To get these headlines delivered to your inbox every week, sign up for our weekly health news roundup.
‘So grateful’: Doulas offer mothers a personal connection amid postpartum depression
Sujata Srinivasan, Connecticut Public Radio, June 2
Efforts are underway in Connecticut to train more doulas. Doulas provide physical and emotional support before, during, and after childbirth. Sometimes they are the ones to catch the moms with postpartum depression who fall through the cracks. Advocates say doulas can also help reduce the U.S.’s high maternal mortality rate, which is highest for Black women. Connecticut began reimbursing doulas last year through its state Medicaid program HUSKY, and more people are going through the process required to become eligible for state payment.
Black midwives are suing Southern states, claiming regulations make it harder to help patients
Elisha Brown, Stateline, June 2
Black midwives are leading lawsuits over state regulations that they say limit their ability to provide care. They say midwives can help improve birth outcomes in Southern states, where maternal mortality rates are high and where there are significant racial disparities in maternal health access. The lawsuits were filed against Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi, where state regulations require midwives to have collaborative practice agreements with physicians. “We know outcomes are improved by people who have access to providers that they’re comfortable with, that they trust, and that they can actually get into in a timely fashion,” said Dr. Yashica Robinson, an OB-GYN who owns a birth center in Alabama.
Baffling. Frustrating. Frightening. What it’s like to be sued over medical debt in Connecticut
Katy Golvala, Jenna Carlesso, Noam N. Levey, The Connecticut Mirror, May 31
When Christine Wood received a $12,000 bill from Bristol Hospital for her weight loss surgery, she thought it was a mistake. She checked with her insurance before the surgery and was told it would be $5,000 out-of-pocket and paid in advance. More than six months later she received another bill from Bristol pushing the cost of her surgery to more than $17,000. She contested the bill and was sued by the hospital. She is among many Connecticut residents who were sued by hospitals or physicians over unpaid bills, and described confusing health plan rules, frustrating calls to hospital billing and their insurers, and a lack of answers.
From festering infections to untreated cancer, ICE detainees across the US describe medical neglect
Rae Ellen Bichell, Claire Galofaro, Maia Rosenfeld, Renuka Rayasam, Aaron Kessler, Byron Tau, Associated Press and KFF Health News, June 2
Hundreds of detainees across at least 33 states allege in federal lawsuits that immigration detention facilities are failing to provide adequate medical care. Detainees say they didn’t get medication on time, or at all, and requests for help went unanswered for weeks. In one case, an Albanian man reported that his pain became so unbearable he pulled out his own tooth in a New Mexico detention center. In another case, a Honduran mother was hospitalized for a heart problem after she was denied blood pressure medications while being held in Florida. According to a recent report, ICE custody is deadlier than it has been in two decades.
Around 1 in 5 young people use AI chatbots for mental health advice, survey finds
Aria Bendix and Angela Yang, NBC News, June 2
Nearly 1 in 5 adolescents and young adults are turning to AI chatbots for advice when they’re sad, angry, nervous or stressed, according to a new study. Experts say that while a similar number of young people report receiving mental health therapy from a professional, some may be using both tools. Experts say they suspect some people are using AI chatbots as fill-ins due to a shortage of mental health professionals or lack of access to one. Experts worry about young people using AI during mental health crises, which it is not designed to help navigate.