Latest news with #RhodeIslandDepartmentofHealth
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Health officials issue urgent warning after testing fish from popular river: 'It is important to take steps to lower our exposure'
A new health warning is causing concern among anglers and residents in Rhode Island and Connecticut. The Rhode Island Department of Health and the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management issued an advisory against eating fish caught in the popular Pawcatuck River after discovering they were contaminated with high levels of toxic chemicals. As reported by GoLocalProv, recent samples found elevated levels of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS, in fish caught in certain parts of the Pawcatuck River. PFAS are a group of synthetic chemicals commonly found in everything from nonstick cookware to waterproof clothing. They're often called "forever chemicals" because they don't break down in the environment. "Fishing is a valued tradition in Rhode Island, and fish are a good source of protein and nutrients. However, fish in some areas can have high levels of pollutants that can harm our health," said Director of Health Jerome Larkin. "While we are still learning about the sources and effects of PFAS, it is important to take steps to lower our exposure to these chemicals." PFAS contamination is a threat to human health and food security. Eating contaminated fish is one of the main ways these chemicals can build up in our bodies and cause health problems, including higher risks of cancer, liver damage, and other illnesses. Plus, the damage can be passed on during pregnancy. Studies show prenatal exposure can harm fetal immune system development, making exposed kids more likely to get sick throughout childhood. Communities that rely on fishing for food, business, or cultural traditions are especially vulnerable. And with PFAS showing up in water systems nationwide, contamination could have major long-term impacts on public health and local economies. Locally, Rhode Island health officials have posted signs in the area and told the public to avoid eating fish from affected waters. While officials said they didn't have enough data on how stocked trout had been affected, they are changing the stocking schedule to hopefully prevent PFAS buildup in the stocked trout population and working to get better data. Around the world, many governments have set stricter regulations for PFAS in drinking water and are funding efforts to clean up polluted water sources. Scientists have also been working on innovative ways to break down PFAS in drinking water. Individuals can help prevent PFAS pollution by choosing cookware free of PFAS when possible, including nonstick alternatives such as cast iron, and by supporting clean water initiatives that prioritize pollution prevention. How often do you worry about toxic chemicals getting into your home? Always Often Sometimes Never Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Join our free newsletter for easy tips to save more and waste less, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
McKee outlines his plan to tackle Rhode Island's primary care shortage
Rhode Island Department of Health Director Dr. Jerry Larkin speaks during a press conference at the State House on Tuesday, April 29, 2025. Behind Larkin left to right are Gov. Dan McKee, Rhode Island Executive Office of Health and Human Services Secretary Richard Charest, Rhode Island Medicaid Director Kristin Pono Sousa, and Rhode Island Health Insurance Commissioner Cory King. (Photo by Alexander Castro/Rhode Island Current) Gov. Dan McKee and top health care officials unveiled a new set of plans to mend Rhode Island's ailing primary care system Tuesday, with strategies like grants for helping clinics serve more patients and asking big commercial insurers to pay more. The Ocean State's dearth of primary care doctors won't be solved entirely, or even quickly. And the plan announced at a State House news conference by McKee and his Health Care System Planning Cabinet came a day before Anchor Medical Associates closes its Warwick office with two more set to close by June 30. 'We know that fixing these challenges will not happen overnight,' said Richard Charest, secretary of the Rhode Island Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS). 'These problems have developed over very many years, and we take and it will take time to rectify that.' The state is short about 300 primary care providers, according to Dr. Elizabeth Lange, a pediatrician at Hasbro who attended the conference. The all payer claims database shows Rhode Island currently has about 520 primary care providers, said Dr. Jerry Larkin, the state health department's director. 'So right now, we're a little bit short,' Larkin told the crowd. Solutions offered — like bigger primary care payments from commercial insurers, speeding up the Medicaid rate review process, and $5 million in grants for primary care practices — are all part of what McKee called 'a full deep dive into all factors that are related to primary care delivery.' 'There's still important work ahead, and we remain steadfast in our commitment to identify other strategies to strengthen our primary care system,' McKee said. 'We know that it is alarming when people in the state of Rhode Island are unable to find a primary care doctor, and we're going to do everything we can to connect them with the help that they are looking for.' Anchor Medical Associates on Wednesday will close its Warwick office — the first of the physician group's three locations which will all be shuttered by June 30. The Anchor closures announced earlier in April will affect about 25,000 patients, mostly children, who now need to find new primary care doctors. Charest told reporters he'd 'rather not get into the specifics of that practice,' but characterized the closure being due to 'internal operational challenges.' 'If we had been notified earlier, we may have been able to help stabilize that practice,' Charest said. 'I think that they were at a position that they had no liquidity at the end.' McKee's big ideas to tackle primary care crisis Accelerating Medicaid rate review for primary care. Requiring commercial health insurers to increase funding for primary care reimbursements Reducing red tape by easing prior authorization requirements Providing grants to help primary care practices serve additional patients and hire new providers Strengthening fiscal oversight of Rhode Island's health care system Expanding the primary care student loan forgiveness program Low reimbursement the state's Medicaid program pays providers have frequently been cited as a major contributing factor in the state's primary care troubles. McKee said he is moving to stabilize the state's primary care system by filing a budget amendment that would require the Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner (OHIC) to complete the primary care provider rate review process on an accelerated timeline. The rate review would be completed within a year instead of the usual two afforded to the rate review process for human services. Cory King, the health insurance commissioner, said the rate review would be completed by September 2026 on the new timeline. 'I don't set rates. I make recommendations after data driven analysis,' King said. That data and King's recommendations inform EOHHS' annual budget ask of the governor, which is submitted to the General Assembly in January. If the budget passes with the rates intact, it then goes to the federal government, which pays about half of Medicaid rate increases. If approved by the feds, the rate increases would take effect at the start of fiscal year 2028. 'There's some administrative tasks that have to happen before the actual rates are implemented,' Kristin Sousa, the Medicaid program director, told reporters. 'Traditionally, when the legislature passes the budget, it's effective on July 1. In this case, July 1 of 2027, we may not be ready to implement on July 1, but it will retro back to July 1.' Several studies published on primary care in Rhode Island in recent years, including a 2024 study by the Rhode Island Foundation, have found the Ocean State's reimbursement rates lag far behind Connecticut and Massachusetts. Could that data be used to inform the rate review process? 'I would say, 'Share the data with us.' Cuz I haven't seen it,' McKee said. King encouraged people to dig into that report's numbers a little more. The Rhode Island Foundation report was not exclusively focused on provider reimbursement, he said, but rather 'hospitals and patient and operation services.' Yes, reimbursement rates in other New England states are higher, King said, but this is consistent with higher health insurance premiums in those states. We know that it is alarming when people in the state of Rhode Island are unable to find a primary care doctor, and we're going to do everything we can to connect them with the help that they are looking for. – Gov. Dan McKee 'In Massachusetts, of the 53 hospitals in the inpatient data set, only six hospitals are actually reimbursed at or above the statewide average, And in Connecticut, of the 26 hospitals in the inpatient data set, only eight of those 26 hospitals are reimbursed at or above that statewide average. So there are great variations that we need to consider when looking at reimbursement rates more granularly.' Still, King cited the importance of primary care investment as a preventative measure for even more health care spending. 'My position has always been that putting money into primary care is a wise investment, as opposed to, say, putting money into emergency department reimbursement,' King said. 'Primary care accounts for approximately 6% of what commercial payers pay for health care business services, but it helps control the other 94%.' For a more immediate fix, McKee is proposing $5 million in grants to help existing practices serve more patients. Clinics can apply for up to $75,000 to take on new patients or up to $300,000 to hire primary care physicians or 'mid-level' providers such as nurse practitioners or physician assistants. Applications for grants are available online through May 16. Separately, the state is imposing new regulations on commercial insurers requiring them to double their primary care spending by 2029. The rules also mandate a 20% reduction in prior authorization requirements to help lower administrative burdens on primary care doctors. Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Neronha blasted McKee's plans in a press release issued about 40 minutes after the press conference ended. 'The Governor's health care announcement today is a slapdash response to political and public pressure because of the dissolution of Anchor Medical, and unfortunately, I expected nothing more,' Neronha said. Neronha, who has established himself as one of McKee's most vocal critics, said the governor is 'hanging his hat' on conducting future studies and reviews. 'Our PCPs are overworked and overburdened by a state health care system that doesn't support them,' Neronha said. 'Our residents are scrambling to find primary care physicians to care for them through illnesses and fill prescriptions for live-preserving medications. We are in crisis. And some of us have been sounding the alarm for years.' McKee said at the press event that Rhode Island surpasses many other states for health care access in quality, citing U.S. News and World Report's ranking of Rhode Island as fifth in the nation in health care overall. Neronha took issue with McKee's rosy outlook, saying McKee was 'once again showing how out of touch this Governor is with the reality of the situation.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Sexually transmitted infections returning to pre-pandemic levels in Rhode Island
A colorized electron micrograph shows Treponema pallidum, the bacteria that cause syphilis. The inset shows a closeup of a single strand. (Image by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) appear to be a slowly rising tide in the Ocean State, according to the most recent data from the state health department. STI surveillance data is reported on a lag, so the March report issued by the Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) contains long- and short-term data ending in 2023, plus some tentative findings for 2024. But recent increases in infections could also be trends returning to their baseline prior to the pandemic. 'If you look at the data starting in 2020 we did see some significant declines starting with the pandemic, and that is because we were seeing less testing, less healthcare visits,' said Dr. Philip Chan, a primary care physician with Brown University Health and a medical consultant on the RIDOH report. But people's behavior also changed during that time, Chan added. 'People were more likely to stay at home, more likely to isolate. What we were seeing on the ground was that a lot of people had a lot less sex partners, so there was just a lot less sex going on.' The good news is that the state usually succeeds in treating HIV, with outcomes more positive than national averages and patients' illness often stops before the virus progresses into AIDS. Less ideal are higher rates for other STIs like syphilis and gonorrhea, which climbed past pre-pandemic levels in 2023. 'From year to year, it's tough to tell exactly what's happening,' Chan said. 'But I think that the trends the last couple years are clear that things are going up.' Data for the more ubiquitous infections includes: Syphilis has increased 58% from 2014 to 2023. There were 328 cases recorded in 2021, the highest number in decades. That fell to 240 cases in 2022, and 190 in 2023 — about the same as pre-pandemic levels, which had already risen since 2014. Preliminary data for 2024 shows similar trends. From 2020 to 2023, there were also about 10 cases of congenital syphilis — the state's first instances in about a decade, and one example of testing's importance in early detection, Chan said. Gonorrhea cases rose 183.4% over the last 10 years. There were 590 cases in 2014, compared to 1,672 cases in 2023. There has not been a year with fewer than 1,000 cases since 2016. Men account for about twice as many cases as women. Chlamydia cases have remained more consistent since 2014, and rose 21% over the decade, from 4,349 cases in 2014 to 5,269 cases in 2023. Women ages 20-24 exhibited the highest increase over that same period, but the report notes that women access routine screenings more than men, who are often asymptomatic when infected. 'A key theme for all these STIs is that most people may not have symptoms,' Chan said. 'And so the only way that you know that you may have it is to get tested, and that's why testing is so so important.' Chan pointed to primary care doctors and sex education as two ways people can become educated about the necessity of screening. Only 52% of adults ages 18 to 64 who had multiple sex partners received an STI test in the past year, according to 2022 data. Only 60% had ever received an HIV test. What we were seeing on the ground was that a lot of people had a lot less sex partners, so there was just a lot less sex going on. – Dr. Philip Chan, primary care physician and medical consultant for RIDOH STI surveillance report Demographic and geographic factors also shaped the data. Racial disparities exist: In 2023, HIV rates were four times higher among Black residents and nearly sevenfold higher among Rhode Island's Latino population, compared to caucasian residents. New HIV cases among Latinos have risen 132% since 2019, while dropping 63% among Black Rhode Islanders. Of newly diagnosed HIV cases in 2023, 31% were diagnosed in people born outside the United States, most frequently in the Caribbean and Central and South America. Younger people ages 15-24 account for most new STI diagnoses, about half. The state's urban core of Providence, East Providence, North Providence, Pawtucket, Woonsocket, Central Falls, and Cranston consistently reports the highest STI rates, with cases numbering in the dozens to hundreds, compared to fewer than five reported cases in many smaller towns. 'A lot of these STIs do disproportionately affect communities of color and other sorts of underserved populations,' Chan said. 'It's important, from a public health perspective, to think about how to continue and promote and increase access to care for those groups in order to address disparities like we see in STIs and frankly, many other things.' While an assortment of drugs can stop bacterial infections, there's no cure for HIV. But HIV-positive people are living longer than ever due to modern antiretroviral drugs that suppress the virus and prevent it from progressing to a more serious diagnosis of AIDS. An adequately suppressed viral load can also make the disease intransmissible, and greatly improves quality of life by halting the virus from replicating. Advances in HIV drug therapy largely account for the deep reduction in the rate of HIV-related deaths, which nationally fell by almost half from from 2010 to 2017. In Rhode Island in 2022, 93.2% of people living with HIV knew their status, 76% were receiving treatment and 71% had achieved viral suppression. And 93% of people who received their medical care within Rhode Island achieved viral suppression. Still, there was an above average number of HIV diagnoses, the preliminary 2024 data showed. From 2019-2023, RIDOH also observed that about 20% of people newly diagnosed with HIV had progressed to stage 3, or AIDS. On average, it takes eight years for HIV to develop into AIDS. Rhode Island has tried to prevent those outcomes by early diagnosis, and by fortifying its residents against HIV through preventative measures — namely, PrEP, or pre-exposure prophylaxis. Patients who adhere to the schedule for taking this group of antiretroviral drugs can have up to a 99% lower chance of contracting HIV from unprotected sex. PrEP provides an approximate 74% reduction in the likelihood of contracting HIV via injectable drug use. Successful state laws from 2023 and 2024 made PrEP as widely available as possible by slashing away potential restrictions from insurers and eliminating out-of-pocket costs. Chan, only had 'good things to say' about those laws — including the resulting interactions with insurers, who have largely been quick to correct mistakes in patient billing. The main challenge now, Chan said, is when interruptions occur, and a person loses their job, insurance, and access to PrEP. Several sexual health clinics and community health centers in Rhode Island offer low or no cost services and assist in minimizing any out-of-pocket costs associated with PrEP prescriptions and testing. For a list go to Rhode Island's PrEP Champions Network. 'I actually had a patient of mine for several years who had insurance and was on PrEP,' Chan said. 'They lost their insurance for a couple months and had to go off PrEP, and they actually, unfortunately, acquired HIV during that time. This was just a month ago.' RIDOH continues to promote the Rhode Island PrEP Champions Network, which has participating clinics across the state that expedite access to PrEP as well as its sibling PEP, or post-exposure prophylaxis, which is taken for about a month, starting within 72 hours of possible HIV exposure. Properly taken, the drug prevents HIV infection. The comparable treatment for preventing bacterial STIs is DoxyPEP, which usually consists of a single, two-pill, dose of doxycycline taken after sex. Doxycycline is an old drug, and thus an inexpensive means of lowering contraction rates, Chan suggested. 'DoxyPEP is the newest kid on the block,' he said, noting that the nationwide rollout is still in its early stages. But so far the data looks good, with evidence from places like San Francisco suggesting it can make a difference. 'We're very optimistic about it, and I think the coming years will be able to tell whether or not it's making a significant impact on overall population trends,' Chan said. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
‘Novel synthetic opioids' detected in RI's illicit drug supply
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — The Rhode Island Department of Health is alerting medical professionals to the recent detection of novel synthetic opioids in the state's drug supply. In an health care professional advisory issued Wednesday, the Health Department warned that a number of illicit drug samples tested positive for a variety of novel synthetic opioids, including carfentanil, nitazenes and spirochlorphine. RELATED: Providence's safe injection site sees hundreds in first two months This is the first time spirochlorphine has been detected in the state's drug supply, according to the Health Department. It's also the third year in a row that illicit drug samples have tested positive for carfentanil and nitazines. Novel synthetic opioids are primarily combined with fentanyl and other illicit drugs, which makes them even more potent and dangerous to unsuspecting users. The Health Department explained that novel synthetic opioids have a different chemical structure than fentanyl and can't be detected using the standard test strip. Health care professionals are urged to administer naloxone to any patient who appears to be experiencing symptoms of an opioid overdose. NEXT: Marijuana in deadly Warwick overdose was not laced with fentanyl Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: Call, text or chat 988BH Link: Rhode Islanders can call 401-414-LINK (5465)Kids' Link RI: Parents can call 1-855-543-5465 Download the and apps to get breaking news and weather alerts. Watch or with the new . Follow us on social media: Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
R.I. AG spearheads another lawsuit against the Trump administration, this time over CDC grants
Dr. Jerome Larkin, director of the Rhode Island Department of Health, speaks to reporters in a conference room at the office of Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Neronha, seen standing behind Larkin. The two state officials held the press event to discuss a lawsuit filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island over recently reversed federal health grants. (Photo by Alexander Castro/Rhode Island Current) Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Neronha is once again teaming up with his fellow Democratic attorneys general in a lawsuit against President Donald Trump's administration — this time over grants for post-pandemic health infrastructure that the feds abruptly cancelled last week. The suit, filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, is co-led by Neronha and AGs Phil Weiser of Colorado, Rob Bonta of California, Keith Ellison of Minnesota, and Nick Brown of Washington. An additional 17 AGs — plus the governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania — are listed as plaintiffs in the suit, which is aimed at U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. 'The secretary and the president are dead wrong legally,' Neronha told reporters gathered at his offices on South Main Street in Providence. Under Kennedy's leadership, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which is overseen by HHS, ended $11.4 billion nationwide, including about $31 million in Rhode Island, in post-pandemic grants meant to build and maintain public health efforts that will help stave off future pandemics. That includes efforts like vaccination outreach and clinics, laboratory testing, and disease prevention and monitoring. Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) officials learned about the cuts last week. The grants, previously allocated but still unspent, had expiration dates ranging from May 2025 to July 2026, and supported programs relating to child immunization, epidemiology, and initiatives to strengthen community-based health efforts and lessen health disparities. Neronha acknowledged that this case was 'not dissimilar' from the other multi-state cases his office has joined against the federal government. One example is the January lawsuit against the Office of Management and Budget also filed in Rhode Island's federal court and also led by Neronha — among the earliest examples of litigative resistance against the Trump administration's avalanche of executive orders and agency directives. 'This administration has been replete with irrational decision making. This is just one context of it,' Neronha said. But in this case, the endangered funds affect money on which 'literally the health and safety of Rhode Islanders depend,' Neronha said. The CDC annulled the grants just a few weeks after the fifth anniversary of COVID-19 being declared a global pandemic. To underline the importance of preventing future outbreaks of the same scale, Neronha painted a landscape for reporters: Providence in 2020, when the streets and bridges were empty, and the traffic basically nonexistent. 'I remember very vividly the absence of people on the highway, the absence of people in Providence,' Neronha recalled. 'I remember getting my nose swabbed in parking garages in Providence, Rhode Island Hospital, and at the train station in Wickford so that I could come to work.' 'The notion that we could shut down our way of life for so long because of a pandemic was unthinkable,' Neronha continued. 'Yet it happened.' Standing by Neronha's side at the press conference was Dr. Jerome 'Jerry' Larkin, director of the health department. Larkin supplemented Neronha's depiction of life under the pandemic with a more recent example. 'In January, we actually had a very vivid illustration of how public health works,' Larkin said, recounting how an unvaccinated Rhode Island child travelled internationally, 'to a part of the world where measles is common,' and returned with the highly contagious disease as a souvenir — a situation that could have turned catastrophic, if not for the health department's efforts. 'Their diagnosis was made in a timely fashion,' Larkin said. 'Appropriate response was put in place by our healthcare providers, by the Department of Health, that person recovered. Nothing happened.' Larkin told Rhode Island legislators last week at committee hearings that the HHS memo nullifying the remaining grant money was technical. On Tuesday, he told reporters the dismissal was more like nonsense: 'It's difficult to explain that which defies common sense.' The lost grants constitute 21% of the state's overall federal funding, Larkin said, which is comparable to the CDC money lost in other states — $81 million in Maine and $87 million in Massachusetts, the doctor offered as examples. 'It has been difficult since January 20 to answer any question related to this administration,' Larkin added. Neronha said that Trump is pushing the executive branch in an 'authoritarian' direction, by frequently ignoring the powers of Congress to allocate money. 'The fundamental legal problem is what he's doing directly contradicts what the Congress told the president to do, which is to spend this money,' Neronha said. 'That's for you. We pay our federal taxes…to the federal government so that they can protect us from things that we can't protect ourselves from.' The legal complaint, which is seeking an injunction against HHS according to the 45-page initial court filing, did not have a hearing date scheduled as of Tuesday evening. 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