’t be making deals with patients where payment comes in the form of a pie or cake. “My wife used to make fun...
Health data disappears as Trump administration targets ‘gender ideology’
Public health data disappeared from websites, entire webpages went blank and employees erased pronouns from email signatures Friday as federal agencies scrambled to comply with a directive tied to President Donald Trump’s order rolling back protections for transgender people. The Office of Personnel Management directed agency heads to strip “gender...
RFK Jr. kept asking to see the science that vaccines were safe. After he saw it, he dismissed it
WASHINGTON — The man who hopes to be President Donald Trump’s health secretary repeatedly asked to see “data” or “science” showing vaccines are safe — but when an influential Republican senator did so, he dismissed it. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spent two days this week insisting to senators that he’s...
FDA approves painkiller designed to eliminate the risk of addiction associated with opioids
WASHINGTON — Federal officials on Thursday approved a new type of pain pill designed to eliminate the risks of addiction and overdose associated with opioid medications like Vicodin and OxyContin. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it approved Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ Journavx for short-term pain that often follows surgery or...
The tuberculosis outbreak in Kansas is alarming. It’s not the biggest in U.S. history though, CDC says
A yearlong outbreak of tuberculosis in the Kansas City, Kansas, area has taken local experts aback, even if it does not appear to be the largest outbreak of the disease in U.S. history as a state health official claimed last week. “We would expect to see a handful of cases...
Pa.’s 1st avian flu case reported at Lehigh County farm, agriculture department says
The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture on Monday announced this year’s first positive case in the state of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in domestic poultry. The positive samples were detected in a 50,000-bird layer chicken flock on a commercial poultry farm in Lehigh County, the department said. The farm and commercial...
CDC ordered to stop working with WHO immediately, upending expectations of an extended withdrawal
NEW YORK — U.S. public health officials have been told to stop working with the World Health Organization, effective immediately. A U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official, John Nkengasong, sent a memo to senior leaders at the agency on Sunday night telling them that all agency staff who...
The CIA believes covid most likely originated from a lab but has low confidence in its own finding
WASHINGTON — The CIA now believes the virus responsible for the covid-19 pandemic most likely originated from a laboratory, according to an assessment that points the finger at China even while acknowledging that the spy agency has “low confidence” in its own conclusion. The finding is not the result of...
The only person in the world with a functioning pig organ is thriving after a record 2 months
An Alabama woman passed a major milestone Saturday to become the longest living recipient of a pig organ transplant — healthy and full of energy with her new kidney for 61 days and counting. “I’m superwoman,” Towana Looney told The Associated Press, laughing about outpacing family members on long walks...
National reproductive health care resource website goes dark
When Elizabeth Ringstad found out that the national reproductive health care resource website www.reproductiverights.gov had been taken down, she felt fear. “I feel like taking down such a major research tool for women is kind of removing our ability to educate ourselves on our bodies and our rights,” said Ringstad,...
Abortion pill-related social media posts blocked, hidden by Meta
Social media posts related to obtaining abortion pills were blocked and hidden on the platforms Instagram and Facebook, the New York Times reported. Specifically, two abortion pill providers’ posts were recently blurred, blocked or removed on the platforms, the Times said, and several abortion pill providers’ accounts were suspended on...
Trump ends Fauci’s security detail and says he’d feel no responsibility if harm befell him
President Donald Trump has ended the federal security detail for Dr. Anthony Fauci, the infectious disease expert who advised him on the COVID-19 pandemic, a person familiar with the matter said Friday. Fauci is the latest in a string of former Trump aides-turned-critics to see their federal protection canceled despite...
Purdue Pharma and owners to pay $7.4 billion in settlement to lawsuits over the toll of OxyContin
Members of the family who own OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, and the company itself, agreed to pay up to $7.4 billion in a new settlement to lawsuits over the toll of the powerful prescription painkiller, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced Thursday. The deal, agreed to by Purdue Pharma,...
Cold, flu and covid cases down from last year, but post-holiday spike has arrived
Western Pennsylvania is a little healthier than last year in terms of flu, covid-19 and respiratory virus cases. While the overall figures are down, local health systems said doctors’ offices and hospitals are in the midst of a post-holiday spike in all three. “We’ve definitely seen an uptick, and that’s...
Trump administration freezes many health agency reports and online posts
The Trump administration has put a freeze on many federal health agency communications with the public through at least the end of the month. In a memo obtained by The Associated Press, acting Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Dorothy Fink told agency staff leaders Tuesday...
Bird flu outbreak causes egg shortages, price increases in Western Pa.
There’s been a shortage and price increase of eggs available at grocery stores nationwide, and Western Pennsylvania is not immune. Highly pathogenic avian influenza, also known as the bird flu, is the culprit. It’s a virus that Dr. Lee Harrison, an infectious disease physician and professor of medicine and epidemiology...
‘This is a big deal for Greensburg Salem’: District launches mental health program for its educators
Doug Sweitzer believes he can help transform the personal and professional lives of Greensburg Salem School District staff. A former employee of the Red Lion Area School District in York County, Sweitzer will train about six Greensburg Salem teachers in a mental health program after approval by the school board...
Independence, WVU health systems partner for newborn ICU at Westmoreland hospital
Westmoreland Hospital’s unit for newborn babies in need of intensive care now is under the management of West Virginia University Medicine’s Children’s Hospital. It’s a switch from the Greensburg hospital’s previous relationship with UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. Announced Tuesday, the partnership began Jan. 1 and has overseen at least...
Trump wants to pull the U.S. out of the World Health Organization again. Here’s what may happen next
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump used one of the flurry of executive actions that he issued on his first day back in the White House to begin the process of withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization for the second time in less than five years — a...
U.S. accuses Walgreens of filling millions of illegitimate prescriptions, including for opioids
DEERFIELD, Ill. — The U.S. Justice Department is accusing Walgreens of filling millions of prescriptions in the past decade and more without a legitimate purpose, including for dangerous amounts of opioids, according to a lawsuit filed this week. Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois,...
Texas judge says states can revive challenge to abortion pill access nationwide
The Texas judge who previously halted approval of the nation’s most common method of abortion ruled Thursday that three states can move ahead with another attempt to roll back federal rules and make it harder for people across the U.S. to access the abortion drug mifepristone. Idaho, Kansas and Missouri...
Which products contain Red 3, the dye now banned by the FDA?
Cookies, concoctions and candies like Dubble Bubble could be in double trouble after the Food and Drug Administration announced a ban of Red. No. 3 food dye . The dye gives some foods, beverages and medications its cherry-red color. Its use is banned for more than three decades after the...
FDA bans red dye No. 3 from foods
U.S. regulators on Wednesday banned the dye called Red 3 from the nation’s food supply, nearly 35 years after it was barred from cosmetics because of potential cancer risk. Food and Drug Administration officials granted a 2022 petition filed by two dozen food safety and health advocates, who urged the...
