• Illinois: Rush University System for Health has launched a new digital care membership to help streamline and expand access to its virtual services. The membership, which is called Rush Connect+, costs $19 per month and includes 24/7 access to virtual urgent care, as well as a dedicated personal assistant to help patients navigate appointments, questions, and care coordination. "Rush Connect+ is really part of a broader vision under the Rush Connect umbrella," said Rush's SVP and CMO Paul Casey. "Our goal is to create a radical degree of access that hasn’t been present in the market before, and to compete with many other offerings that can't match the quality we know we can provide." Although Rush is based in Chicago, the new membership is available nationwide, which Casey said could appeal to consumers who want to be affiliated with an academic health brand or employers who manage a distributed workforce. (Diaz, Becker's Hospital Review, 8/1)
• Maryland: FDA is considering adding a black box warning for antidepressant use during pregnancy. During a recent panel discussion on antidepressant use and pregnancy, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said that antidepressants, specifically selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), have been "implicated in different studies to be involved in postpartum hemorrhage, pulmonary hypertensions and cognitive downstream effects in the baby." Several panelists also brought up the potential harm of SSRIs to a developing fetus and discussed changing the current labeling on antidepressants. However, physicians and physician groups have criticized the discussion, calling it "one-sided" since only one of the 10 panelists spoke positively about SSRIs and how they could help treat depression and anxiety during pregnancy. In a statement, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said the discussion was "alarmingly unbalanced" and that "the many outlandish and unfounded claims made by the panelists regarding SSRIs will only serve to incite fear and cause patients to come to false conclusions that could prevent them from getting the treatment they need." (O'Connell-Domenech, The Hill, 8/14)
• New York: Two individuals have pleaded guilty to a roughly $1 million fraud scheme that used data stolen from hospital patients to file false claims for pandemic-related relief funds. According to prosecutors, Wilkins Estrella, a former business clerk at a hospital in the Bronx, and Charlene Marte, used stolen patient information, including names and Social Security numbers, to open fraudulent debit card accounts and receive almost $1 million in COVID-19 stimulus payments and unemployment benefits. Estrella and Marte both admitted to conspiring to commit wire fraud and bank fraud. Estrella, who accessed more than 4,000 patient records while working at a hospital, also pleaded guilty to a separate charge of wrongly disclosing protected health information. According to Becker's Hospital Review, both Estrella and Marte face up to 30 years in prison, with Estrella facing an additional sentence of up to 10 years for violating HIPAA. They have also agreed to pay over $950,000 in restitution and forfeiture. (Diaz, Becker's Hospital Review, 8/8)

No organization can solve for women’s health inequities on its own, but every organization has a role to play in dismantling inequities in women’s care and improving outcomes. Access this cheat sheet to learn how to improve care for anxiety disorders and depression.