Studies show that Americans work longer hours than many people in Europe and Japan, with many U.S. employees spending 50 hours at work each week. Though the average number of hours spent at work per week is not going down significantly in the United States, some American companies and local governments are joining other parts of the world in testing whether a reduction in the number of weekly work hours can boost employee productivity, reports Inc.com . Reusser Design, an Indiana-based company that designs websites and apps, enforces four-day workweeks but rotates employees to still help clients on Fridays. "When we eliminate distractions or tackle their source, we can be just as productive in four days as we can in five days," the company wrote on its blog. "In fact, we find that we're just a little more productive." The company rotates employees on Fridays to answer phones and help walk-in visitors, and accommodates client emergencies as well. In August 2016, Amazon announced plans for a pilot program in which some part-time employees would work 30 hours per week. The company said it would allow about a dozen part-time workers to reduce their number of weekly hours to 30 at 75 percent of their salary, though they retained all of their benefits. While Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the pilot program, the company advertised job openings for positions with 30-hour workweeks as recently as last month.

A Canadian study published in BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care suggests women who work 45 hours or more each week could be more likely to develop diabetes, reports Reuters Health . The investigators monitored 7,065 workers aged 35 and older in Ontario over 12 years. None had diabetes at the start of the study or during the first two years of follow-up. Approximately 8 percent of the women and 12 percent of the men developed diabetes by the conclusion of the study period, and work hours did not appear to influence diabetes risk for men. However, women working at least 45 hours a week were 63 percent more likely to develop diabetes than women working 35 to 40 hours weekly. "It is plausible that women work longer hours, when all the household chores and family responsibilities are taken into account," says Mahee Gilbert-Ouimet at the Institute for Work & Health. "For their part, men performing long work hours tend to hold more physically active jobs than women, get an important sense of identity through work, and are more likely to hold high-skilled and well-paid occupations." The team notes working more hours on the job and at home might make women more susceptible to chronic stress, inflammation, and hormonal changes that could potentially contribute to diabetes. "People who work longer hours may have less time to take care of themselves by eating healthy and exercising," says the University of California, San Francisco's Rita Hamad. "They may also be more stressed and get less sleep — all of these things might make someone more likely to get diabetes."

National Institute on Aging Director Richard Hodes on Monday presented the Fiscal Year 2020 Professional Judgment Budget Proposal for Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias Research to the Advisory Council on Alzheimer's Research, Care, and Services. The so-called "bypass budget" calculates the funds required to fully pursue scientific opportunities leading to a cure for Alzheimer's and related dementias. The document , titled "Open Science, Big Data, and You: Working Together to Treat and Prevent Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias," specifies the support needed to reach the ultimate research goal of the National Plan to Address Alzheimer's Disease, to prevent and effectively treat Alzheimer's and related dementias by 2025.

The "Medicare for all" plan from Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) would increase government healthcare spending by $32.6 trillion over 10 years, according to a study by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University in Virginia. The plan, reports the Associated Press , would require historic tax increases as government replaces what employers and consumers now pay for healthcare, according to the analysis. It would deliver significant savings on administration and drug costs, but increased demand for care would drive up spending, the analysis found. Under the plan, all U.S. residents would be covered with no copays and deductibles for medical services. Responding to the study, Sanders criticized the Mercatus Center, which receives funding from the conservative Koch brothers. Koch Industries CEO Charles Koch is on the center's board. "If every major country on earth can guarantee healthcare to all, and achieve better health outcomes, while spending substantially less per capita than we do, it is absurd for anyone to suggest that the United States cannot do the same," Sanders said in a statement. "This grossly misleading and biased report is the Koch brothers' response to the growing support in our country for a 'Medicare for all' program." Sanders' office has not done a cost analysis, a spokesman said. However, the Mercatus estimates are within the range of other cost projections for Sanders' 2016 plan.

The pharmaceutical rebate is increasingly viewed as being at least partly responsible for the current market for prescription drugs, reports the New York Times . Rebates, critics say, have pushed up the list price of brand-name drugs, which consumers are increasingly responsible for paying. Insurers generally get to keep the rebates without passing them along to their members. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America has proposed change to the way the rebates are handled, and how those companies are paid. The Trump administration, meanwhile, has taken the first step toward eliminating a "safe-harbor" provision that allows rebates to be paid in Medicare's Part D drug program without violating federal anti-kickback laws. Pharmacy benefit managers and insurers argue that rebates are a diversion and that their negotiating tactics have kept total drug costs in check. As proof they point to data that shows that in 2017, net spending on brand-name drugs grew only 1.9 percent, according to IQVIA, a drug research firm, while list prices grew 6.9 percent. They warn that eliminating rebates could face legal hurdles, and say the move could wind up raising consumers' premiums because insurers and employers use their rebate payments to plug other holes.

A meeting of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Advisory Council on Alzheimer's Research, Care, and Services scheduled for July 30, 2018, in Washington, D.C., will mainly consider recommendations from each of the three subcommittees to present to the Secretary of HHS and Congress. Additional presentations will include a recent RAND study on the healthcare infrastructure, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/Alzheimer's Association's joint Healthy Brain Initiative Roadmap, federal workgroup updates, and updates on work by non-federal members. The full meeting will be streamed on HHS's website , with a segment streamed on the Facebook event and on the main HHS Facebook page .

Since February, the Belden electric wire factory in Indiana has been offering drug treatment to job applicants who fail the drug screen, and promising jobs to those who complete the program, reports National Public Radio . Area employers have long struggled with failed drug tests, and are trying to find ways to bypass this problem. Belden's program is unique not only in that the company itself is paying for the drug treatment, but is also doing so for those who are not yet in its workforce. "It's not a silver bullet, but it is part of an overall solution, we believe, to the epidemic," says Belden's Doug Brenneke. Seventeen applicants have so far enrolled in the one- to four-month-long course. Brenneke notes the company always needs new recruits, since 33 percent of its workforce is within five years of retirement age. Addiction experts such as Mitch Rosenthal say addicts referred to treatment through work often respond better; he notes employers can often learn of an addiction at an earlier stage, making treatment easier. Employees going through Belden's program also can support each other on the job. "Their sobriety and the fact that they have changed, and are changing their lives, is an encouragement to the people who will come in after them," Rosenthal says.

The California Supreme Court ruled Thursday that employers must pay their workers for small amounts of time they spend on work tasks after clocking out, reports Reuters . The court said a rule under federal wage law that excuses companies from paying workers for small amounts of time that are difficult to record did not apply under state law. The decision could be costly for many companies, particularly restaurants and retailers that have many hourly workers. Shaun Setareh, who represented former Starbucks employee Douglas Troester in a 2012 lawsuit against the company, said the ruling would force many companies to change their employment practices. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce warned the court in a brief backing Starbucks that such a ruling would encourage workers to file lawsuits seeking pay for "trifling absurdities."

A recent study details new results with an in-development drug for Alzheimer's that are not likely to end the debate over a key theory regarding the disease's cause, reports STAT . The BAN2401 drug from Biogen and Eisai is designed to prevent the clustering of amyloid plaques in the brain and destroy the clumps that already exist. One group of individuals receiving BAN2401 saw their amyloid levels fall, which correlated with a significant reduction in cognitive decline compared with placebo. The investigators were buoyed by this outcome, but skeptics are not convinced. Every tested dose of BAN2401 had a significant effect on plaques as measured by brain scan, and the more drug given to recipients, the less amyloid they had after 18 months. However, cognition performance determined only the highest tested dose was significantly better than placebo at retarding mental decline, while some participants who received lower doses actually declined faster than those who received no treatment at all. Biogen's Al Sandrock says there is likely a threshold of amyloid reduction that must be achieved before recipients benefit, and the low doses might not have reached that threshold, thus accounting for their poor performance on cognitive decline. In the BAN2401 trial, about 70 percent of those receiving placebo had the APOE4 mutation, but in the high-dose BAN2401 group only 30 percent had the mutation. Doubters say that could explain why BAN2401 appeared to outperform a saline injection in the high-dose group, as past trials suggest APOE4 carriers have more rapidly progressing Alzheimer's than those without the mutation.

A study presented at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference 2018 detailed results from the Wellbeing and Health for people with Dementia (WHELD) e-learning program, reports ScienceDaily . The program trains home caregivers to engage in meaningful social interaction with people who have dementia. WHELD directs caregivers to provide such engagement for 10 minutes daily, with the study involving 280 residents and care staff in 24 care communities over nine months. Caregivers participated in the program with key modules based on WHELD training, with or without Skype supervision. They compared outcomes to usual care, and both types of treatment improved resident well-being and staff attitudes to person-centered care. The group supported via Skype was found to sustain delivery of improved resident well-being four months after the trial was completed. "Our program moved care staff to see dementia through the eyes of those who are living it," says King's College London's Joanne McDermid. "We found a simple approach, delivered as e-learning, improves staff attitudes to care and residents' well-being, ultimately improving lives for people with dementia."