Trending News Today: Molina Healthcare to Exit ACA Insurance Exchanges in 2 States

More than two-thirds of surgical patients reported having leftover painkillers in the weeks following their procedures, a new study found. The investigators examined data from 6 published studies of 810 patients, and organized it into 7 categories based on surgery type, according to the Los Angeles Times. Sixty-seven percent of patients who underwent surgery for kidney stones, prostate cancer, or other urological conditions had unfilled prescriptions or leftover pills. For general-surgery patients, 97% had excess pain medication. Most notably, more than 80% of patients had leftover opioids in 5 of 7 surgical categories. The most common reason for not using all the pills was the pain was already under control, the LA Times reported. According to the CDC, nearly half of the 33,000 overdose deaths in 2015 were from prescription painkillers.

Molina Healthcare Inc will exit Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchanges in 2 states next year and will review its participation in other state marketplaces, according to The Wall Street Journal. Molina will pull out of insurance exchanges in Utah and Wisconsin, and scale back in Washington state, citing costs that contributed to a steep loss in the second quarter. Additionally, the company said it is increasing exchange premiums 55% on average, due in part to the lack of clarity around key federal payments, the WSJ reported. The withdrawal from ACA public exchanges comes ahead of the September deadline for insurers to pull out of the markets or commit to participate in 2018.

For the first time, an international team of scientists have found a way to successfully modify the DNA in human embryos without the introduction of harmful mutations. The primary goal of this research is to ultimately help families plagued with genetic diseases, according to NPR. In the study, published in Nature, the investigators successfully corrected the defects in nearly two-thirds of several dozen embryos. If future experiments support the safety and efficacy of the technique, the authors said the same approach could be used to prevent numerous inheritable diseases. Although impressive, the research has also garnered significant criticism from experts who call the work irresponsible and disturbing. But the authors stressed that their work is aimed at preventing horrible diseases, not creating genetically enhanced people.