The Supreme Court has rejected West Virginia's bid to enforce a transgender athlete ban against a 12-year-old girl.
Driving the news: The court issued the rejection on Thursday in an unsigned order that did not provide details behind the decision.
Justice Samuel Alito, joined by Clarence Thomas, dissented from the rest, saying they would have granted West Virginia's petition to enforce the law against the transgender athlete.
Nearly three decades old, HIPAA appears obsolete and riddled with new technology-induced gaps.
Why it matters: With regulators unable and politicians unwilling to address the shortcomings of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, private companies are offering a fix.
Idaho could be at the center of a free speech battle over abortion care.
Driving the news: The American Civil Liberties Union announced Wednesday that it's suing the Idaho Attorney General for "threatening health care providers who exercise their First Amendment right to give patients information about out-of-state abortion care."
With the threat of mandated staffing ratios looming over some long-term care facilities, the Biden administration on Tuesday said it will bump up Medicare payments to skilled nursing providers next year.
Why it matters: Nursing homes are dealing with acute staffing shortages and operating with financial losses, and concerns about how CMS finalizes staffing regulations this spring have the industry on edge.
Black women in areas that have more access to maternal health care are at "disproportionately" higher risk of dying during or after childbirth than white women who live in underserved areas, according to a new study in The Lancet.
The big picture: While women of color are known to be at greater risk, the study is the first to apply a geographic lens in this way, per the study's co-author.
The overdose crisis is prompting more hospitals to initiate opioid addiction treatment in emergency rooms — a change welcomed by many behavioral health experts.
Yes, but: It's resurfacing tension among providers over who's really responsible for addressing the underlying problem of opioid misuse.
Milwaukee Judge Janet Protasiewicz on Tuesday was elected to Wisconsin's supreme court, giving the key swing state's highest court a liberal majority that could potentially expand abortion rights there, AP reports.
The big picture: The seven-member Wisconsin Supreme Court has had a conservative majority since 2008. It's poised to decide in the next few years the constitutionality of a 19th century abortion ban that was cited to restrict access to the procedure in the state since the fall of Roe v. Wade.
America's rates of loneliness, which surged during the pandemic, are starting to fall back down.
Catch up quick: 17% of surveyed Americans experienced loneliness "a lot of the day yesterday," per a new Gallup report. That's down from a high of 25% amid COVID lockdowns.
Why it matters: Loneliness is not just a feeling. It has real consequences for your health and can shorten your life.
And pandemic-induced loneliness hit Americans from all walks of life, including older adults who had to isolate themselves to protect their health, kids who stayed home from school, and young professionals who moved back home to live with their parents.
Encouraging stat: One of the steepest drops in rates of loneliness occurred among adults 65 and older, many of whom had to spend months — or years — in isolation during the height of COVID.
Reality check: While loneliness is trending down overall, it's still high among certain groups, including young adults (24%) and lower-income adults (27%).
There's overlap between young and lower-income adults, and they're more likely to be single and childless than their older, richer counterparts, which are two factors that contribute to loneliness, Gallup notes.
The bottom line: As more and more Americans return to normalcy post-pandemic, the loneliness crisis is also showing signs of abating.
This article originally appeared in Axios Finish Line, our nightly newsletter on life, leadership and wellness. Sign up here.
