DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

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• Biden to invoke Cold War-era law to boost medical supplies

  The announcement is part of a series of measures the Biden administration is unveiling on Monday to help industrial supply chains and counter several years of historically high inflation.

  

• Over 15 million Americans got updated COVID vaccines so far

  Close to 23 million people had received updated boosters as of Oct. 26 last year, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data shows. The 2022 fall vaccination campaign started around 10 days earlier than this year's.

  

• Mammograms should start at 40, says US task force

  The Preventive Services Task Force, a group of independent experts appointed by the Department of Health and Human Services, said that while it previously recommended women in their 40s make individual choices about when to start screening, the new guidance could result in 19 per cent more lives being saved.

  

• Biden signs executive order to improve access to child care

  The order seeks to improve the child care provided to the offspring of federal workers, including military families. It plans to lower costs for families that are part of the Child Care & Development Block Grant program. Military veterans would get better home-based care. And the Department of Health and Human Services would raise pay and benefits for teachers and staff in the Head Start program.

  

• Presidential advisory commission recommends national programs to address health disparities among Asian-Americans

  ​​In the recommendations presented during the March 14th full commission meeting, Commissioner Ajay Bhutoria highlighted key issues related to the treatment patterns and outcomes in AA sub-groups, such as South Asians, and the lack of national education campaigns targeted at AA and NHPI communities.

  

• US to impose inflation fines on first set of drugs, lowering costs

  President Joe Biden's signature Inflation Reduction Act includes a provision penalizing drugmakers for charging prices that rise faster than inflation for people with disabilities or age 65 and older on the government's Medicare health program.

  

• Record 16.3 million seek health coverage through 'Obamacare'

  A record 16.3 million people sought health insurance through the Affordable Care Act this year, double the number covered when the marketplaces first launched nearly a decade ago, the Biden administration announced Wednesday.

  

• Callers keep flooding 988 mental health, suicide helpline

  Brill works in one of more than 200 call centers fanned out around the country tasked with answering an uptick in calls day and night from people considering suicide or experiencing a mental health emergency.

  

• Biden administration prepares to end mpox emergency declaration

  Health officials are likely to issue a 60-day notice later this week for winding down the declaration, Politico said, citing two people with knowledge of the matter. The move would lead the declaration to officially expire by Jan. 31.

  

• Hospital chain says 'IT security issue' disrupts operations

  CommonSpirit said it had taken "certain IT systems offline" including electronic health records as a precaution and rescheduled some patient appointments. It would not say whether patient records were accessed. Nor did it say when the apparent breach was detected.

  

• Texas judge deems Obamacare HIV prevention drug mandate unlawful

  A GSK spokesperson said PrEP coverage was "critical to ensuring health equity and helping end the HIV epidemic" and that the company would follow the case as it develops.