• Opening remarks by Dr. Gail Bolan, Director, Division of STD Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
• An engaging panel, Pushing the envelope: promoting sexual health through media, which featured Laura Sessions Stepp, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, formerly with The Washington Post; Casey Gueren, Senior Health Editor at BuzzFeed Life; and Larry Swiader, Senior Director of Digital Media at The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy and Director of Bedsider.
• A dynamic panel, Beyond a culture of sexual violence: promising prevention and clinical strategies, that explored the intersection between sexual violence prevention and sexual health. The panel featured experts from the National Sexual Violence Resource Center and the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault, along with a provider from the Children's National Health System.
• An overview of new products and initiatives developed by the Communications Action Group (CAG) and Health Care Action Group (HCAG).

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JSI Research & Training Institute manages the STD TAC.

A new study, published in the journal Sexually Transmitted Diseases, reviewed analyses of existing behavioral counseling interventions that could be feasible in clinical settings, and found that behavioral counseling would likely benefit clinic patients. Researchers identified 13 analyses representing 11 intervention studies that fit the selection criteria. Of these 13, five returned lower STD rates in the intervention group at follow-up. The study concludes that counseling is likely to benefit some STD clinic attendees. However, the balance of costs and benefits of implementing behavioral counseling in STD programs is unclear. Feasibility would be improved if behavioral counseling were implemented in the context of other prevention efforts.

According to Guttmacher Institute, the percentage of women of reproductive age who were uninsured dropped sharply between 2013 and 2014 (from 17.9% to 13.9%), the first full year of implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). This includes steeper drops in the uninsured rate in states that expanded Medicaid under the ACA compared with the rates in those states that did not. In 2014, only 10.6% (down from 15.6%) of women aged 15-44 were uninsured in expansion states, compared with 17.7% (down from 20.5%) in non-expansion states. Gains in insurance coverage among reproductive-age women who live below the poverty line were substantial as well. However, despite these improvements, significant disparities in insurance status remain.