The Health News USA November 12 2017

• Covered California officials said the fifth open enrollment period under the Affordable Care Act is off to a strong start in California, with 5,900 people signing up for new health insurance plans on Nov. 1 — 25 percent higher than the first day of open enrollment in 2016. Open enrollment runs through Jan. 31, and it is too soon to tell whether the pace of signups will continue, but the initial numbers are one early signal that Covered California’s aggressive ramp-up in advertising, marketing and outreach efforts is paying off.
• Florida doctor Joaquin Mendez has been ordered to serve four years in prison and pay $2.1 million in restitution for his part in a multimillion-dollar health care fraud and money laundering scheme. Mendez previously had pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health fraud.
• A new study published in the Obstetrics and Gynecology journal suggests that intrauterine devices may be helpful in lowering risk of cervical cancer. The studies, which were chosen based on their information about patients’ IUD use, found that women who used an IUD were thirty six percent less likely to get cervical cancer than women who didn’t have them. The theory is that the act of inserting the device may trigger a cellular response that acts against persistent HPV infections and pre-malignant cervical lesions.

News on Health Professional Radio. Today is the 12th of November 2017. Read by Tabetha Moreto.

http://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Health-insurance-signups-for-Covered-California-12344479.php

Covered California officials said the fifth open enrollment period under the Affordable Care Act is off to a strong start in California, with five thousand nine hundred people signing up for new health insurance plans on November one — twenty five percent higher than the first day of open enrollment in two thousand sixteen. Open enrollment runs through January thirty one, and it is too soon to tell whether the pace of signups will continue, but the initial numbers are one early signal that Covered California’s aggressive ramp-up in advertising, marketing and outreach efforts is paying off. Covered California is the state-run exchange through which one point three million Californians enroll in health plans. This year, it increased its marketing budget five percent to one hundred eleven million dollars, while the federal government slashed its marketing spending for open enrollment almost ninety percent to ten million dollars.
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Signups in the thirty nine states that use the federal exchange, HealthCare.gov, held steady compared to previous years — despite repeated declarations by President Trump that the health law is dying. About six hundred thousand people enrolled in new health plans during the first three days of open enrollment in those states, which is roughly on pace with previous years, according to data released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Thursday.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/11/09/florida-doctor-sentenced-in-health-care-fraud-scheme.html

A Florida doctor has been ordered to serve four years in prison and pay two point one million dollars in restitution for his part in a multimillion-dollar health care fraud and money laundering scheme. Joaquin Mendez previously had pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health fraud. Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Benjamin G. Greenberg announced the latest plea on Thursday.

Prosecutors say three co-defendants in the case established sober homes, where people go for addiction treatment, and provided kickbacks and bribes to people with insurance who agreed to live in the homes. Their insurance was billed and members of the scheme prospered.Records show the fifty two-year-old Mendez was hired to evaluate patients and prescribe treatment. Prosecutors say Mendez knew fraudulent insurance claims were being filed.

http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/iud-linked-30-risk-cervical-cancer-article-1.3622029

A new study published in the Obstetrics and Gynecology journal suggests that intrauterine devices may be helpful in lowering risk of cervical cancer. Victoria Cortessis of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles led a team of researchers who examined data from sixteen studies of over twelve thousand women, some with cervical cancer, some without.

The studies, which were chosen based on their information about patients’ IUD use, found that women who used an IUD were thirty six percent less likely to get cervical cancer than women who didn’t have them. The theory is that the act of inserting the device may trigger a cellular response that acts against persistent HPV infections and pre-malignant cervical lesions.
….
Cervical cancer is the third most common cancer among women globally. According to the study, as of two thousand fourteen, less than two percent of eligible women in low-resource countries had received one or more of their HPV shots; experts at the World Health Organization expect rates to skyrocket to more than seven hundred thousand new cases per year by two thousand thirty five.

IUDs are small, T-shaped devices placed in the uterus to prevent sperm from reaching an egg. They can protect against pregnancy from three to up to ten  years.