As LA County Sets New Infection Record, State Leaders’ Behavior Sends Mixed Messages
Even as L.A.’s stay-at-home restrictions began, leaders across California took heat for their do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do pandemic behavior.
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Feds Look to Pharmacists to Boost Childhood Immunization Rates
Fears over COVID-19 have contributed to a slump in inoculations among children. Now the federal government is looking to pharmacists for help, but many of them do not participate in a program that offers free shots to half the kids in the U.S.
Read MoreCome for Your Eye Exam, Leave With a Band-Aid on Your Arm
Dentists and optometrists across the country are trying to join in the fight to get everyone vaccinated against COVID-19, the flu and other diseases.
Read MoreWhere COVID Is on the Menu: Failed Contact Tracing Leaves Diners in the Dark
State and local public health officials are sure that bars and restaurants are spreading COVID. But they don’t always have much concrete evidence to support their convictions.
Read MoreHow COVID-19 Highlights the Uncertainty of Medical Testing
Widespread COVID testing has revealed uncomfortable truths about medical tests: A test result is rarely a definitive answer, but instead a single clue. A result may be falsely positive or negative, or it may show an abnormality that doesn’t matter. And as COVID testing has made too clear, even an accurate, meaningful result is useless unless it’s acted on appropriately.
Read MoreAmid COVID and Racial Unrest, Black Churches Put Faith in Mental Health Care
Black Americans are less likely to receive mental health treatment than the overall population. But as needs soar this year, faith leaders are tapping health professionals to share coping skills churchgoers and the community can use immediately.
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As Hospitals Fill With COVID Patients, Medical Reinforcements Are Hard to Find
More than 93,000 COVID patients are hospitalized across the country. But beds and space aren’t the main concern for hospital administrators — It’s the health care workforce.
Read MoreCalifornia Businesses Go From Simmer to Boil Over Newsom’s Fine Dining
Small-business owners struggling to remain afloat are increasingly defying new shutdown orders, in some cases pointing to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s French Laundry dinner as a reason not to comply.
Read MoreWhy Employers Find It So Hard to Test for COVID
COVID-19 cases are surging across the U.S., and most workplaces are still open for business. As workers fear catching the disease while on the clock, why aren’t more companies footing the bill for testing employees?
Read MoreOSHA Let Employers Decide Whether to Report Health Care Worker Deaths. Many Didn’t.
Four workers died at a facility with one of the largest U.S. outbreaks, but the Occupational Safety and Health Administration never conducted an inspection. It’s a pattern that’s played out across the nation, a KHN investigation finds.
Read More‘An Arm and a Leg’: How to Avoid a Big Bill for Your COVID Test
Tests for the coronavirus are supposed to be free. And, usually, they are. But sometimes … things happen. Here’s how to avoid getting a surprise bill for a test.
Read MoreThousands of Doctors’ Offices Buckle Under Financial Stress of COVID
Across the nation, primary care practices that were already struggling are closing, victims of the pandemic’s financial fallout. And this is reducing access to health care, especially in rural and other regions already short on doctors.
Read MoreHow Pharma Money Colors Operation Warp Speed’s Quest to Defeat COVID
A Trump administration maneuver allows executives who are leading the federal effort to keep investments in drug companies that would benefit from the pandemic response.
Read MoreRural Areas Send Their Sickest Patients to Cities, Straining Hospitals
Critically ill rural patients are often sent to city hospitals for high-level treatment, and as their numbers grow, some urban hospitals are buckling under the added strain. Meanwhile, mask-wearing and other pandemic prevention measures remain spotty in rural counties.
Read MoreMedicare Open Enrollment Is Complicated. Here’s How to Get Good Advice.
It’s a complex program with many options — as well as confusing rules and nuances. Here’s how to get reliable guidance.
Read MoreFor Nurses Feeling the Strain of the Pandemic, Virus Resurgence Is ‘Paralyzing’
COVID-19’s toll weighs heavily on nurses, who can suffer stress and other psychological problems if they don’t believe they are able to help their patients sufficiently.
Read MoreNew Legal Push Aims to Speed Magic Mushrooms to Dying Patients
A proposal in Washington state would use right-to-try laws to allow terminally ill patients access to psilocybin — the famed magic mushrooms of America’s psychedelic ’60s — to ease depression and anxiety.
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Were You Notified About Missing Tax Forms for Your ACA Subsidy? Blame COVID.
Some consumers who received tax credits to purchase insurance from Affordable Care Act marketplaces report they’ve received letters in error from the government saying they didn’t file the IRS forms to account for how much money they made and how much funding they received from the government.
Read MoreCalifornia Law Banning Toxic Chemicals in Cosmetics Will Transform Industry
The law will ban the manufacture and sale in California of personal care products that contain 24 toxics, including asbestos, formaldehyde and lead, and is expected to fill a gap in federal regulation as companies sell the new formulations nationwide.
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Parents Complain That Pediatricians, Wary of COVID, Shift Sick Kids to Urgent Care
Referrals of children to urgent care clinics or emergency rooms have become so prevalent that the American Academy of Pediatrics came out with interim guidance on how practices can safely continue to see patients. The academy recommended that pediatricians strive “to provide care for the same variety of visits that they provided prior to the public health emergency.”
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