Trending News Today: Authors of CDC Opioid Guideline Say Recommendations Are Misused

The authors of the CDC’s 2016 opioid prescribing guidelines said on Wednesday that health care professionals have misapplied the recommendations, STAT reported. According to the article, the authors wrote in the paper that health care players had used the guidelines to justify strict limits on opioids and abrupt tapering of dosages when the recommendations did not endorse those policies. They said that the recommendations were not meant to justify withholding opioids from individuals who need them and emphasized that the guidelines should not be applied to the doses of medications that are used to treat opioid addiction, the article reported.

The number of measles cases in the United States has hit its highest mark in 25 years, nearing 700 cases so far in 2019, The Associated Press reported. According to the article, CDC officials said that 695 cases had been reported in 22 states this year as of Wednesday afternoon, which is up from 626 reported on Monday. This year is the worst for measles since 1994, when 963 cases were reported, the article noted.

A new poll released Wednesday found that the majority of the American public want federal protections against surprise medical bills, Kaiser Health News reported. According to the article, between 76% and 78% of respondents said the federal government should take action to protect patients against unexpected bills. Additionally, 4 in 10 American adults under age 65 said that within the past 2 years, they or a family member received an unexpectedly high invoice for a procedure, test, or physician’s visit they thought would be covered by insurance, the article reported.