What We’re Reading: Dementia Care Initiative; Alcohol-Related Deaths in Women; Medical ID Theft

Administration Launches GUIDE Initiative For Dementia Care

The Biden administration is taking more action to uphold support and care for people with Medicare living with dementia and their unpaid caregivers, according to CMS, which announced its Guiding an Improved Dementia Experience (GUIDE) Model, with the goal of improving quality of life for people living with dementia, decreasing strain on unpaid caregivers, and helping people stay in their homes and communities. Care navigators and respite services will be key components of the alternative payment model. Applications for organizations interested in taking part in the model will open in fall 2023, and the trial is anticipated to run for 8 years starting in July 2024, reported Reuters.

Rising Alcohol-Related Mortality in Women

A new study finds deaths linked to excessive alcohol consumption are quickly increasing in the United States, especially among women, reported NBC News. Drinking is still killing more men than women, but the rate of alcohol-related deaths is growing more among women. Lead study author Ibraheem Karaye, MD, DrPH, of Hofstra University, told NBC News that previous studies are detailing that women are drinking larger amounts of alcohol, with binging becoming more common, which could at least partially explain increasing rates of complications like cirrhosis. After analyzing 20 years of CDC data, Karaye and his colleagues found that women’s alcohol-related mortality increased by 14.7%, compared with 12.5% in men.

Reasonable Fear of Medical ID Theft

Following HCA Healthcare’s announcement in July that the personal identification data of approximately 11 million HCA patients in 20 states had been revealed in a breach, people might be understandably concerned that their personal medical data and identities could be stolen, according to KFF Health News. Customers should be aware that “medical identity” fraud can happen in multiple ways, from a large-scale rupture to individual theft of someone’s data. Medical identity thieves might not only steal personal data like Social Security number, but also medical records and care information, which can present implications for the person’s care, detailed Eva Velasquez, president and CEO of the Identity Theft Resource Center, to KFF Health News.