Hearing aids may cut dementia risk in epilepsy; lab owner pleads guilty in $60M testing scheme; paying pregnant patients to quit smoking — Morning Medical Update

Hearing aids may cut dementia risk in epilepsy

A study of more than 250 million patient records found the protective link only in people with epilepsy, not in seven other higher-risk groups.

Adults with both epilepsy and hearing loss who use hearing aids may have a 23% lower risk of developing dementia than those who do not, according to research presented at the European Academy of Neurology Congress 2026. Researchers from University Hospital Zurich and the University of Liverpool analyzed electronic health records from more than 250 million patients in the TriNetX network, comparing hearing aid users with closely matched non-users across the broad hearing-loss population and among people with epilepsy, stroke, type 2 diabetes, chronic kidney disease, heart failure, migraine and osteoarthritis.

The association appeared only in epilepsy; no significant link emerged in any other group. For those patients, hearing aid use corresponded to a 2.7 percentage point lower risk over five years, or one fewer dementia case for every 37 people. Lead author Carolina Ferreira-Atuesta attributed the pattern to cognitive reserve, noting that epilepsy patients often have less of it and so may benefit more from removing a source of strain on the brain. The researchers cautioned that the study was observational and cannot prove hearing aids directly reduce dementia risk.

Lab owner pleads guilty in $60M testing scheme

James Shuford Price III billed Medi-Cal and Medicare for tests built on fraudulent samples and stolen clinician identities, collecting more than $60 million.

James Shuford Price III, 59, of Raleigh, North Carolina, pleaded guilty to paying illegal kickbacks for referrals to his Los Angeles lab and to filing a false federal tax return, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina said. Prosecutors said his company, Golden Star Labs, billed California's Medi-Cal program and Medicare more than $96 million for COVID-19, influenza and RSV tests between August 2023 and June 2025, collecting more than $60 million on claims built largely from fraudulent samples.

The lab paid more than $17 million to collectors who supplied bulk test samples, many obtained through identity theft, prosecutors said. In some stretches, more than 90% of claims relied on stolen clinician identities used to authorize the tests. Price faces up to 13 years in prison and must pay restitution to Medi-Cal, CMS and the IRS. The FBI seized more than $6 million in assets tied to the fraud.

Paying pregnant patients to quit smoking

A federal grant will expand testing of a smartphone tool that deposits cash rewards for verified abstinence onto a restricted debit card.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse has awarded a multi-phase grant to the University of Vermont to further test a smartphone program that pays pregnant patients for verified smoking abstinence. Built with DynamiCare Health, the app has participants record themselves taking salivary cotinine tests that confirm whether they have smoked, then deposits rewards onto a secure debit card blocked from purchases such as alcohol, cannabis and firearms.

Cigarette smoking remains the leading preventable cause of poor pregnancy outcomes in the U.S., with the burden falling hardest in rural areas where hospital closures have thinned the supply of clinic-based cessation programs.

The work builds on contingency-management research led by Stephen T. Higgins, Ph.D., who has shown that small financial rewards can raise quit rates among pregnant smokers. If trial results hold up, the treatment could earn designation as an FDA-approved digital intervention; enrollment is expected to begin this summer.