A shortage of nurses has turned hospital staffing into a sort of national bidding war, with hospitals willing to pay exorbitant wages to secure the nurses they need. That threatens to shift the supply of nurses toward more affluent areas.
Read MoreAlthough President-elect Joe Biden is free to meet with people who will be vital to carry out his administration’s fight against COVID, he and his transition team are blocked from conferring with federal officials because the Trump administration refuses to acknowledge Biden won the election. That could have a critical impact on Biden’s efforts to help fight the coronavirus.
Read MoreEight months after California Healthline’s Heidi de Marco photographed LA under lockdown, she returned to the same iconic spots. Vehicle and foot traffic are up — as are coronavirus cases.
Read MoreAn investigation by KHN and The Guardian shows that 329 health care workers age 65 or older have reportedly died of COVID-19.
Read MoreCOVID-19 is spreading rapidly around the U.S. even before Thanksgiving promises to accelerate the trend. There are two promising vaccine candidates, but because President Donald Trump still refuses to concede the election and is holding up the official transition, President-Elect Joe Biden and his team cannot access plans for distributing those vaccines. Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico and Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Plus, for extra credit, the panelists recommend their favorite health policy stories of the week they think you should read, too.
Read MoreAs coronavirus cases surge, state officials can’t afford to wait for a new president to take office before taking action. But some governors’ initiatives seem to be little more than policy tweaks or symbolic gestures.
Read MoreAs coronavirus cases take off across the U.S., airlines promote holiday deals and encourage travel. But are flyers throwing caution to the wind?
Read MoreThe state’s hospital association in September picked Mary Mayhew to be its new CEO. While leading the state Medicaid office, she was a vocal critic of the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion program.
Read MoreA provision the Trump administration tucked into its final rule on health plan price transparency requires telling consumers what they will pay out-of-pocket for drugs and showing them what the plan paid.
Read MoreIn a new interview, the nation’s top infectious disease expert tells us how to survive the coming months and describes how hard it is when people still insist the coronavirus outbreak is “fake news.”
Read MoreAnthony Fauci is one of the nation’s most trusted voices during public health emergencies. As the head of the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, Fauci has helped guide the nation through the HIV/AIDS epidemic and more recent outbreaks of Ebola and Zika. In this special episode of KHN’s “What the Health?” podcast, Fauci sits down with KHN Editor-in-Chief Elisabeth Rosenthal to talk about how to navigate the next phase of the coronavirus pandemic and what the incoming Biden administration should do first.
Read MoreContact tracers in many states are stretched thin. Colorado is among the latest states to launch an app that aims to help, based on the COVID contact-tracing tool built by Apple and Google. But there’s a chicken-and-egg problem: More people will use them if they prove to work, but the apps become effective only if more people use them.
Read MoreStates vary in how they define face coverings in their mandates. But a bandanna or neck gaiter isn’t nearly as effective as a surgical or cloth mask. Public health experts say every state needs more standardization to protect against COVID-19.
Read MoreThe tax was touted as a way to generate funding for treatment programs across the state. But to avoid paying, scores of manufacturers and wholesalers stopped selling opioids in New York.
Read MoreCatalyzed by the paltry response to the pandemic and the inequities it is causing, people are flocking to graduate programs in public health to become the next front-line workers.
Read MoreDrugmakers will walk away with massive profits, but much of the pioneering work on mRNA vaccines was done with government money.
Read MoreCalifornia’s ping-ponging approach to managing the pandemic — twice reopening large portions of the service sector economy only to shut them again — has residents and business owners on edge. But experts say the push and pull on businesses may be what success looks like in much of the U.S. for months to come, given COVID-19’s pervasive spread.
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Doctors and nurses say order puts lives in danger, amid a COVID surge and a statewide shortage of health care workers.
Read MoreAs the coronavirus surges around the country, workers in nursing homes and assisted living centers are watching cases rise in long-term care facilities with a sense of dread. Many of these workers struggle with grief over the suffering they’ve witnessed.
Read MoreThe Republican-led states are trying to prove they were harmed by the 2010 health law — and thus have “legal standing” — because their Medicaid costs increased, even though Congress eliminated the penalty for not having health coverage in 2019. At least one justice was skeptical.
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