New year, new health care laws in the Garden State

Sarah Roderick-Fitch | The Center Square

January 02, 07:32 AM January 02, 07:32 AM

(The Center Square) — The new year signals new laws taking effect in New Jersey, especially in the health care industry.

A new law will expand access to contraceptives by allowing pharmacists to dispense self-administered hormonal contraceptives without prescription. The Senate bill includes access to birth control pills, patches and rings.

Supporters say the measure reduces "barriers to access" to family planning tools, providing the issuance of a standing order to authorize pharmacists to offer self-administered hormonal birth-control options without requiring individual prescription.

Gov. Phil Murphy argues the legislation was necessary to combat restrictions on reproductive health care.

"While many other states are working to restrict access to reproductive health care — including contraceptives — our state continues to protect this fundamental right and expand access to this critical care on behalf of all who need it," said Murphy. 

The governor says the move will promote "health equity" by easing contraceptive access.

"The current requirement of an individualized prescription imposes an unnecessary burden on people who may be unable to afford or find the time to go to a health care provider for a prescription. Removing that requirement will promote health equity and ease of access to contraceptives in order to empower women to make their own reproductive choices," Murphy added.

New Jersey is making it easier for veterans with applicable medical training to become licensed practical nurses as civilians. The governor argues the new law will help veterans and strengthen the state’s health care system.

"It is our duty as a State and as a society to support the veterans who have selflessly served in defense of our country," said Murphy. "We are making it easier for other veterans to obtain civilian employment as licensed practical nurses by recognizing the medical training they received during their time in the military, which will also help bolster our statewide health care system."

The Murphy administration is touting three pieces of legislation signed by the governor that supporters argue will help make prescription drugs more affordable by capping out-of-pocket expenses, establishing more oversight of pharmacy benefit managers and promoting pharmaceutical supply chain transparency.

"This is a huge step forward in our ongoing efforts to deliver much-needed relief to countless families throughout our state who are struggling to afford critical medications," Murphy touted.

Lastly, the state has expanded the Safe Haven Infant Protection Act, which allows women who give birth in licensed general hospitals to surrender their babies safely under the new law.

"In New Jersey, we offer a legal, judgement-free way for individuals to surrender their baby to professionals who will ensure the infant receives the care they need," Murphy explained.

"Expanding this critical law will make it easier for residents to safely give their baby up after childbirth by making entire hospitals safe surrender sites."

Newsom extends free healthcare to 700,000 illegal immigrants despite record budget deficit

Breanne Deppisch

January 01, 11:06 AM January 02, 07:04 AM

California became the first state on Monday to offer comprehensive health insurance to all undocumented immigrants, a plan expected to expand to roughly 700,000 residents living in the Golden State.

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) and state lawmakers agreed in 2022 to expand the state’s Medicaid program, known as Medi-Cal, to include people of all immigration statuses and ages. But it also comes when the state is at a record budget deficit, sparking sharp criticism from Republicans and other conservative groups that fear the expansion will further strain California's existing healthcare coverage.

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The expansion is expected to cost the state roughly $1.2 billion for the first six months, before increasing to around $3.1 billion per year, according to estimates released last year. It will include undocumented immigrants between the ages of 26 and 49, helping put California Democrats closer to delivering on their goal to achieve universal healthcare in the state.

It is also California’s largest insurance expansion since President Barack Obama’s Obamacare. That plan allowed participating states to expand Medicaid coverage to adults living below 138% of the federal poverty level. California also took steps in 2015 and 2019 to expand coverage further to undocumented children and undocumented adults over 50, respectively. The current step addresses the last age group of undocumented adults, who, until Monday, only had access to emergency care services and pregnancy-related services under the state program.

The new expansion has been hailed by Democrats and immigration advocates as a win-win solution that can help keep communities healthier and incentivize people of all immigration statuses to seek out preventive care options, instead of turning to emergency rooms or other forms of healthcare that can often be more expensive in the long run.

“In California, we believe everyone deserves access to quality, affordable healthcare coverage — regardless of income or immigration status,” Newsom’s office told ABC News in a statement.“Through this expansion, we’re making sure families and communities across California are healthier, stronger, and able to get the care they need when they need it.”

Still, critics, including California Republicans, have attacked the Medi-Cal expansion as fiscally irresponsible, especially when the state is already staring down a $68 billion budget deficit.

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The California Senate Republican Caucus blasted the plan in a 2022-2023 analysis of Newsom’s budget plan, noting that the more than 700,000 illegal immigrants expected to be covered by the expansion will “certainly exacerbate current provider access programs.”

“Regardless of what your position is on this, it doesn’t make sense for us to be adding to our deficit,” California Republican Sen. Roger Niello, the vice-chairman of the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee, told the Associated Press. 

New year, new laws coming to the commonwealth

Sarah Roderick-Fitch | The Center Square

January 01, 09:05 AM January 01, 09:05 AM

(The Center Square) — The new year signals change, specifically new laws which will take effect in Virginia, especially in the health care sector.

The Commonwealth will see a slew of new laws aimed at improving health insurance coverage, recognizing specific out-of-state counseling licenses, streamlining home studies for adoption and changes to the state's medical marijuana oversite.

Hearing aids

Earlier this year, the Senate passed legislation requiring health insurers to provide hearing aids for minors at an affordable rate if recommended by a doctor. Every two years, families will be able to receive up to $1,500 for minor's hearing devices.

Counseling Compact

The House passed a bill making it easier for counselors to practice across state lines through Compact permits, making Virginia the 20th state to join the Counseling Compact. Eligible licensed counselors must be licensed in at least one member state.

Continuity of care

In addition, the House also passed a bill to improve the continuity of care through health insurance carriers, which will be required to notify enrollees if a provider is removed from the carrier's panel. Even if the provider is removed, patients can still receive care for up to 90 days following removal.

The new law makes exceptions for pregnant women to continue care with their provider through postpartum. It also provides care for up to 180 days for those with life-threatening conditions. Additionally, the provider may continue care for patients receiving inpatient treatment until discharged from the inpatient facility.

Paid sick leave

Under a new law passed by the Senate, employers must provide paid sick leave to health care providers and grocery store workers. Currently, employers are only required to provide sick leave to certain home health care workers. The bill also removes a requirement that workers work on average a minimum of 20 hours per week, or 90 hours per month, to be eligible.

Home studies

Under a new law, home studies for adoptions will become transferable, providing flexibility to the adoption process. The law will allow home studies conducted by adoption agencies or social services boards to be transferred between localities and state-licensed adoption agencies.

Medical Marijuana

A new law will affect the oversight of the commonwealth's medical marijuana program, transferring it from the Virginia Board of Pharmacy to the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority. The CCA will be required to adopt previously enacted regulations for medical marijuana dispensaries.

John Fetterman says social media was an 'accelerant' that made depression worse

Julia Johnson

December 31, 03:59 PM December 31, 03:59 PM

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) said Sunday that social media served as "an accelerant" for his clinical depression, to the point that doctors advised him to stay off of it.

According to him, social media "absolutely" made his battle with depression worse.

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His doctors weren't the only ones telling him not to use it, he added. "Everybody told me that," he shared on NBC News's Meet the Press.

Fetterman said he had mostly stayed off of it prior to his hospitalization, but he made "the mistake" of checking it in late 2022. "It wasn’t the things said, because I assumed that those were—but it was the volume, the volume, just the — I mean, like, where is this coming from? Like, where can there be so much of it? It’s, like, would this be the rest of my life? Look what it’s done to me," he recalled.

"More importantly, what has this done to my family?" he asked. "My kids are afraid to go back—they left social media behind, and we stopped posting family pictures and things like that."

After spending several weeks in Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to treat his depression after entering office, Fetterman says he is coping better with it.

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He revealed that he is "selectively" back on social media "Maybe to post something."

"I would just warn anybody that — social media — I’ve never noticed anyone to believe that their health — their mental health has been supported by spending any kind of time on social media," he continued.

Are we on the cusp of historic medical breakthroughs?

Henry Miller

December 31, 08:18 AM December 31, 08:18 AM

During my lifetime, there have been numerous seminal breakthroughs in medicine that greatly changed our ability to prevent or treat disease. I have a good idea of what the next ones will be.

Vaccines

I can still recall the palpable excitement when, at the age of 8, I joined scores of other children to get the Salk polio vaccine shot. At the time, polio infections caused widespread paralysis and permanent disability, and parents were terrified at the prospect of their children needing breathing support indefinitely from an “iron lung.”

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The influence of the iconic Salk vaccine went further than the short-term reassurance of parents; it gave rise to an almost mystical belief in the goodness, or at least the unquestioned value, of vaccines. That belief translated into widespread acceptance of subsequent vaccines to prevent a broad spectrum of viral and bacterial diseases. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that, worldwide, between 2021 and 2030, more than 50 million deaths will have been prevented through immunization in 194 countries.

Open-heart surgery

The second breakthrough was a two-part combination: open-heart surgery, which only became possible with the advent of cardiopulmonary bypass, also known as “being on the pump," when a machine takes over for your heart and lungs during surgery. The machine removes blood and adds oxygen before pumping it back out to provide oxygenated blood to the organs of the body.

While the patient is hooked up to the pump, the surgeons can perform a variety of procedures, including bypassing clogged, atherosclerotic coronary arteries, replacing defective valves, or even a heart transplant. Currently, about half a million of these procedures are performed in the United States each year, prolonging patients’ lives and dramatically improving their quality of life.

More breakthroughs are imminent.

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence is all the rage in many aspects of our lives. In medicine, it is being applied to tasks ranging from patient triage to the detection of abnormalities during diagnostic procedures. It is especially good at reading X-rays. During my last colonoscopy, the gastroenterologist used a new AI tool called "GI Genius" to help detect abnormalities such as polyps or adenomas (precancerous lesions) in the colon.

According to the Food and Drug Administration, which evaluated and approved it, here is how it works: "The GI Genius is composed of hardware and software designed to highlight portions of the colon where the device detects a potential lesion. The software uses artificial intelligence algorithm techniques to identify regions of interest. During a colonoscopy, the GI Genius system generates markers, which look like green squares and are accompanied by a short, low-volume sound, and superimposes them on the video from the endoscope camera when it identifies a potential lesion. These signs signal to the clinician that further assessment may be needed."

In a large clinical trial, colonoscopy plus GI Genius identified lab-confirmed adenomas or carcinomas in 55.1% of patients compared to 42% of patients with standard colonoscopy.

Gene therapy

Next on my nonexhaustive list of imminent breakthroughs is gene therapy, a remarkable marriage of genetics, molecular biology, and medicine. Genetic therapies using various approaches are already FDA-approved for a handful of diseases, including Leber congenital amaurosis, a rare inherited condition that leads to blindness; CAR T-cell therapy for certain blood cancers; and sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia, which are caused by mutations in hemoglobin, the protein that carries oxygen in red blood cells.

Many rare, lethal genetic diseases whose molecular defect is known are candidates for gene therapy. There have also been some promising results in treating Parkinson’s disease, but no treatments for it have yet been approved by the FDA.

Drugs for weight loss

Drugs called glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists (brand names Victoza and Ozempic) have been used for years to help people with Type 2 diabetes control their blood sugar levels. Two drugs in this class, liraglutide (Saxenda) and semaglutide (Wegovy), are now FDA approved in formulations specifically designed for weight loss in people without diabetes. They mimic a hormone released by the intestine after eating that suppresses appetite. Weight loss can be in the range of 10% to 20% of body weight.

That might not seem to be an earth-shaking advance, but especially in people who are obese, it can reduce the incidence of high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, and stress on joints, all of which can compromise longevity. These drugs could be a real boon to public health in the U.S., where 40% of the population is considered obese.

This list enumerates a few notable advances that make medicine so exciting and so valuable to people. I can’t wait to see the next round!

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Henry I. Miller, a physician and molecular biologist, is the Glenn Swogger distinguished fellow at the American Council on Science and Health. He was previously the founding director of the Food and Drug Administration Office of Biotechnology.

Federal judge blocks Idaho child gender transition law, claiming parental rights

Breccan F. Thies

December 28, 06:07 PM December 28, 06:07 PM

A federal judge in Idaho issued a block on a state law that would ban gender transitions for children before it was set to go into effect Jan. 1.

The law, which made it a felony to transition children medically, was struck down by District Judge B. Lynn Winmill, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, who claimed parents have the right to transition their children.

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"Transgender children should receive equal treatment under the law," Winmill wrote in the decision. "Parents should have the right to make the most fundamental decisions about how to care for their children."

"Time and again, these cases illustrate that the Fourteenth Amendment’s primary role is to protect disfavored minorities and preserve our fundamental rights from legislative overreach," the judge continued. "That was true for newly freed slaves following the civil war. It was true in the 20th Century for women, people of color, inter-racial couples, and individuals seeking access to contraception. And it is no less true for transgender children and their parents in the 21st Century."

Winmill argued that the Idaho law violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.

In April, Gov. Brad Little (R-ID) signed into law the Vulnerable Child Protection Act, which bans transition drugs such as puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, as well as surgeries such as double mastectomies, for children. Any doctor found to be administering such interventions to minors could see a felony charge with up to 10 years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

“In signing this bill, I recognize our society plays a role in protecting minors from surgeries or treatments that can irreversibly damage their healthy bodies,” Little said when signing the bill. “However, as policymakers, we should take great caution whenever we consider allowing the government to interfere with loving parents and their decisions about what is best for their children.”

The families of two Idaho teenagers claiming transgender identity quickly filed suit, arguing that the medical interventions are necessary. They are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU Idaho.

"Trans people like myself deserve the same chance at safety and liberty as everyone else, but this law specifically targets us and our health care for no good reason," one of the anonymous plaintiffs, a biological boy referred to as 16-year-old Jane Doe in the filing, said in May.

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The lawsuit also states that "every major medical organization in the United States, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association," supports gender transitions for children.

That is a sticking point for many conservatives who have argued in favor of passing the restrictions; those critics say most major medical groups in America will not criticize the practice because pharmaceutical companies, doctors, and hospitals earn high profits from the procedures. Many European countries have emerged in opposition to the medical practice for children based on evidence of long-term and often irreversible harm.

Bernie Sanders tests positive for COVID-19 amid nationwide spike

Misty Severi

December 28, 03:46 PM December 28, 03:46 PM

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) revealed Thursday that he contracted COVID-19 during the Senate's holiday break amid an increase in infections nationwide.

Sanders, 82, said his symptoms are mild and that he will continue to work from his home while in isolation as outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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"I have tested positive for Covid," the senator posted to the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. "My symptoms are minimal and I will continue to work from home in Vermont while isolating in accordance with CDC guidance. I am glad to be fully up to date with the vaccine."

The infection comes after the Senate concluded its business for the year — it will return to session on Jan. 8, 2024. CDC guidelines recommend an infected person isolate for at least five days or until symptoms subside if symptoms stretch beyond that period. People are also encouraged to continue wearing a mask through day 10, regardless of when they end isolation.

The CDC has reported an increase in infections nationwide during the last few months, with the Northeast being hit the hardest by respiratory infections and viruses. The most prominent strain of the virus is currently JN.1, which is expected to account for 39-50% of all COVID-19 infections.

“JN.1’s continued growth suggests that the variant is either more transmissible or better at evading our immune systems than other circulating variants," according to the CDC. "It is too early to know whether or to what extent JN.1 will cause an increase in infections or hospitalizations."

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Existing vaccines, tests, and treatments still work against JN.1, per the CDC.

COVID-19 infections are at the highest levels since the 2022 surge of omicron variant. Most hospitalizations are among those 65 and older.

The gender ideology battles that will define 2024

Breccan F. Thies

December 28, 03:00 AM December 28, 03:01 AM

Conservative lawmakers across the country are set to introduce novel laws limiting the reach of gender ideology in 2024.

In the past two years, Republican-led states have tried to find ways to limit the impact of the transgender rights movement, passing laws regulating areas from sports to education.

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The lion's share of such laws have focused on children, offering protections for gender-based sports programs and the separation of bathrooms and locker rooms by biological sex. In addition, as many as 22 states have passed laws banning the use of gender transition surgeries, cross-sex hormones, and related practices on children claiming transgender identity.

According to the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest LGBT lobby, those protections cover only 35.1% of U.S. teenagers aged 13 to 17.

Some of the laws already in place have attracted lawsuits, with some advancing to the stage of petitioning the Supreme Court for a hearing. Many of those cases could present a challenge to the high court's 2020 ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, which included transgender identity in the list of statuses protected by employment law. However, the Supreme Court has so far rejected each petition for certiorari, including in cases out of Missouri, West Virginia, and Virginia.

While some of those laws are stuck in litigation, which will also play out in 2024, lawmakers in some states are eyeing new ways to limit the transgender movement legally, medically, and politically, including for adults.

"There's an all-out war," American Principles Project president Terry Schilling told the Washington Examiner. "There is a culture war, but it's not been from the right, the culture war has been from the left 100%. Finally, the right is waking up and recognizing this for the threat that it is — and it's just one part of the culture war, it's not everything, but it's a big part."

Missouri's to challenge Bostock?

A piece of legislation introduced earlier this month in the Show-Me State would block employers from allowing transgender-identifying employees to use a bathroom that is not designated for their biological sex.

Arguing that requiring different arrangements could create a "hostile work environment," the bill would ensure that employers cannot force employees into sharing restrooms and locker rooms with people of the opposite sex.

However, as currently written, the bill does provide an exception to people who have gone through "a full medical procedure to change his or her sex." The Missouri Commission on Human Rights would be charged with enforcing this law, and if passed in 2024, it would take effect in January 2025.

The provision, if enacted, could pose a direct challenge to Bostock, in which the Supreme Court decided that sexual orientation and gender identity should be included in the definition of "sex discrimination" in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which deals with employment law.

Earlier this year, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey told the Washington Examiner that he is hoping his state can regulate transgender drugs and surgeries for adults as well as children.

Raising the age limit on gender transition procedures

While many states have already banned gender transition surgeries for minors below the age of 18, some states will look at ways to raise the age limit beyond the age of majority, to 21 or even 26 years old.

Earlier this year, a bill in Oklahoma sought to raise the age at which an individual can seek surgical and chemical interventions for gender transition to 26 years old. A violation of the law would have resulted in the revocation of the medical license of the providing physician.

A separate bill aimed to ban the procedures until the age of 21.

While both bills died in committee, 2024 is poised to see lawmakers pursue more creative ways to delay the procedures.

For example, South Carolina lawmakers introduced a bill last month that would block Medicaid reimbursements for gender transition procedures until the age of 26.

Florida is already in the middle of litigation over its determination that state Medicaid dollars would not go toward gender transitions at all, which prompted the Biden administration to intervene, citing Bostock in an argument that the state was violating civil rights law.

Expanding legal liability to doctors

The number of detransitioners, or people who regret their gender transitions and often feel as though doctors coaxed them into the procedures, has increased along with the notoriety of the phenomenon.

Their stories are often similar: The detransitioner went through an identity crisis at a young, adolescent age, obtained a psychiatric assessment telling them they were in the wrong body, and were sent along an irreversible medical route characterized by drugs that sterilize them and surgeries that remove reproductive body parts such as breasts, uteruses, vaginas, and penises.

In many cases, detransitioners also say that both they and their parents were bullied into seeking gender transitions, with doctors raising the specter of the child's suicide without a medical transition.

This phenomenon has prompted some lawmakers to extend medical malpractice liability to doctors who have guided children toward the interventions.

One form of this bill, which could see legal challenges in 2024, was passed in Arkansas earlier this year and signed by Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R-AR).

A bill setting up the process for filing lawsuits against doctors who push gender transitions on children has also been introduced in New Hampshire for the 2024 legislative session. It would give those harmed by transition procedures 20 years from the age of 21 to file for damages "including emotional distress, caused by gender transition surgery, administration of puberty blocking drugs and/or the administration of cross-sex hormones."

Advocates for child transition surgeries are critical of these laws, as they discourage doctors from performing the operations in the first place, lowering the number of physicians willing to take the risk.

Teaching that sex is immutable in school

A South Carolina bill introduced last week would require that children attending K-12 public schools in the Palmetto State learn that sex is an immutable characteristic and cannot be changed.

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"It must be the policy of every public K-12 educational institution that is provided in this State that the sex of a person is an immutable biological trait and that it is false to ascribe to a person a pronoun that does not correspond to such person's sex," the bill stated.

It would also bar school employees from being required to use "preferred pronouns" for others, tell children their own, or provide children with potential alternatives to the pronouns that correspond with their sex.

"2024 is the big decision point for all this. 2024 is going to determine if the American people see the intents from the left as what they are, which is the final battle to take over all of our institutions," Schilling concluded. "If there's no consequences for doing all this stuff in the elections, and then they don't change power, well then their culture war worked."

Terrifying the public about COVID or other health concerns is bad for their health

Timothy P. Carney

December 27, 12:33 PM December 27, 12:33 PM

Back around 2010, just before Halloween, a reporter friend retweeted a local police department’s warning to check your kids’ candy for drugs or razor blades or something like that. I asked, “Is there any evidence of something like that ever happening?”

She replied, “you never can be too safe.”

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This was a good reporter, but she considered it part of her job to warn readers about dangers, even those that didn’t exist.

I bring this up today because of a new study out of Sweden suggesting that health anxiety disorder (also known as hypochondriasis) may be deadly. To the extent our news media spends its time making people terrified about threats to their health — and in the last four years, that’s a significant portion of media content — it’s harming people.

The Washington Post summed up the study this way: “People diagnosed with hypochondriasis were 84 percent more likely than people without the disorder to die of dozens of conditions, especially heart, blood and lung diseases, as well as suicide.”

The article later says, “Searching for information about their symptoms on the internet can also worsen patients’ anxiety. ‘They experience a lot of suffering and hopelessness,' said Mataix-Cols, a neuroscience and psychiatry professor at Stockholm’s Karolinska Institutet.”

Which brings us back to the news media and journalists’ behavior during COVID.

The Washington Post, which has great coverage this week on the dangers of health anxiety, also employs a columnist whose entire public persona for the past three years has been stoking health anxiety and assailing everyone less paranoid than her.

The Washington Post back in 2020 also carried this gem of a column:

“You may think you’re totally safe because you wear a mask and gloves during the pandemic. But do you put alcohol up your nose and antiseptic on your eyelids when you come home?"

"I start each morning by taking my temperature with an infrared thermometer and my oxygen level with my oximeter. I check the conjunctival tissue in my eyes in the mirror; examine my feet for covid-19 toes, which are skin lesions or bumps…."

"When I come in contact with a person, I hold my breath and turn my face away, regardless of whether they wear a mask.”

That's not healthy behavior, but it's the sort of thing our news media encouraged and normalized.

“There’s no such thing as a good cold,” Vox explained in 2022. The point of the article was that it’s really dangerous to rely on natural immunity, and thus really dangerous to live your life. “When it comes to respiratory viruses, you never know what you’re breathing in: a mild virus that will cause a few days of snot, or something more deadly.”

Here’s a supposed “study” that went viral (sorry) and was spread by journalists warning that if you run or bike behind someone outdoors you are apt to get their COVID.

There was no study that said this. But journalists, who typically try to be careful not to spread unconfirmed declarations, seemed to think it was their job to scare people as much as possible about COVID.

I think they thought it was at worst a noble lie. But of course, the terror of COVID led to overly harsh lockdowns, led people to hide in fear (which was harmful), and it likely contributed to health anxiety.

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Beginning in 2021, everything was declared a symptom of long COVID, which made many folks even more terrified of ever getting COVID, and made anxious post-COVID people convinced that they had every possible post-COVID malady.

Parts of the media decided they should be scaring everyone at all times. This, it seems, is bad for the readers.

In case of emergency, leave Maryland

Morgan Sweeney | The Center Square

December 26, 01:00 PM December 26, 01:00 PM

(The Center Square) - In the case of a holiday health emergency, there’s both good news and bad news for Marylanders.

Maryland ranked first in the nation for hospital quality and fourth for overall health care, according to a 2023 study by U.S. News and World Report. In addition to hospital quality, the study looked at Medicare and nursing home quality, preventable hospital admissions, health care access and states’ public health outcomes.

While Maryland ranked ninth for health care access – its health care was relatively affordable and health insurance enrollment relatively high – there’s one way in which Marylanders’ access to health care is seriously impaired: Emergency room visits.

Maryland currently has the worst emergency room wait times in the country, and depending on the source, it’s been at or near the bottom for years. The Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission found that, while the state’s hospital wait times are improving, patients still wait an average of eight hours to be admitted, according to a recent report.

In February, Frederick County Sen. Karen Lewis Young, D-District 3, introduced a bill that would create a task force to investigate the causes of the protracted wait times.

That bill never made it to the governor’s desk, but the state legislature still took action. The General Assembly directed the commission and the Maryland Hospitals Association to devise a strategy for progress.

They created the Emergency Department Dramatic Improvement Effort, or EDDIE for short. The commission aims to refine emergency department services through “rapid cycle quality improvement initiatives to meet hospital set goals related to ED throughput or length of stay” and public reporting of monthly data.

Prince George’s County also decided to establish its own task force in November, in lieu of one being formed by the state.

EDDIE began in the summer and already, hospitals are reporting positive changes.