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The Biden Administration Vowed to Be a Leading Voice on Opioid Settlements But Has Gone Quiet

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by Aneri Pattani
Fri, 21 Apr 2023 09:00:00 +0000

Early in President Joe Biden's tenure, his administration promised to play a key role in ensuring opioid settlement funds went toward tackling the nation's addiction crisis.

During the 2020 campaign, Biden had laid out a plan to appoint an “opioid crisis accountability coordinator” to support states in their lawsuits against companies accused of sparking the overdose epidemic. The year, the White House convened a meeting about the soon-to-be finalized settlements, noted that the money could support drug policy priorities, and helped create a model law that states could adopt in anticipation of receiving funds.

But today, as billions of dollars actually start to flow and and local leaders make crucial decisions on how to spend the more than $50 billion windfall to tackle this entrenched public crisis, the federal has gone mostly quiet.

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No federal employee holds the title of opioid crisis accountability coordinator. The Office of National Drug Control Policy has not released public statements about the settlements in over a year. And the settlement funds are mentioned just twice in a 150-page national strategy to reduce drug trafficking and overdose deaths.

The federal government is not legally obligated to engage in the discussion. After all, states filed the lawsuits against companies that made, sold, or distributed opioid painkillers, including Johnson & Johnson, McKesson, and Walmart.

But there is an expectation that the federal government, including the nation's leading agencies on mental health and addiction, should play a role. Public policy and health experts say a vacuum of federal leadership could to serious wasted opportunities and missteps in the use of the billions that will be paid out over nearly two decades — in what could be an unfortunate reprise of the multibillion-dollar 1998 settlement with tobacco companies.

“States get wide eyes when they get these huge pots of money,” said Bill Pierce, who served as spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services in the early 2000s. He was there when states began receiving cash from the tobacco settlement. Soon enough, money “starts to seep out to other areas that could be completely unrelated,” he said.

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Back then, tobacco companies agreed to pay states billions annually for as long as they continued selling cigarettes. But there were no restrictions on the money's use and much of it went to plugging state budget gaps, filling potholes, and even subsidizing tobacco farmers. Today, less than 3% of the annual payouts support anti-smoking programs.

Protecting the Opioid Cash

The opioid settlements have a built-in protection to address this concern. At least 85% of the money states receive must be spent on opioid-related expenses. But interpretations of qualifying expenses vary widely — often based on state . And oversight so far has been weak. The companies paying out the money are responsible for holding states to that threshold, but they're unlikely to monitor closely, legal experts say.

Public vigilance could help, but most states have promised little to no public reporting, making it difficult to track their use of funds. KFF Health News is following how state and local governments use — or misuse — the cash through this year.

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Some people hope the federal government can fill this gap in oversight.

“There are opportunities to incentivize” and support state and local governments “in the right direction,” said Michele Gilbert, a senior policy analyst with the think tank Bipartisan Policy Center. The Biden administration can issue official guidance, promote the findings of national research, or leverage the power of its purse strings. But so far, “there hasn't been a lot of federal government action on the settlement.”

The Office of National Drug Control Policy told KFF Health News it regularly discusses the use of settlement dollars with governors, mayors, and other elected to ensure the money bolsters federal efforts already underway. Beating the opioid epidemic by disrupting drug trafficking and expanding access to treatment is one of the four pillars of Biden's “unity agenda.”

“We know that expanding access to treatment for substance use disorder, lifesaving interventions like naloxone, and recovery support services will reduce the harms of addiction and the overdose epidemic,” said Rahul Gupta, director of national drug control policy.

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That's why the administration helped create a model law, as “a blueprint for states and communities on evidence-based ways to use opioid settlement funds,” he said. It's been adopted, at least in part, by 11 state legislatures and is being considered by two others.

Lessons in Lax Oversight

But history suggests optional federal guidance may not be enough to ensure the money is used for its intended purpose.

Matthew Myers, president of the nonprofit Campaign for Tobacco- Kids, said it was a mistake for the federal government to take a back seat on the tobacco master settlement more than two decades ago.

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Those lawsuits aimed, in part, to recover health care costs for smoking-related illnesses. Medicaid, a public insurance program for people with low incomes or disabilities, was a leading payer. Since Medicaid is jointly funded by the U.S. and state governments, federal authorities had a right to some of the settlement money.

States lobbied Congress to forgo that claim. Myers and other advocates asked legislators to do so only if they required states to spend at least 25% of the funds on anti-smoking efforts.

But Congress waived its right to the money unconditionally.

“It was a significant missed opportunity,” Myers said, “because it meant the federal government ended up having no say whatsoever in how the dollars were used.”

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When it comes to the opioid settlements, it's not clear if the federal government will try to claim repayment for Medicaid expenses linked to opioid addiction, which was estimated at $23 billion in 2019. Bruce Alexander, spokesperson for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, declined to answer specific questions and simply wrote, “CMS is currently reviewing the issue.”

The agency has tried to recoup costs in at least one case.

In 2019, CMS sent a letter to Oklahoma asking for part of the state's $270 million settlement with Purdue Pharma, maker of OxyContin. According to Phil Bacharach, spokesperson for the Oklahoma attorney general's office, the state eventually reached an agreement to keep all its Purdue settlement but later pay $390,000 to the federal agency from a separate settlement with opioid manufacturer Endo.

Some states, like Arkansas and Oregon, have planned for similar possibilities in their public documents about the opioid settlements. But as of mid-March, neither state had received federal requests for their share.

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A Carrot-and-Stick Approach

Health policy experts suggest the Biden administration could use the possibility of claiming those funds as leverage: In return for allowing states to keep the cash, it could require all of it be spent on addressing the opioid crisis or be used only for treatments backed by research.

Alternatively, it could attach conditions to the more than $6 billion in federal grants that is funneled to states each year to address addiction.

“The federal government is spending a lot of money on opioids,” said Pierce, the former HHS spokesperson. “If they want, they could try and tie that money to requirements that settlement money be spent on opioids.”

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In the 1970s, the Nixon administration used a similar tactic, with federal transportation funding as the carrot. Given the energy crisis at the time, the administration wanted states to reduce oil consumption by imposing a maximum speed limit of 55 mph. But it couldn't mandate states to do so. Instead, Nixon signed a law saying states could receive federal highway funding only if they lowered speed limits. In the end, all states complied.

Myers, of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, put it this way: “States will only listen to the federal government if there's a financial reason to do so.”

The federal government also can suggest the settlements be used to augment, not duplicate, existing federal funding, said Gilbert, of the Bipartisan Policy Center.

For instance, the money could support grassroots organizations that don't have the time or ability to apply for federal grants, she said. Or it could go to groups that provide sterile syringes and other supplies to people using drugs, which can't be purchased with taxpayer dollars.

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The federal government can emphasize the more flexible options for spending the settlement money with federal funds, Gilbert said.

The Biden administration has been the first to embrace grassroots programs and has called for sustainable funding for “harm reduction services” in its national overdose prevention strategy. But it has stopped short of explicitly recommending settlement funds for this purpose.

Such initiatives are designed to minimize the risks of using drugs but are politically fraught, with critics saying they encourage illegal activity and supporters saying they save lives. Local opposition often takes the form of “not-in-my-backyard” or questions about why certain neighborhoods bear the brunt of addiction and homelessness concerns.

In such turf disputes, the lack of federal leadership is acutely felt, say some advocates.

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For example, in New York, Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul rejected a recommendation to use opioid settlement funds to support two overdose prevention centers — places where people can use illicit drugs under supervision. She cited “various state and federal laws” that make such sites illegal. A similar conversation is taking place in San Francisco, with the citing a lack of federal legal clarity on the issue.

Federal authorities haven't acted to shut down any sites so far but haven't publicly supported them either. The Office of National Drug Control Policy declined to comment, given ongoing litigation in a related case in Philadelphia.

Some people question whether the Biden administration's weighing in would have much impact, given the deep political divisions in some states where local officials are eager to flout federal guidance. Earlier this year, Republican leaders in Tennessee rejected millions of dollars in federal funding for HIV prevention to push back on federal support for transgender and abortion rights.

But Regina LaBelle, who was acting director of national drug control policy during Biden's early years and now works for Georgetown University's O'Neill Institute, said the federal government has managed to guide state policy on controversial topics before.

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In 2015, shortly after intravenous drug use sparked a major HIV outbreak in Scott County, Indiana, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a study showing other counties were similarly vulnerable. Kentucky, identified as a hot spot, went on to implement policies that dramatically increased the number of syringe service programs, which are known to reduce HIV transmission.

Today, the Biden administration could provide data to similarly inform local decisions, LaBelle said. A national dashboard launched late last year to show nonfatal overdoses is a start. And there is time to build on that, since the opioid settlements will be stretched out over many years, she added.

“We have an opportunity to see what's the appropriate role of the federal government,” LaBelle said. “It's not too late.”

By: Aneri Pattani
Title: The Biden Administration Vowed to Be a Leading Voice on Opioid Settlements But Has Gone Quiet
Sourced From: kffhealthnews.org/news/article/biden-administration-opioid-settlements-federal-government/
Published Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2023 09:00:00 +0000

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Kaiser Health News

KFF Health News’ ‘What the Health?’: The Supreme Court and the Abortion Pill

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Thu, 28 Mar 2024 19:45:14 +0000

The Host

Julie Rovner
KFF


@jrovner


Read Julie's stories.

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Julie Rovner is chief Washington correspondent and host of KFF Health News' weekly health policy news , “What the Health?” A noted expert on health policy issues, Julie is the author of the critically praised reference book “Health Care Politics and Policy A to Z,” now in its third edition.

In its first abortion case since the overturning of in 2022, the Supreme Court this week looked unlikely to uphold an appeals court ruling that would dramatically restrict the availability of the abortion pill mifepristone. But the court already has another abortion-related case teed up for April, and abortion opponents have several more challenges in mind to limit the procedure in states where it remains legal.

Meanwhile, , including former , continue to take aim at popular health programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act on the campaign trail — much to the delight of Democrats, who feel they have an advantage on the issue.

This week's panelists are Julie Rovner of KFF Health News, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet, and Lauren Weber of The Washington Post.

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Panelists

Sarah Karlin-Smith
Pink Sheet


@SarahKarlin


Read Sarah's stories.

Alice Miranda Ollstein
Politico

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@AliceOllstein


Read Alice's stories.

Lauren Weber
The Washington Post


@LaurenWeberHP

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Read Lauren's stories.

Among the takeaways from this week's episode:

  • At least two conservative Supreme Court justices joined the three more progressive members of the bench during Tuesday's oral arguments in expressing skepticism about the challenge to the abortion drug mifepristone. Their questions focused primarily on whether the doctors challenging the drug had proven they were harmed by its availability — as well as whether the best remedy was to broadly restrict access to the drug for everyone else.
  • A ruling in favor of the doctors challenging mifepristone would have the potential to reduce the drug's safety and efficacy: In particular, one FDA subject to reversal adjusted dosing, and switching to using only the second drug in the current two-drug abortion pill regimen would also slightly increase the risk of complications.
  • Two conservative justices also raised the applicability of the Comstock Act, a long-dormant, 19th-century that restricts mail distribution of abortion-related items. Their questions are notable as advisers to Trump explore reviving the unenforced law should he win this November.
  • Meanwhile, a Democrat in Alabama flipped a state House seat campaigning on abortion-related issues, as Trump again discusses implementing a national abortion ban. The issue is continuing to prove thorny for Republicans.
  • Even as Republicans try to avoid running on health care issues, the Heritage Foundation and a group of House Republicans have proposed plans that include changes to the health care system. Will the plans do more to rev up their base — or Democrats?
  • This Week in Medical Misinformation: TikTok's algorithm is boosting misleading information about hormonal birth control — and in some cases resulting in more unintended pregnancies.

Also this week, Rovner interviews KFF Health News' Tony Leys, who wrote a KFF Health News-NPR “Bill of the Month” feature about Medicare and a very expensive -ambulance ride. If you have a baffling or outrageous medical bill you'd like to share with us, you can do that here.

Plus, for “extra credit,” the panelists suggest health policy stories they read this week they think you should read, too:

Julie Rovner: KFF Health News' “Overdosing on Chemo: A Common Gene Test Could Save Hundreds of Lives Each Year,” by Arthur Allen.

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Alice Miranda Ollstein: Stat's “Fetal Tissue Research Gains in Importance as Roadblocks Multiply,” by Olivia Goldhill.

Sarah Karlin-Smith: The Washington Post's “The Confusing, Stressful Ordeal of Flying With a Breast Pump,” by Hannah Sampson and Ben Brasch.

Lauren Weber: Stateline's “Deadly Fires From Phone, Scooter Batteries Leave Lawmakers Playing Catch-Up on Safety,” by Robbie Sequeira.

Also mentioned on this week's podcast:

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Credits

Francis Ying
Audio producer

Emmarie Huetteman
Editor

To hear all our click here.

And subscribe to KFF Health News' “What the Health?” on SpotifyApple PodcastsPocket Casts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

——————————
Title: KFF Health News' ‘What the Health?': The Supreme Court and the Abortion Pill
Sourced From: kffhealthnews.org/news/podcast/what-the-health-340-supreme-court-mifepristone-march-28-2024/
Published Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2024 19:45:14 +0000

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California Is Expanding Insurance Access for Teenagers Seeking Therapy on Their Own

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April Dembosky, KQED
Thu, 28 Mar 2024 09:00:00 +0000

When she was in ninth grade, Fiona Lu fell into a depression. She had trouble adjusting to her new high school in Orange County, California, and felt so isolated and exhausted that she cried every morning.

Lu wanted to get help, but her Medi-Cal plan wouldn't cover therapy unless she had permission from a parent or guardian.

Her mother — a single parent and an immigrant from China — worked long hours to provide for Fiona, her brother, and her grandmother. Finding time to explain to her mom what therapy was, and why she needed it, felt like too much of an obstacle.

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“I wouldn't want her to have to sign all these forms and go to therapy with me,” said Lu, now 18 and a freshman at UCLA. “There's a lot of rhetoric in immigrant cultures that having mental concerns and getting treatment for that is a Western phenomenon.”

By her senior year of high school, Lu turned that experience into activism. She campaigned to change policy to allow children 12 and older living in low-income households to get mental health counseling without their parents' consent.

In October of last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a new law expanding access to young patients covered by , which is called Medi-Cal in California.

Teenagers with commercial insurance have had this privilege in the state for more than a decade. Yet parents of children who already had the ability to access care on their own were among the most vocal in opposing the expansion of that coverage by Medi-Cal.

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Many parents seized on the bill to grievances about how much control they believe the state has over their children, especially around gender identity and care.

One mother appeared on Fox News last spring calling school therapists “indoctrinators” and saying the bill allowed them to fill children's heads with ideas about “transgenderism” without their parents knowing.

Those arguments were then repeated on social and at protests held across California and in other parts of the country in late October.

At the California Capitol, several Republican lawmakers voted against the bill, AB 665. One of them was Assembly member James Gallagher of Sutter County.

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“If my child is dealing with a mental health crisis, I want to know about it,” Gallagher said while discussing the bill on the Assembly floor last spring. “This misguided, and I think wrongful, trend in our policy now that is continuing to exclude parents from that equation and say they don't need to be informed is wrong.”

State lawmaker salaries are too high for them or their families to qualify for Medi-Cal. Instead, they are offered a choice of 15 commercial health insurance plans, meaning children like Gallagher's already have the privileges that he objected to in his speech.

To Lu, this was frustrating and hypocritical. She said she felt that the opponents lining up against AB 665 at legislative hearings were mostly middle-class parents to hijack the narrative.

“It's inauthentic that they were advocating against a policy that won't directly affect them,” Lu said. “They don't realize that this is a policy that will affect hundreds of thousands of other families.”

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Sponsors of AB 665 presented the bill as a commonsense update to an existing law. In 2010, California lawmakers had made it easier for young people to access outpatient mental health treatment and emergency shelters without their parents' consent by removing a requirement that they be in immediate crisis.

But at the last minute, lawmakers in 2010 the expansion of coverage for teenagers by Medi-Cal for cost reasons. More than a decade later, AB 665 is meant to close the disparity between public and private insurance and level the playing field.

“This is about equity,” said Assembly member Wendy Carrillo, a Los Angeles Democrat and the bill's author.

The original law, which regulated private insurance plans, passed with bipartisan support and had little meaningful opposition in the legislature, she said. The law was signed by a Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

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“Since then, the extremes on both sides have gotten so extreme that we have a hard time actually talking about the need for mental health,” she said.

After Carrillo introduced the bill last year, her office threats. She said the goal of the law is not to divide families but to encourage communication between parents and children through counseling.

More than 20 other states allow young people to consent to outpatient mental health treatment without their parents' permission, including Colorado, Ohio, Tennessee, and Alabama, according to a 2015 paper by researchers at Rowan University.

To opponents of the new law, like Erin Friday, a San Francisco Bay Area attorney, AB 665 is part of a broader campaign to take parents' rights away in California, something she opposes regardless of what kind of health insurance children have.

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Friday is a self-described lifelong Democrat. But then she discovered her teenager had come out as transgender at school and for months had been referred to by a different name and different pronouns by teachers, without Friday's knowledge. She devoted herself to fighting bills that she saw as promoting “transgender ideology.” She said she plans to sue to try to overturn the new California law before it takes effect this summer.

“We're giving children autonomy they should never have,” Friday said.

Under the new law, young people will be able to talk to a therapist about gender identity without their parents' consent. But they cannot get residential treatment, medication, or gender-affirming surgery without their parents' OK, as some opponents have suggested.

Nor can minors run away from home or emancipate themselves under the law, as opponents have also suggested.

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“This law is not about inpatient psychiatric facilities. This law is not about changing child custody laws,” said Rachel Velcoff Hults, an attorney and the director of health of the National Center for Youth Law, which supported AB 665.

“This law is about ensuring when a young person needs counseling or needs a temporary roof over their head to ensure their own safety and well-being, that we want to make sure they have a way to access it,” she said.

Removing the parental consent requirement could also expand the number of mental health clinicians in California willing to treat young people on Medi-Cal. Without parental consent, under the old rules, clinicians could not be paid by Medi-Cal for the counseling they provided, either in a private practice or a school counselor's office.

Esther Lau struggled with mental health as a high school student in Fremont. Unlike Lu, she had her parents' support, but she couldn't find a therapist who accepted Medi-Cal. As the only native English speaker in her , she had to navigate the health care bureaucracy on her own.

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For her, AB 665 will give clinicians incentive to accept more young people from low-income households into their practices.

“For the opposition, it's just about political tactics and furthering their agenda,” Lau said. “The bill was designed to expand access to Medi-Cal youth, period.”

This article is from a partnership that includes KQED, NPR, and KFF Health News.

This article was produced by KFF Health News, which publishes California Healthline, an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation. 

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——————————
By: April Dembosky, KQED
Title: California Is Expanding Insurance Access for Teenagers Seeking Therapy on Their Own
Sourced From: kffhealthnews.org/news/article/california-teen-access-mental-health-care-without-parental-consent/
Published Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2024 09:00:00 +0000

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https://www.biloxinewsevents.com/as-ai-eye-exams-prove-their-worth-lessons-for-future-tech-emerge/

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As AI Eye Exams Prove Their Worth, Lessons for Future Tech Emerge

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Hannah Norman, KFF News
Wed, 27 Mar 2024 09:00:00 +0000

Christian Espinoza, director of a Southern California drug-treatment provider, recently began employing a powerful new assistant: an artificial intelligence algorithm that can perform eye exams with pictures taken by a retinal camera. It makes quick diagnoses, without a doctor present.

His clinics, Tarzana Treatment Centers, are among the early adopters of an AI-based system that promises to dramatically expand screening for diabetic retinopathy, the leading cause of blindness among working-age adults and a threat to many of the estimated 38 million Americans with diabetes.

“It's been a godsend for us,” said Espinoza, the organization's director of clinic operations, citing the of a quick and easy screening that can be administered with little training and delivers immediate results.

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His like it, too. Joseph Smith, who has Type 2 diabetes, recalled the cumbersome task of taking the bus to an eye specialist, getting his eyes dilated, and then waiting a week for results. “It was horrible,” he said. “Now, it takes minutes.”

Amid all the buzz around artificial intelligence in , the eye-exam technology is emerging as one of the first proven use cases of AI-based diagnostics in a clinical setting. While the FDA has approved hundreds of AI medical devices, adoption has been slow as vendors navigate the regulatory , insurance coverage, technical obstacles, equity concerns, and challenges of integrating them into provider systems.

The eye exams show that the AI's ability to provide immediate results, as well as the cost savings and convenience of not needing to make an extra appointment, can have big benefits for both patients and providers. Of about 700 eye exams conducted during the past year at Espinoza's clinics, nearly one-quarter detected retinopathy, and patients were referred to a specialist for further care.

Diabetic retinopathy results when high blood sugar harms blood vessels in the retina. While managing a patient's diabetes can often prevent the disease — and there are treatments for more advanced stages — doctors say regular screenings are crucial for catching symptoms early. An estimated 9.6 million people in the U.S. have the disease.

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The three companies with FDA-approved AI eye exams for diabetic retinopathy — Digital Diagnostics, based in Coralville, Iowa; Eyenuk of Woodland Hills, California; and Israeli software company AEYE Health — have sold systems to hundreds of practices nationwide. A few dozen companies have conducted research in the narrow field, and some have regulatory clearance in other countries, tech giants like Google.

Digital Diagnostics, formerly Idx, received FDA approval for its system in 2018, decades of research and a clinical trial involving 900 patients diagnosed with diabetes. It was the first fully autonomous AI system in any field of medicine, making its approval “a landmark moment in medical history,” said Aaron Lee, a retina specialist and an associate professor at the of Washington.

The system, used by Tarzana Treatment Centers, can be operated by someone with a high school degree and a few hours of training, and it takes just a few minutes to produce a diagnosis, without any eye dilation most of the time, said John Bertrand, CEO of Digital Diagnostics.

The setup can be placed in any dimly lit room, and patients place their face on the chin and forehead rests and stare into the camera while a technician takes images of each eye.

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The American Diabetes Association recommends that people with Type 2 diabetes get screened every one to two years, yet only about 60% of people living with diabetes get yearly eye exams, said Robert Gabbay, the ADA's chief scientific and medical officer. The rates can be as low as 35% for people with diabetes age 21 or younger.

In swaths of the U.S., a shortage of optometrists and ophthalmologists can make appointments hard to schedule, sometimes booking for months out. Plus, the barriers of traveling to an additional appointment to get their eyes dilated — which means time off work or school and securing transportation — can be particularly tricky for low-income patients, who also have a higher risk of Type 2 diabetes.

“Ninety percent of our patients are blue-collar,” said Espinoza of his Southern California clinics, which largely serve minority populations. “They don't eat if they don't work.”

One potential downside of not having a doctor do the screening is that the algorithm solely looks for diabetic retinopathy, so it could miss other concerning diseases, like choroidal melanoma, Lee said. The algorithms also generally “err on the side of caution” and over-refer patients.

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But the technology has shown another big benefit: Follow-up after a positive result is three times as likely with the AI system, according to a recent study by Stanford University.

That's because of the “proximity of the message,” said David Myung, an associate professor of ophthalmology at the Byers Eye Institute at Stanford. When it's delivered immediately, rather than weeks or even months later, it's much more likely to be heard by the patient and acted upon.

Myung launched Stanford's automated teleophthalmology program in 2020, originally focusing on telemedicine and then shifting to AI in its Bay Area clinics. That same year, the National Committee for Quality Assurance expanded its screening standard for diabetic retinopathy to include the AI systems.

Myung said it took about a year to sift through the Stanford health system's cybersecurity and IT systems to integrate the new technology. There was also a learning curve, especially for taking quality photos that the AI can decipher, Myung said.

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“Even with hitting our stride, there's always something to improve,” he added.

The AI test has been bolstered by a reimbursement code from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which can be difficult and time-consuming to obtain for breakthrough devices. But health care providers need that government approval to get reimbursement.

In 2021, CMS set the national payment rate for AI diabetic retinopathy screenings at $45.36 — quite a bit below the median privately negotiated rate of $127.81, according to a recent New England Journal of Medicine AI study. Each company has a slightly different business model, but they generally charge providers subscription or licensing fees for their software.

The companies declined to share what they charge for their software. The cameras can cost up to $20,000 and are either purchased separately or wrapped into the software subscription as a rental.

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The greater compliance with screening recommendations that the machines make possible, along with a corresponding increase in referrals to specialists, makes it worthwhile, said Lindsie Buchholz, clinical informatics lead at Nebraska Medicine, which in mid-December began using Eyenuk's system.

“It kind of helps the camera pay for itself,” she said.

, Digital Diagnostics' system is in roughly 600 sites nationwide, according to the company. AEYE Health said its eye exam is used by “low hundreds” of U.S. providers. Eyenuk declined to share specifics about its reach.

The technology continues to advance, with clinical studies for additional cameras — including a handheld imager that can screen patients in the field — and looking at other eye diseases, like glaucoma. The innovations put ophthalmology alongside radiology, cardiology, and dermatology as specialties in which AI innovation is fast.

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“They are going to come out in the near future — cameras that you can use in street medicine — and it's going to help a lot of people,” said Espinoza.

——————————
By: Hannah Norman, KFF Health News
Title: As AI Eye Exams Prove Their Worth, Lessons for Future Tech Emerge
Sourced From: kffhealthnews.org/news/article/artificial-intelligence-ai-eye-exams-diabetic-retinopathy-innovation/
Published Date: Wed, 27 Mar 2024 09:00:00 +0000

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