Trauma care price review; misusing telehealth patient data; inspirations for medicines – Morning Medical Update

© Alena Kryazheva – stock.adobe.com

Trauma care costs

The 2021 Hospital Price Transparency Rule mandated hospitals to disclose prices in hopes of allowing good decision-making when selecting health care. Researchers reviewed trauma activation fees and found wide, “substantial, and often irrational, variations” across hospitals and states, “suggesting that price variations cannot be explained by trauma severity alone." Read more in JAMA Surgery.

Telehealth violation

The Federal Trade Commission announced telehealth company Cerebral Inc. will pay $7 million for disclosing consumers’ sensitive personal health information to third parties for advertising. The Commission “is ordering a first-of-its-kind prohibition” barring Cerebral from using any health information for most marketing purposes.

Good for what ails patients

What do garlic, marijuana, medieval weaponry and virtual livers have in common? All are seemingly unlikely inspirations for new medicines, according to a news release by the American Chemical Society.