Three states now have laws allowing physicians to prescribe lethal doses of medication to terminally ill patients. These laws in Oregon, Vermont and Washington — and similar proposals elsewhere — have generated heated debates about quality end-of-life care, medical ethics, patient autonomy and the sanctity of life.

Most of that conversation has centered on the physician’s role, the potential for elder abuse and whether patients seeking doctors’ aid in dying are mentally ill. Yet there is another health care setting — hospice care — that plays a central role in how death-with-dignity laws are enacted but that has been largely ignored, said an article in July’s Journal of Pain and Symptom Management.

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The YMCA’s evidence-based program is helping prediabetic patients eat right, get active and lose weight.

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A recent study found that a hospitalist-developed set of tools had success in preventing unplanned readmissions. The finding suggests that hospital-centered readmission-reduction initiatives can yield promising results, but health policy experts said that major cuts in rehospitalization rates may happen only when future efforts do a better job of addressing risk factors outside the walls of the hospital.

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States where it is easier for parents to exempt their children from immunization requirements have vaccine-skip rates nearly three times higher than states where the opt-out procedures are more complex, said a study published in July’s Health Affairs.

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This year has seen a sharp rise in the number of hospitals adopting policies aimed at ensuring equality in the treatment of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender patients, physicians and other health professionals, according to a report issued in July.

A record 718 health care facilities, mostly hospitals, participated in the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s “Healthcare Equality Index” in 2013, up from 407 facilities in 2012. The foundation is the nonpartisan arm of the Human Rights Campaign, a gay-rights advocacy group in Washington. There are 5,724 registered U.S. hospitals, according to the American Hospital Assn.

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The Dept. of Health and Human Services’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology in July finalized a plan that aims to improve patient safety by enabling confidential reporting of IT-related adverse events.

“When implemented and used properly, health IT is an important tool in finding and avoiding medical errors and protecting patients,” said Farzad Mostashari, MD, the national coordinator for health IT. “This plan will help us make sure that these new technologies are used to make health care safer.”

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The degree to which Americans with chronic conditions take their medications as prescribed differs widely according to the state where they live, the conditions they have and their type of insurance coverage.

Those are the findings of a recent report based on 2012 data from the 60 million customers of CVS Caremark Corp.’s pharmacy benefit management program, which serves consumers covered by self-insured employers, private health plans and Medicare Part D. The CVS report breaks down drug adherence by state, condition and coverage on metrics such as medication possession ratio, which is based on dispensing records to show what percentage of a yearlong period patients had their prescriptions on hand to take.

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When disagreements about goals of care arise, ethics consultants often are sought out. Now palliative care specialists also are being called upon for help.

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Primary care physician practices that offer evening and weekend office hours can help patients avoid trips to the emergency department while cutting overall health system spending, suggests an emerging body of research.

A recent study in The Journal of Pediatrics examining the pediatric population confirms what earlier studies among adult patients have found: When patients with urgent health problems have the option to see their regular physician, they will skip ED visits that can involve long waits, big out-of-pocket costs and unneeded testing.

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Chicago The Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs is exploring the ethical dimensions related to the American Medical Association’s strategic initiative aimed at improving physicians’ professional satisfaction.

As a first step in that process, the council’s open forum at the AMA Annual Meeting featured three presentations about factors driving the alarming rates of burnout and dissatisfaction among medical students, residents and physicians.

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Chicago The American Medical Association House of Delegates voted to support federal funding of organ transplants for patients on Medicaid.

The move came after a 2010 action in Arizona that cut funding for certain “optional services,” including some organ transplants. The policy affected nearly 100 Arizona patients on the organ wait list and was overturned in 2011 after intense pressure from transplant surgeons and the public.

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