Author: Laura Rosbrow-Telem
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Availability, Not the Economy, Drives New England Opioid Overdoses
BOSTON – A new report claims it isn’t economic factors that have fueled high numbers of opioid overdoses in New England – but doctors who’ve been over-prescribing them. Looking into the impact of the opioid epidemic on the labor market, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston found overdose death rates were higher in every New…
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Availability Drives New England Opioid Overdoses
BOSTON – A new report claims it isn’t economic factors that have fueled high numbers of opioid overdoses in New England – but doctors who’ve been over-prescribing them. Looking into the impact of the opioid epidemic on the labor market, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston found overdose death rates were higher in every New…
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Education a Hot Topic in Mass. Senate Budget Debate
Education funding was at the heart of Senate budget talks on Tuesday in the Massachusetts State House. The Senate Ways and Means Committee is recommending a close to 43-billion-dollar fiscal 2020 budget that would boost spending by about three percent. Part of this proposed budget is a suggested 268-million-dollar increase in funds to K-12 public…
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Trump’s First GOP Challenger Stumps in N.H.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld held some of his first campaign stops as a GOP presidential candidate for 2020 in New Hampshire on Tuesday. The first Republican to challenge President Donald Trump, Weld officially announced his intentions on Monday. Weld last ran as the vice presidential nominee on the Libertarian Party ticket with Gary Johnson…
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Pilot Plan Begins in MA to Rate Addiction-Treatment Centers
Massachusetts will be the first state to participate in a new, national system to rate addiction-treatment programs. The Massachusetts Department of Public Health has approved being part of a pilot program developed by Shatterproof, a national nonprofit organization. Substance-use treatment programs will work with the health department and other state agencies on the pilot, which…
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Pilot Plan Begins in MA to Rate Addiction-Treatment Centers
Massachusetts will be the first state to participate in a new, national system to rate addiction-treatment programs. The Massachusetts Department of Public Health has approved being part of a pilot program developed by Shatterproof, a national nonprofit organization. Substance-use treatment programs will work with the health department and other state agencies on the pilot, which…
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EPA Rule Increases Interstate Smog in New England, Lawsuit Says
Groups are suing the Environmental Protection Agency over their decision to rollback the “Good Neighbor” provisions of the Clean Air Act, which regulates interstate air pollution. In December, the EPA announced that states don’t need to comply with those requirements, saying power plants are already reducing air pollution. But the lawsuit alleges that decision puts…
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Mass. Gov’s Proposed Education Budget Draws Mixed Reactions
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker on Wednesday unveiled his proposed budget with a focus on education spending along with a companion bill. But school activists are pushing for significantly more funding. The 2020 fiscal budget includes more than $200 million in new state aid to education, with more than $1 billion over seven years going toward…
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Many Women in Healthcare Earn Less than $15 an Hour
About three-quarters of the people working in healthcare jobs are women, and a new national study from Massachusetts General Hospital and the University of Pennsylvania finds a large share of them earn low wages and have few benefits. The researchers found 34 percent of female healthcare workers made less than $15 an hour in 2017,…
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Thyroid Medication Among Most Prescribed in U.S.
January is Thyroid Awareness Month, and thyroid medication is among the most prescribed in the U.S. Levothyroxine, a common thyroid supplement, is currently the second most filled drug at American pharmacies, according to data from GoodRx. So, why is thyroid medication so popular? Dr. Elizabeth Pearce, president of the American Thyroid Association and a professor…