UnitedHealthcare drops 30% of prior authorization requirements; more U.S. newborns are going without vitamin K; gaming addiction linked to elbow pain in medical students — Morning Medical Update

UnitedHealthcare drops 30% of prior authorization requirements

The cuts take effect Oct. 1 across commercial, Medicare Advantage, Community, Individual Exchange and Oxford plans.

UnitedHealthcare will eliminate 30% of its prior authorization requirements beginning Oct. 1, the insurer said in a Sept. 1 notice to network care providers. The company posted plan-by-plan lists of the affected codes, including one for commercial plans, alongside separate lists for Medicare Advantage, Community Plans, Individual Exchange and Oxford plans. Removing the requirements is meant to reduce administrative work and remove barriers that can delay care, UnitedHealthcare said.

The change carries out a pledge the insurer made in May to strip prior authorization from 30% of its remaining services by the end of 2026. Reuters reported that the reductions span cardiology, genetic and laboratory testing, chiropractic care, physical, occupational and speech therapy, and orthopedic and musculoskeletal procedures. A separate prior authorization waiver program for eligible rural hospitals and affiliated practitioners is scheduled to begin Nov. 1.

More U.S. newborns are going without vitamin K

Documented non-receipt rose from 5.2% of births in January to 8.1% in June, a Truveta analysis found.

The share of U.S. newborns with no documented vitamin K injection within a day of birth rose from 5.2% in January to 8.1% in June, a 57.4% increase, according to a Truveta analysis of 1,026,375 births recorded since 2019. Annual non-receipt has climbed from 2% in 2019 to 6.1% so far this year, and ran higher among girls than boys.

Truveta cautioned that the data capture documented administration rather than parental refusal, and that the findings are preliminary and not peer reviewed. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still recommends the birth dose, saying infants who go without it are 81 times more likely to develop late vitamin K deficiency bleeding. Pediatricians told Reuters the trend reflects broader hesitancy about newborn interventions. The Department of Health and Human Services said it is evaluating data and surveillance related to vitamin K refusal and bleeding events.

Gaming addiction linked to elbow pain in medical students

A survey of 364 students found higher odds of neck and elbow pain among those meeting addiction criteria.

Medical students who met criteria for mobile gaming addiction reported more upper-body musculoskeletal pain than classmates who did not, according to a cross-sectional study of 364 students at Jordanian universities published in The Open Public Health Journal. Thirty-four students, or 9%, met the threshold on the seven-item Gaming Addiction Scale. Among them, 85.3% reported neck pain and 41.2% reported elbow pain, compared with 65% and 12.5% of others in the sample.

After adjusting for age, gender, weight and height, addiction status was associated with more than three times the odds of neck pain and more than four times the odds of elbow pain, the authors reported. Those students also reported more interference with studying and more health care visits. The cross-sectional design cannot establish causation, and the authors noted that self-reported data and a single-country sample limit how far the findings extend.