General Mental Health
- Arizona mental health therapists say they may have to cut ties with one of the state’s largest insurance providers or close their practices altogether. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona is enforcing new supervision requirements, and dozens of counselors say the new rules are impossible to follow while also providing quality care. Counselors say this is already causing major ripple effects, including longer wait lists, fewer providers willing to accept Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance, and fewer people in need reaching out for help because they can’t afford to pay out of pocket. Read more here.
Youth Mental Health
- In a systematic review, over two-thirds of studies showed positive results with mindfulness-based interventions versus comparison interventions for substance use reduction among young people. The relative efficacy of mindfulness-based interventions was seen across substance types but was most consistent for alcohol use. The most common interventions used were mindful breathing, urge surfing, and mindfulness meditation alongside other treatment modalities, such as motivational interviewing or individual counseling. Read more here.
AI and Mental Health
- A survey study showed a "modest but significant" association between regular use of generative AI and higher levels of depressive symptoms. The effect showed large variations by age, with the highest estimates among those 25 to 64, as well as those using AI for personal use rather than for work or school. The findings warrant further study to determine a possible causal relationship, the researchers said. Read more here.
- Since the debut of ChatGPT, and with the public’s growing familiarity with generative artificial intelligence (AI), the education community has been debating its promises and perils. Rather than wait for a decade to conduct a postmortem on the failures and opportunities of AI, the Brookings Institution’s Center for Universal Education embarked on a yearlong global study—a premortem—to understand the potential negative risks that generative AI poses to students, and what we can do now to prevent these risks, while maximizing the potential benefits of AI. Read more here.
Research
- In this cohort study of patients in Norway discharged alive after critical injury, a 9-fold increased risk of suicide after two years was observed. These findings suggest that follow-up is warranted for possible psychological distress in this patient group. Read more here.
- Our group continues to study clinician-directed nudges—often electronic health record based, often using audit and feedback—to discourage use of inappropriate, low-value, or high-risk medications, such as antibiotics, opioids, and sleep medications. To address opioid and benzodiazepine overuse, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration have advocated that clinicians engage in a shared decision-making approach. Read more here.
Health Insurance Subsidies
- The cost of health insurance on the Affordable Care Act marketplace is up, and Florida saw the largest number of people fall off the rolls compared to any other state in the nation, according to government data released.The numbers show 261,115 fewer people in Florida enrolled on healthcare.gov, compared with the same time last year, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Read more here.
- After months of fruitless negotiations to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies that have since expired, congressional leaders announced they’d notched a rare bipartisan win to overhaul other parts of the health care system. Now they just have to hold onto it. The agreement, attached to a government spending bill, would implement long-sought changes to the way pharmacy benefit managers operate, as well as extensions of public health programs and increased funding for community health centers. However, even with strong support in both chambers, the bill faces significant hurdles. Read more here.
Federal Policy
- The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is continuing to pay Medicare Advantage (MA) more -- $76 billion more in 2026 -- than if those same patients were enrolled in traditional fee-for-service Medicare. That higher cost comes despite a policy CMS redesigned in 2024 to limit MA plans' ability to exaggerate patients' health risks to garner higher monthly payments. This finding was among those from a status report on Medicare plans presented last week to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), which advises CMS on Medicare policies. Read more here.
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