Background and objectives In 2005, the New Jersey Department of Health enacted a rule requiring that an administrator or designate always be present in a hemodialysis clinic and that the individual may not be involved in patient care activities at any time. Our investigation examines the effect of this unique rule on patient mortality and hospitalizations and is meant to inform the public policy discussion. Design, setting, participants, and measurements We utilized a synthetic control estimation to analyze the effect of this rule on patient mortality in New Jersey. We also compared trends for hospitalizations in New Jersey to other similar states. Results We find no evidence that the law affected patient mortality or the number of hospitalizations for Medicare patients in New Jersey. Conclusions The New Jersey law poses substantial costs to hemodialysis clinics and we find little evidence of any measurable benefit to patients.

Background. We extend the model introduced by Anderson et al. [M.D. Anderson, D.I. Rees, J.J. Sabia, American Journal of Public Health 104, 2369-2376] to evaluate the public mental health implications of new developments in marijuana policy, such as recreational marijuana access and additional years of data on suicide mortality. Methods. We obtained state-level suicide data from the National Vital Statistics System's Mortality Detail Files for 1999-2018. We used panel regression analysis to examine the association between suicides per 100 000 population and both medical and recreational marijuana access. Three specifications of the equation were employed as a robustness test. Results. After adjusting for economic conditions, alcohol taxes and consumption, time effects, state fixed effects, and state-specific linear time trends, the legalization of recreational marijuana was associated with a 2.9% (95% confidence interval [CI] = -5.6, -.03) reduction in the suicide rate for the most rigorous specification, but didn't pass the robustness check at the P < .05 level for the other two specifications. However, recreational marijuana legalization was associated with a 5.4% reduction (95% CI = -9.4%, -1.4%) in suicide rates for males in the 40 to 49 age group, passing the robustness check for all specifications. Conclusion. Suicide rates among men in the 40 to 49 age group fell after recreational marijuana legalization compared with those in states that did not legalize, which is consistent with the results found by Anderson et al. for medical marijuana when that same population was younger. There was no consistent relationship between medical marijuana legalization and suicide rates for any population. Additionally, mental health indicators at the state level were unaffected by either recreational or medical marijuana legalization. We confirm the findings of Anderson et al. (2014), observing no consistent relationship between marijuana legalization and observable mental health outcomes. However, suicide rates increase at lower rates on average relative to other states following recreational marijuana legalization.

No abstract