cover story one
Long COVID
Facing a shadow pandemic
By KATE MURRAY, MPH, AND RUTH LYNFIELD, MD
A middle-aged patient complains that he still hasn’t recovered from COVID-19 after several weeks. In addition to persistent digestive issues, he is sidelined by extreme fatigue after minimal activity, whereas last year he was running half-marathonsy.
cover story two
Privatized Medicaid and MinnesotaCare: Bills could lead to review of zombie programs
By Kip Sullivan, JD
Congress enacted legislation authorizing the Medicare and Medicaid programs in 1965 because the insurance industry didn’t want the elderly and the poor. Oddly enough, today the insurance industry covets the elderly and the poor. Today, half of all Medicare beneficiaries are enrolled in insurance companies that participate in what is known as the Medicare Advantage program, and two-thirds of all Medicaid recipients are insured through insurance companies.
Pain Management
The Importance of Micromodal Therapy: Tools for treating chronic pain
BY CODY FOSTER, MD
Chronic pain is a major health issue affecting millions of people globally. It can have a debilitating impact on lives, preventing people from enjoying activities they love and limiting the quality of their day-to-day life. Recent surveys indicate that approximately 50 million adults in the U.S.—more than one in five—report experiencing pain every day or most days, most commonly in their back, hips, knees, or feet. People with chronic pain say it limits their functioning, including social activities and activities of daily living.
interview
Treating Complex Sports Medicine Pathologies
Corey A. Wulf, MD, Twin Cities Orthopedics
Legislation
The Caregiver Stabilization Act: Addressing home care reimbursement
By CAMEO ZEHNDER, JD
Imagine for a moment you’ve been caring for your hospital’s tiniest patients in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), and one patient has been there for nearly a year. The stress, the cost and the time away from their family is really taking a toll on the parents. To make matters worse, your patient was stable and ready for discharge to home months ago, however, around-the-clock care to monitor the child’s well-being and equipment at home is needed and there are no home care nurses available to take on that job—the job that you know will allow this family to gain some sense of a new normalcy with their child.
Public Health
Vaccine Confidence: Promoting trust during an infodemic
By SHEYANGA BEECHER, CNP, MSN, MPH
The COVID-19 vaccine was developed under an unprecedented campaign labeled “Operation Warp Speed.” Nine months after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 pandemic, a nurse from Queens, New York received the first US COVID-19 vaccine on December 14, 2020. Over the next four months, almost 900 million doses of COVID-19 were administered globally. In April of 2021, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reported that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine had led to six cases of increased blood-clotting and one woman had died.
