Top news stories from AMA Morning Rounds®: Week of March 4, 2024

Read AMA Morning Rounds®’ most popular stories in medicine and public health from the week of March 4, 2024–March 8, 2024.

Reuters (3/6, Lapid) reports, “Minuscule pieces of plastic lodged in the fatty deposits that line human arteries may be linked with higher risks for heart disease, strokes, and death.” Researchers said “among 304 patients who underwent procedures to clear a major artery in the neck, 58% were found to have microscopic and nanoscopic ‘jagged-edged’ pieces of plastic in the plaque lining the blood vessel, including polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride containing chlorine.” Individuals “with plastic particles in their carotid artery plaque had a 4.5 times higher risk of experiencing a heart attack or stroke or dying during the next three years.” Additionally, “patients with microplastics or nanoplastics in their plaque tissue...had high levels of inflammatory proteins in their blood that are known to play a role in atherosclerosis and heart failure.” The study was published in The New England Journal of Medicine. 

The Washington Post (3/5, Diamond, Gilbert) reports, “Federal officials Tuesday unveiled a plan to help hospitals” and physicians “who can’t bill for their services after a cyberattack knocked out the nation’s largest processor of medical claims, heeding calls for a federal intervention to head off impacts to patient care.” Under the plan, CMS “will encourage health insurers to remove or relax requirements that often slow billing, such as obtaining prior authorization before providing certain care to patients, among other steps.” Additionally, the agency is “encouraging private health plans to provide advance funding to the organizations most affected by the cyberattack.” 

The New York Times (3/4, Belluck) reports, “The first nonprescription birth control pill in the United States will be available in stores and online in the coming weeks at a price of $19.99 a month, the manufacturer, Perrigo Company, announced on Monday.” The drug, Opill, “which was approved for over-the-counter sale by the Food and Drug Administration last year, will be the most effective birth control method available without a prescription, research shows – more effective than condoms, spermicides and other nonprescription methods.” 

The AP (3/4, Perrone) reports Perrigo “said Monday it has begun shipping the medication...to major retailers and pharmacies.” Opill “will also be sold online.” The medication’s “approval came despite some concerns by FDA scientists about the company’s results, including whether women with certain medical conditions would understand that they shouldn’t take the drug.” 

Reuters (3/1, Roy) reported, “UnitedHealth’s unit Change Healthcare said on Friday it has enabled a new instance of its ePrescribing service for all its customers, more than a week after it reported a hack that had a knock-on effect on players across the U.S. health care system.” Across the United States, pharmacies “have been experiencing disruptions following the cyberattack at the tech unit, which was perpetrated by hackers who identified themselves as the ‘Blackcat’ ransomware group.” 

CNBC (3/1, Capoot) reported the cyberattack is continuing to put financial pressure on physicians “as crucial reimbursement systems remain down for the ninth day.” American Medical Association President Jesse M. Ehrenfeld, MD, MPH, “said he has spent days fielding calls from concerned colleagues.” Ehrenfeld “said he spoke with one doctor who runs an oncology practice and only has up to two weeks’ worth of cash on hand. If the outage drags out, the practice won’t be able to buy the chemotherapy that its patients depend on for treatment.” 

Editor’s note: You can find the AMA’s most recent updates on protecting your practice and news about billing disruptions.

The New York Times (3/7, Richtel) reports, “Increasingly, doctor visits by adolescents and young adults involve mental health diagnoses, along with the prescription of psychiatric medications.” A new study published in JAMA Network Open “found that in 2019, 17% of outpatient doctor visits for patients ages 13 to 24 in the United States involved a behavioral or mental health condition, including anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, self-harm or other issues.” That result was up “sharply from 2006, when just 9% of doctor’s visits involved psychiatric illnesses.” Additionally, “in 2019, 22.4% of outpatient visits by the 13-24 age group involved the prescription of at least one psychiatric drug, up from 13% in 2006.” 

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