Axios

Unless you're talking about a campfire or stove, it's time to stop worrying about "keeping the spark alive."

Why it matters: Although pop culture and well-meaning friends may have told you that maintaining a "spark" is important for sustaining long-term romantic relationships, sex educator Emily Nagoski says that thinking is misguided.

Syphilis cases have risen to their highest levels since the 1950s, with a sharp increase in infections among newborns, new federal data show.

The big picture: The nation's long-running rise in syphilis cases worsened in 2022 and rates of other sexually transmitted infections remained elevated as the COVID-19 pandemic further strained public health programs.

More providers are participating in cost-cutting alliances of hospitals, doctors and other providers who care for groups of Medicare patients, according to new federal data.

• But participation in Medicare's dominant value-based payment program is still hovering at levels similar to 2019.

The ban on surprise medical bills protected patients from more than 10 million claims for out-of-network services in the first nine months of 2023, according to new estimates by health insurer groups. But the process for settling billing disputes is still in disarray.

Why it matters: AHIP and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association said more than 670,000 claims were submitted to arbitration between Jan. 1 and Sept. 30, 2023, with no sign that the number is peaking.

There's a notable gap in new federal rules requiring insurers to streamline decisions on whether they'll cover treatments ordered by doctors: They don't apply to drugs.

Why it matters: Drugs account for a significant share of prior authorization requests, and patients and doctors argue that the new rules, as is, won't increase access to needed treatments.

The Supreme Court on Monday set March 26 as the date for oral arguments on how patients can access mifepristone for medication abortion.

Why it matters: It will come less than two years after justices ended federal abortion protections by overturning Roe v. Wade.

Schools were the third most common location for hate crimes in the U.S. in a recent five-year stretch, per new FBI data.

The big picture: After homes and roadways, schools from pre-school to twelfth grade made up 10% of hate crimes in 2022, the Federal Bureau of Investigation report, released Monday, said.

Cases of COVID-19 and RSV continue to decline since peaking around the holidays, though the amount of respiratory illness across most of the country remains high, updated Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows.

What they found: At the end of last week, 22 jurisdictions were experiencing "high" or "very high" respiratory virus activity — described as fever plus cough or sore throat causing someone to seek care — compared with 37 two weeks ago.

There's been a "substantial and persistent" increase in health care workers leaving the industry since the pandemic, as staff who stayed on during the worst of COVID-19 leave for new opportunities in a robust jobs market, according to a new study in JAMA Health Forum.

Why it matters: While exit rates have been matched by an uptick in hiring, the constant churn can disrupt the continuity of care and result in poorer patient outcomes, researchers wrote.

Details: The Johns Hopkins-led study, based on Census data from the beginning of 2018 through the end of 2021, found a disproportionate number of women and Black workers exiting the health industry.

• Employers appeared to have a harder time recruiting Black workers after the pandemic, a trend that could exacerbate diversity issues within the workforce.
• Even though overall employment levels appeared to stabilize by the end of 2020, the exit rate rose, starting in the Northeast and gradually spreading to more states in the South and West.
• Exit rates remained higher than pre-pandemic baseline levels through the end of 2021. While the increase in health care hiring masked some of the churn, providers were left operating with less-experienced staff.

Between the lines: At the start of the pandemic, most exiting workers didn't have other employment lined up. By the end of 2021, they were mostly leaving for jobs outside of health care, the study found.

• The flow to other lines of work could be a sign of health care's declining competitiveness in the broader labor market.

The bottom line: This study offers more evidence of the pandemic's long-term effects on the health care workforce and another reason for policymakers to address burnout, as well as workforce pipelines, researchers said.