The federal government is investing in health insurance access.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced on August 26 that it will award $100 million to 44 organizations that are helping underserved populations access health insurance through the HealthCare.gov portal.

The organizations, called navigators, provide free assistance for beneficiaries reviewing health plans, filling out eligibility and enrollment forms, and using coverage to access healthcare, according to a press release. Navigators receive comprehensive federal training and work on all Affordable Care Act (ACA) plans, including those connected to Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), per CMS.

The federal agency is making the investment in advance of the 2025 Marketplace open enrollment period, which begins November 1. The money is the first part of a $500 million commitment CMS plans to make over five years, the press release read.

“Under President Biden and Vice President Harris, navigators have helped educate and enroll millions in quality coverage, contributing to the lowest uninsurance rate in our nation’s history, including record enrollments in communities often left behind,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in the release. He also noted that this $100 million payment is the “largest investment ever in the history of the navigator program.”

Keep reading here.—MA

Hmm, might wanna get that checked out. Or, better yet, take action right now and optimize patient care without sacrificing a seamless workflow for autoimmune disease testing.

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For many, menopause is an inevitable part of life, but there can be a lot of uncertainty among patients about how to best treat it.

About 1.3 million people begin menopause each year in the US, where they experience symptoms like hot flashes, night sweats, insomnia or trouble sleeping, forgetfulness, mood changes, and decreased interest in sex, according to research from Pfizer and Kantar Health.

Still, nearly 40% of people experiencing symptoms are not prescribed medication to treat those symptoms, about half delayed seeking care for six months, and many do not receive care, according to a 2023 study published in medical journal Menopause. As a result of being underdiagnosed and undertreated, over 1 million patients experience higher healthcare costs due to a lack of training among clinicians and possibly expensive conditions like joint and metabolic disorders.

Midi Health, a California-based virtual care clinic that provides perimenopause and menopause care, and Mount Sinai Health System in New York announced an “exclusive collaboration” on Wednesday in an effort to help people receive the right care.

Keep reading here.—CM

Hit the road, Elon Musk—undergrads are engineering tomorrow’s medical marvels in between midterms.

On August 26, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and education nonprofit VentureWell highlighted medical devices invented by undergraduate students as part of the 13th annual Design by Biomedical Undergraduate Teams (DEBUT) Challenge. The teams received about $160,000 total in prizes.

Eleven designs won and five received honorable mentions out of 85 submissions. In addition to awards from NIH, partners like the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research (NICHD) doled out honors as well, such as the NICHD’s Rehabilitative and Assistive Technologies prize.

If you, like us, are curious to know what college students are capable of when they’re not testing whether dish soap doubles as laundry detergent, here are some of the winners:

UroFlo. The top award was the $20,000 Steven H. Krosnick Prize that went to a team from Houston-based Rice University. The students invented a bladder irrigation system that automatically adjusts its own flow rate, tracks blood in urine, and alerts medical professionals to potential issues via an online database.

Healthcare workers currently monitor blood in bladder irrigation systems by sight, the team explained in a YouTube video, an intensive and imprecise method that burdens workers and increases risks of mistakes. As the group of now-graduates said, with UroFlo, “Urine good hands.”

Keep reading here.—CC