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The Supreme Court of the United States on Wednesday ruled that the federal government can continue to ask social media companies to remove misinformation about healthcare and other topics, in today's bite-sized hospital and health industry news from the District of Columbia and Georgia.
- District of Columbia: The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled 6-3 that the federal government can continue to ask social media companies to remove misinformation about healthcare and other topics. The case, Murthy v. Missouri, No. 23-411, argued that federal officials urging social platforms to take down potentially misleading posts during the COVID-19 pandemic — such as those questioning the safety of vaccines — violated the First Amendment. Although social media companies said they were in regular discussions with the White House and federal health officials, they also said that they developed and implemented their own social media policies. In the ruling, the majority of justices found that the plaintiffs had not suffered any direct injury and did not have standing to sue. In the majority opinion, Justice Amy Coney Barrett said that the plaintiffs ultimately failed to show a "concrete link" between federal officials' communication with social media platforms and policies that led to posts being limited or removed. According to the New York Times, the White House welcomed the ruling. "The Supreme Court's decision is the right one, and it helps ensure the Biden administration can continue our important work with technology companies to protect the safety and security of the American people," said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. (Liptak, New York Times, 6/26; Owermohle, STAT, 6/26)
- District of Columbia: Earlier this month, URAC, an independent quality and safety nonprofit, announced a new accreditation program for organizations that employ or contract with community health workers. The program aims to standardize the role of community health workers across the healthcare industry, and it will be open to any entity with a community health worker program, including health systems, payers, state and local governments, and more. According to URAC president and CEO Shawn Griffin, the growing number of community health workers and increased coverage of their services were the main reasons URAC decided to create a new accreditation targeted toward them. Currently, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that there were 58,500 community health workers employed as of May 2023, and this number is expected to grow by 14% by 2032. (Devereaux, Modern Healthcare, 6/12)
- Georgia: The American Cancer Society (ACS) has announced a new long-term initiative called VOICES of Black Women, which aims to study factors contributing to cancer prevalence and mortality among Black women. In the study, researchers plan to enroll 100,000 Black women without cancer between the ages of 25 and 55 in Washington, D.C. and 20 U.S. states. The participants will be surveyed twice a year about their behaviors, environmental exposures, and life experiences throughout the 30-year study period. Any cancers that participants may develop during this time will also be tracked. "We will really build a relationship and go on a journey with these women over the next several decades, learning about their lived experiences and collecting information along the way from participants," said Alpa Patel, SVP of population science at ACS and co-principal of the study. "And we use all of that information then to understand what is related to [the] risk of developing or dying from cancer and other health outcomes." (Rabin, New York Times, 6/7; Kindelan, Good Morning America, 5/7)
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