Baptist Health Plan will no longer sell individual health plans in Kentucky; about 7,000 people will be affected

Baptist Health Plan is withdrawing from the individual health insurance market in Kentucky for 2017, according to a state Department of Insurance news release.

Baptist is the state's fourth largest health-insurance provider and serves around 7,000 Kentuckians. It had planned to offer plans in 20 counties on the government exchange and 38 counties off the exchange.

The withdrawal means 59 of the state's 120 counties will have only one health insurance option on the exchange, where tax subsidies are available to reduce premiums. Most Kentucky counties will have two options off the exchange.

The state news release said James S. Fritz, president of Baptist Health Plan, indicated in a letter to state Insurance Commissioner Brian Maynard that "Baptist enrolled more members in the individual market than anticipated in 2016, but "the federal risk assessments placed upon the organization under the Affordable Care Act is unsustainable by a corporation the size of Baptist Health Plan."

The decision by Baptist comes just one month after Aetna announced that it will pull out of the state exchange in 2017, citing financial reasons. Its withdrawal will affect 10 counties in three major metropolitan areas.

Policyholders in Baptist plans can continue coverage through Dec. 31 if they are on the exchange and through March 31 if they are off the exchange. Baptist will notify them of its withdrawal.

Kentuckians signing up for health insurance through the exchange will enroll on Healthcare.gov this year, instead of Kynect, the state's health insurance exchange. Open enrollment begins Nov. 1 and goes through Jan. 31.

Anthem Blue Cross touts its program to help curb opioid abuse, limiting high-risk members to one pharmacy

The opioid epidemic seems to be focused on heroin, but that's only part of the picture, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield President Deb Moessner writes in an op-ed for The Courier-Journal. "Prescription drug abuse and misuse is the other part." At least half of all opioid overdose deaths involve a prescription opioid.

"In Kentucky, deaths from drug overdose went up 4.2 percent between 2013 and 2014, according to the National Vital Statistics System . . . with 24.7 deaths per 100,000 people, Kentucky has the fourth highest death rate nationally of drug overdose deaths in 2014," Moessner writes.

The numbers show "Prescription drug abuse is not just a personal problem, it is a public health problem," Moessner writes, saying everyone from individuals and businesses to governments and community organizations should do their part to turn things around.

Health insurers are in a unique position because they have access to medical records that many doctors and pharmacists do not, so they can bring new tools to the fight to "help curb drug dependence and addiction," Moessner writes.

In April, Anthem launched the Pharmacy Home program "designed to help reduce addiction to opioids and other prescription drugs" by enrolling "high-risk members in a 'pharmacy home,' which limits their drug coverage to one member-chosen home pharmacy," Moessner writes.

"The program will help redirect members to appropriate care, prevent death, and hopefully, prevent deaths and major medical problems from overdose and drug interaction. Neither Anthem's Pharmacy Home program nor proper disposal of prescription drugs will solve the issue of opioid addiction, but they are good first steps." (Read more)

Bevin administration says syringe exchanges funded by state grants must be one-for-one after initial supply to a user

By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

image: lexingtonhealthdepartment.org

The administration of Republican Gov. Matt Bevin is requiring syringe exchanges funded by state grants to be limited to one-for-one trading of clean needles for dirty ones, raising the chance that all such programs might have to do likewise.

Republicans said in the last legislative session that the 2015 law allowing syringe exchanges was intended to only allow a one-to-one trades. Their effort to impose such a limit died in the House, notes The Floyd County Times in Prestonsburg. The county recently approved an exchange.

If the Democratic-majority House goes Republican in November, both the legislature and the administration would be Republican, and in a position to impose a one-syringe limit. That would reduce the protection provided by syringe exchanges, say health officials running them.

The exchanges are meant to slow the spread of HIV and hepatitis C, which are commonly spread by the sharing of needles among intravenous drug users. They are not required to have a one-for-one exchange because of an opinion by then-Attorney General Jack Conway.

Clark County Health Director Scott Lockard said in a telephone interview that most Kentucky syringe-exchange programs use a "patient negotiation model," which provides the user with as many needles as they need for one week to assure they use a clean needle each time, often up to a capped amount.

"The goal is that they use a clean needle for each time they inject," he said. "We want to stop the spread of HIV. We want to stop the spread of hepatitis C and any of these other blood-borne pathogens that can be spread through the sharing of contaminated needles."

Lockard noted that while a one-for-one exchange is the goal, sometimes it is impossible to adhere to such strict requirements. For example, he said users don't always keep up with their syringes or sometimes will tell you they are sharing them.

So, with a strict one-for-one exchange you aren't able to provide them with enough needles to prevent sharing, "which means you are not doing anything to prevent the spread of disease. And the purpose of these exchanges is to prevent disease," he said.

Dr. Sarah Moyer, then interim director of the Louisville Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness, told Kentucky Health News in March that it is widely accepted that not requiring one-for-one is considered a best practice.

The state grant program requires applicants who plan to use the money for a syringe exchange program to promise that it would be a strict one-for-one exchange after an initial transaction with a client.

Asked why the requirement was added, Van Ingram, executive director of the state Office of Drug Control Policy, said only, "That was an administration decision." The governor's office and the Cabinet for Health and Family Services did not respond to requests for an explanation. Neither did Thayer.

The grant program is funded by the Agency for Substance Abuse Policy. The deadline for application was Sept. 23 and grant amounts will be considered up to $20,000. The grants can also be used for Narcan (naloxone) programs, community education and other harm-reduction efforts. The agency received 38 applications and expects to announce the recipients near the end of October, Ingram's office said.

Boyle and Floyd counties are the most recent counties to approve syringe exchange programs, bringing the total in the state to 20.

Both counties will offer a one-for-one exchanges and have applied for an ASAP grant to help fund their programs. Both say their decision to implement a one-for-one exchange was largely driven by the requirements of the grant.

Boyle County Health Director Brent Blevins said, "The grant we are applying for is very important to help us get this off the ground."

Floyd County Health Director Thursa Sloan said, "It was just a better fit for our area, for the board and for the people. We don't know that that couldn't change down the road, but the funding we are seeking to help support it is contingent on an equal exchange program."

Both Blevins and Sloan noted that the original version of the 2015 legislation called for one-to-one exchanges. Boyle and Floyd, respectively, are considered the 35th and 10th most vulnerable counties in the nation for HIV and hepatitis C outbreaks among those who inject drugs, according to estimates by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Lockard said syringe exchanges are a "very political issue," and while one-for-one exchanges are not the ideal solution, they may be what is "politically palatable."

Ingram stressed the importance of such programs: "We have the fastest growing rate of hepatitis C in the country in large part due to the sharing of needles." He added, "More than 100 people have been guided into treatment as a result of their participation in a needle exchange program.

Baptist Health Corbin and Mountain Comprehensive Health, Whitesburg, get USDA grants to treat addiction via telemedicine

By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has awarded a $720,000 grant to Baptist Health Foundation Corbin Inc. and Mountain Comprehensive Health Corp. in Whitesburg for telemedicine programs that focus on mental health and addiction treatment.

These grants are part of the $1.4 million that the USDA announced in June for five Appalachian projects in Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky to fight opioid abuse in the high-poverty "StrikeForce" areas and southeastern Kentucky's "Promise Zone," both Obama administration initiatives that steer federal money to areas with persistent economic hardships.

Baptist Health Corbin was awarded $377,121 to help connect clinical specialists through telemedicine to 10 school-based health centers, two primary-care sites in Williamsburg and Barbourville, and Grace Community Health Center.

“Partnering with Grace Community Health Center, telemedicine will offer a unique opportunity to maximize resources and reach isolated communities with healthcare services that are not otherwise available,” Baptist Health Corbin President Larry Gray said in a news release. "While this project cannot address the economic barrier of poverty directly, a telemedicine program can ease the financial burden of accessing care.”

Baptist Health Corbin has one of the largest behavioral health facilities in Eastern Kentucky, The Briscoe Clinic, which provides services to about 750 people a month and has a 200-person waiting list, according to Chris Holcomb, executive director of behavioral health at Baptist Health Corbin. Holcomb said the hospital has enough providers, but not enough office space.

"By utilizing telemedicine technology, we can meet the needs of more people and reduce the waiting list without the financial burden of expanding space," he said, adding that the technology will also decrease transportation barriers for their patients as many of them travel over one hour to the clinic to receive services.

Baptist Health Corbin expects to start providing behavioral health and addiction services through telemedicine in the summer of 2017.

"Our telemedicine launch will not only treat the opioid epidemic, but will have a generalist approach treating a wide array of behavioral health issues," Holcomb said. "We plan to individualize care plans and provide medication assisted treatment for those suffering from addiction. We will also provide assessments for medical detoxification and possibly offer intensive outpatient groups for those with chemical dependency issues."

The telemedicine program at the 10 school clinics will offer continuing education and training for teachers around suicide prevention and drug awareness and will also provide acute behavioral health and addiction screening and assessment for the students.

"By providing in-school assessments, it should help to reduce academic absences and reduce ED visits," he said.

Mountain Comprehensive Health Corp. was awarded $343,600 for its program to expand its telemedicine services to residents who face economic and transportation challenges.

MCHC will initially only offer primary-care services through its telemedicine program, but will expand its services to include behavioral health and addiction services after it has finished building its behavioral-health program, Chris Bates, corporate compliance officer and grant writer for MCHC, said in a telephone interview.

Bates couldn't promise when the telemedicine program would start offering behavioral health and addicition services, but said he expected it would be within one to two years.

MCHC has only one behavioral-health provider, but will add one more next month, and is looking to add four more. Bates noted that this staff is funded through a grant from the federal Health Resources and Services Administration. 

MCHC will initially offer telemedicine in its 13 school-based clinics and eventually will expand the program to its eight facilities. Bates noted that some of their most rural patients travel hours to the clinics for care and having access to telemedicine will help assure they have access to all of the services they need.

"The demand for behavioral health is unreal," he said. "And the relationship between mental health and physical health is intertwined, so we need the ability to address both," Bates said.

Study finds that anti-smoking ordinances help social smokers stop smoking and discourage young people from starting

www,drugfree.org

By Melissa Patrick

Kentucky Health News

Young people who live in areas with smoking bans are less likely to ever smoke, and young males who are light smokers who live in these areas are more likely to give it up altogether if a ban is imposed, according to a new study.

“We found that the implementation of a smoking ban reduces the odds that a young person in that location will smoke at all over time. In other words, young people are less likely to smoke once a smoking ban goes into effect,”Mike Vuolo, co-author of the study and assistant professor of sociology at Ohio State University, said in the news release.

Kentucky's teen smoking rate is 17 percent and its adult smoking rate is 26 percent. About one-third of the state and 35 percent of the state's school districts are covered by comprehensive smoke-free laws.

The study found that young males who were light smokers before a smoking ban was instituted were more likely to stop smoking cigarettes after a ban went into effect. Their probability of smoking dropped to 13 percent in areas with a ban from 19 percent in areas without a ban.

“There’s a lot of evidence that casual, social smokers are influenced by their environment,” Vuolo said. “If they can’t smoke inside with their friends at a restaurant or bar, they may choose not to smoke at all.”

However, smoking bans did not seem to discourage tobacco use among women, whose probability of smoking remained the same, 11 percent, in areas both with or without a ban. The researchers were unable to explain this result, but noted that the women in the study already smoked less than the men.

Regardless of gender, the study found that areas with long-standing smoking bans prevented light smokers from becoming heavy smokers, Vuolo said.

The study also found that smokers who lived in areas without bans were not likely to stop smoking and that smoking bans didn't work to reduce or end smoking for those who smoked more than a pack a day when the bans began.

“This study isolates the effects of smoking bans alongside multiple types of tobacco policy,” Brian Kelly, co-author of the study and director of Purdue's Center for Research on Young People's Health, said. “Ultimately, it identifies smoking bans as the most highly effective policy tool for lawmakers who wish to reduce smoking among young people.”

The study, published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, included data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 and the Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights Foundation. It was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Passport Health Plan named Kentucky's top Medicaid plan by National Committee for Quality Assurance; others rate lower

Passport Health Plan has again been named the top Medicaid plan in Kentucky, getting a 4 rating on the 5-point scale of the National Committee for Quality Assurance.

The NCQA annually rates more than 1,000 private, Medicaid and Medicare plans across the United States on consumer satisfaction, prevention and treatment measures.

“By focusing on member satisfaction, preventive services, and how we treat chronic and acute conditions, NCQA has once again reinforced what we have known to be true for a long time – Passport Health Plan is a leading model of collaboration and innovation in health care,” Passport CEO Mark B. Carter said in a news release.

The NCQA ratings for other Kentucky Medicaid plans were: WellCare, 3.5 out of 5; Aetna Better Health, 3; Humana, 2.5; and Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, 2.

A list of Kentucky's NCQA ratings, broken down by consumer satisfaction, prevention and treatment, is at http://healthinsuranceratings.ncqa.org/2016/search/Medicaid/KY.

Lexington will host two health conferences in November: one on immunization, one on health-care associated infections

Lexington will host two health conferences in November, one focusing on immunizations and the other on health-care transparency and patient advocacy.

The 2016 Kentucky Immunization Conference, titled "Educate, Immunize, Protect: Kentucky's Immunization Trifecta," will be held Nov. 2-4 at the Embassy Suites in Lexington.

This conference will feature nationally known speakers who will discuss all areas of immunization from infants to adolescents to adults.

A keynote speaker for this event is Dr. Ari Brown, a pediatrician, childcare advocate and author of the bestselling "411" parenting books. Brown also serves as a medical advisor for Parents magazine and a spokeswoman for the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Another keynoter, Rayna DuBose, is a meningitis survivor who will share her story about overcoming adversity and talk about the importance of vaccination.

This conference is sponsored by the Kentucky Rural Health Association in collaboration with the Kentucky Immunization Program. The cost is $100 through Oct. 15, when it will increase to $150. Continuing education credits will be offered. Click here to register.

Health Watch USA Conference

The annual Health Watch USA Conference for Healthcare Transparency and Patient Advocacy will be held Nov. 4 at the Four Points Sheraton in Lexington. This year's conference is titled, "Full Disclosure and Healthcare Associated Infections."

This conference will focus on the impact and magnitude of adverse events in health care, the importance of creating cultures of safety, patient advocacy, medical device patient safety issues and healthcare associated infections.

Keynote speakers include Dr. Jim Bailey, a fellow in the American College of Physicians and professor of medicine and preventive medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis; Dr. Lars Aanning, a medical/surgical consultant; and Dr. Mark Davis, an operating-room safety consultant specializing in reducing injuries from sharps and exposure to blood.

The conference is paid for in part by a grant from the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky. Click here or call 606-425-7278 to register. The cost to attend is $48. Continuing educations credits are offered.

Drug-resistant infections are a grave threat but are loosely monitored; Ky. health facilities must now report them electronically

By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

Antibiotic-resistant infections are considered one of the gravest threats to humanity, but such infections and the deaths they cause are not routinely reported, hindering the battle against them, Ryan McNeill, Deborah J. Nelson and Yasmeen Abutaleb report for the Reuters news service.

Reporting on their detailed investigation, they write: "Even when recorded, tens of thousands of deaths from drug-resistant infections – as well as many more infections that sicken but don’t kill people – go uncounted because federal and state agencies are doing a poor job of tracking them."

“You need to know how many people are dying of a disease,” Ramanan Laxminarayan, director of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy, a Washington-based health policy research organization, told Reuters. “For better or worse, that’s an indicator of how serious it is.”

The report noted many reasons such infections are omitted from death certificates, from poor training in how to fill out the forms to a reluctance of health-care facilities to mention them because "counting deaths is tantamount to documenting your own failures. By acknowledging such infections, hospitals and medical professionals risk potentially costly legal liability, loss of insurance reimbursements and public-relations damage."

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about 23,000 people die each year from 17 types of antibiotic-resistant infections and another 15,000 die from Clostridium difficile, a pathogen linked to long-term antibiotic use, but these numbers are "mostly guesswork" based on "few reported deaths from drug-resistant infection," Reuters reports.

Michael Craig, the CDC’s senior adviser for antibiotic resistance coordination and strategy, told Reuters that the agency settled on “an impressionist painting rather than something that is much more technical . . . because of our profound concern about the seriousness of the threat.” They said they are working to improve the estimates.

The numbers of uncounted deaths from drug-resistant infections “speak to what can happen when we don’t allocate the necessary resources to bolster … our public health safety network,” U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, told Reuters. “When we see discrepancies in reporting, are unable to finance a workforce to monitor infections, and can’t even soundly estimate the number of Americans that die from [antibiotic-resistant infections] each year, we know we have a problem.”

Brown recently introduced a bill that would require the CDC to collect more and better data on superbug infections and death rates.

Wide variation in tracking

Reuters did a survey of the nation's health departments and found a wide variation in how seven leading superbug infections are reported, if they are at all.

It found that 17 states report C. difficile infections; 26 states report methicillin-resistant staphlycoccus aureus (MRSA); fewer than half report carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), a family of pathogens that the CDC has deemed an “urgent threat;" and 24 states do not regularly track deaths due to antibiotic-resistant infections. "States that said they do track deaths generally do so for only a few types of drug-resistant infections, and not consistently," Reuters reports.

As of Oct. 1, a new regulation requires Kentucky health-care facilities to report a long list of drug-resistant infections to the Kentucky Department of Public Health electronically. The regulation also requires simultaneous data reporting to the CDC, and allows the agencies to share the data.

"This regulation on encouraging health-care facilities to report is extremely important to track these infections, to learn how to stop these infections and to identify problem areas in the state that need to be addressed," Dr. Kevin Kavanagh, an infection-control activist who leads the Somerset-based watchdog group Health Watch USA, said in a telephone interview with Kentucky Health News.

Kavanagh said proper reporting will allow examination of the methods health-care facilities use to fight these infections and determine whether they are effective or not. He called the matter a "huge, huge issue in nursing homes."

In the Reuters survey, U.S. health departments reported about 3,300 deaths from drug-resistant infections in 2003-2014, but the news service's own analysis of death certificates found 180,000 such deaths during the same time period. More than 20,000 were in California and more than 5,000 were in Tennessee, both states that do not require reporting of deaths linked to such infections.

Reuters found that Kentucky health departments only reported nine deaths related to health care acquired infections between 2003-2014, but Reuter's investigation found 3,027.

Patient-safety advocates petitioned the CDC in 2011 to add a question about hospital-acquired infections to its standard death certificate, which is used by many states, and have been told that it will be considered the next time the CDC revises its certificate.

Little progress made

Over-prescription of antibiotics and their overuse in farm animals has worsened antibiotic-resistant infections. Also, more people are living with weak immune systems and spending more time in health-care facilities, where most most of these infections occur.

Kavanagh said better reporting could indicate whether the overuse of antibiotics in agriculture plays a large part or a small part in the problem.

Reuters reports that in 2001, a task force led by the CDC, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health declared antibiotic-resistant infections to be a grave public health threat and issued an action plan to tame the problem. The plan included creating a national surveillance program and speeding the development of new antibiotics. But little progress has been made toward these goals.

A new national plan to combat this problem was introduced in 2014. Congress followed in 2015 with "a $160 million increase in the CDC’s budget to bolster research, drug development and surveillance of superbugs by the states," Reuters reports. But the news service found that states often come up against strong institutional resistance and laws that shield the health-care industry when it comes to surveillance.

Study finds Kentucky hospitals had 77% less charity care in first two years of Obamacare; ER visits were about the same

An ongoing report of federal health reform's effect on Kentucky says hospitals have significantly less charity care and care to the uninsured than they did before the reform was implemented.

"Thousands more Kentuckians had insurance in 2015 than in 2012, and that led to a huge drop in the value of the charity care hospitals provided," Ben Chandler, president and CEO of the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky, said in a news release. "Charity care and uncollected bills comprise a significant portion of uncom­pen­sated care provided by Kentucky hospitals, and hospitals in other states that, like Kentucky, have expanded Medicaid also have seen large decreases in the charity care."

The Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky is paying the State Health Access Data Assistance Center at the University of Minnesota more than $280,000 over a three-year period to study the impact of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in Kentucky.

Hospital Charity Care and Self-Pay Charges in
Dollars (millions), Kentucky, 2012-2015

In 2013, prior to implementation of the reform law and the state's expansion of Medicaid to those who earn up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, Kentucky hospitals provided nearly $2.6 billion dollars in uncompensated care. This dropped to $942 million in 2014, and to $522 million in 2015.

Kentucky hospitals provided almost 77 percent less charity care and care to the uninsured for Kentuckians in 2015 than they did in 2012 suggesting that Kentucky hospitals are now being paid for a larger percentage of care they provide to low-income patients who previously were uninsured, says the release.

The study also looked at potentially avoidable hospital admissions and usage of emergency departments.

It found that hospitals saw a decrease in admissions for two chronic conditions, high-blood pressure and asthma, but saw an increase in admissions for diabetes.

The report also found that nearly 25 percent of Kentuckians used an emergency department in 2014, a decrease from 30.4 percent in 2012.

Kentucky's rate for emergency-department use is significantly higher than the national average of 18.2 percent. It is higher than two neighboring states, Missouri and Virginia, and about the same as Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, and Tennessee.

ED visits in the past year by age, Kentucky, 2012-2014

About 29 percent of those who used the emergency department said it was because of a medical emergency; almost 29 percent said they did so because other facilities weren't open when they needed care; and 18 percent only named a specific health condition. Seven percent said they were following a doctor's order, 3 percent said they were nearby, and 3 percent said they were taken there by first responders. Eight percent gave other answers.

Elderly Kentuckians continued to report the highest rate of emergency visits at 32 percent, and were the age group with the least decline from 2012 to 2014.

People 65 and over are on Medicare. The report found that more people on public insurance plans used the emergency department than did people on private plans, 48 percent and 19 percent respectively.

"ED utilization reflects the greater health needs of the surrounding community and may provide the only readily available care for individuals who cannot obtain care elsewhere," the report says. "Many ED visits are ‘resource sensitive’ and potentially preventable, meaning that access to high-quality, community-based health care can prevent the need for a portion of ED visits."

This semi-annual report also analyzed data regarding health coverage, access to care, cost of care, quality of care and health outcomes and included the results of a spring 2016 Kentucky Health Reform Survey of non-elderly Kentucky adults. Click here for a copy of the report.

Congress includes Zika funding in stopgap spending bill

McConnell with other GOP Senate leaders,
John Barrasso of Wyoming and John Cornyn
of Texas (Getty Images photo by Alex Wong)

Congress has finally appropriated $1.1 billion to fight the Zika virus, as part of an emergency spending bill needed to keep the government operating as the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky "unveiled a stopgap spending measure last week that indulged several Democratic demands, including a meticulously constructed deal on Zika funding and the elimination of several contentious policy riders," Mike DeBonis reports for The Washington Post.

Those riders included a prohibition on Zika funding for Planned Parenthood in Puerto Rico, where the virus is rampant, and a waiver of environmental rules on spraying for mosquitoes. They spread Zika; so does sexual contact.

"The short-term spending bill was a triumph for Democrats, who were able to exact numerous concessions from Republican leaders who were determined to avoid a distracting government shutdown in the middle of campaign season," DeBonis writes. "That has prompted grumbling from House conservatives, in particular, and increased GOP pressure on McConnell and Ryan to draw a harder line when the stopgap expires in December."

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who has much in common with House conservatives and is running for re-election against Lexington Mayor Jim Gray, voted against the bill.

How much do motorcycle helmets reduce the risk of head injuries? A lot, UK study shows

Image from Fox News

It goes without saying that wearing a helmet can reduce the risk of head injuries while riding a motorcycle, but a study at the University of Kentucky backs it up with hard numbers.

Motorcycle helmets "are associated with a 69 percent reduction in skull fractures, 71 percent reduction in cerebral contusion, and 53 percent reduction in intracranial hemorrhage," and "a 20 percent reduction in cerebral concussion," says a release from the UK College of Public Health.

Dr. Michael Singleton, an assistant professor of biostatistics, examined accident data to compare helmet protection against skull fracture, cerebral contusion, intracranial hemorrhage and cerebral concussions of motorcycle operators, and hospital billings from 2008 to 2012, to estimate the relative risks of each type of head injury for helmeted versus unprotected motorcyclists.

Kentucky once had a law requiring motorcyclists to wear helmets, but the legislature repealed it at the behest of state Sen. Dam Seum, a Republican from Louisville.

Though there was little doubt that wearing a helmet increases safety, Singleton said helmeted motorcycle operators may still be at risk. "Current motorcycle helmets do not protect equally against all types of head injury," he said.

UK College of Public Health study links diabetes to poor blood flow in the brain, but not to Alzheimer's disease

Diabetes has been linked to cerebrovascular disease, a cognitive disorder that restricts blood flow to the brain, according to a study at the University of Kentucky. Though cerebrovascular disease "is associated with stroke and ruptures that cause brain damage," the study shows that patients diagnosed with diabetes can also develop the disease.

While the study seems to settle the dispute about diabetes' linkage to the disease, researchers say it found "no significant correlation." to Alzheimer's disease, something prior research had indicated. Researchers collected samples from over 2,300 autopsied human subjects with and without diabetes.

Dr. Erin Abner, an associate professor in the UK College of Public Health, was a lead investigator in the study. Abner says the research could help prevent cerebrovascular disease in patients diagnosed with diabetes.

"While diabetes is without question both a major public health issue and a risk factor for cognitive impairment and dementia, our study suggests that cognitive dysfunction related to diabetes is likely to be preventable and underscores the idea that heart health is brain health," she said.

There is no clear answer why diabetes can cause cerebrovascular disease, but researchers "suspect this process involves many factors, including insulin resistance, hypertension and abdominal obesity," the release said.