Never Mind Toys, It’s Time to Ask Santa for Crutches and Catheters
As hospitals juggle holiday covid surges and all their other patients, the global supply chain crisis has left them short of critical supplies.
Read MoreDec 12, 2021
As hospitals juggle holiday covid surges and all their other patients, the global supply chain crisis has left them short of critical supplies.
Read MoreDec 12, 2021
Montana nonprofit hospitals receive millions of dollars in tax exemptions as charities each year in exchange for giving back to their communities. A KHN review found that some of Montana’s richest medical centers are falling behind most state and national hospitals.
Read MoreNov 11, 2021
Tim Fall, a sitting judge in California’s Yolo County, decided to break the silence on his mental health issues with a book published during a campaign year. Depression and anxiety, he says, shouldn’t disqualify candidates from any profession.
Read MoreNov 11, 2021
A West Virginia pharmacy cleared a Drug Enforcement Administration investigation. But it shut down anyway, highlighting how the agency’s policies reduce the availability of buprenorphine, an important tool for recovery from opioid addiction.
Read MoreNov 11, 2021
TV ads and mailings targeting seniors tout Medicare Advantage plans this time of year, but millions choosing traditional Medicare make a costly and difficult decision about Medigap coverage, which gets much less attention.
Read MoreNov 11, 2021
Many job-based health plans broadened their mental health and substance use coverage to make sure workers had the support they needed this year as pandemic stress lingered, the annual KFF survey finds. Also, the proportion of employers offering health insurance to their workers remained steady, and increases for premiums and out-of-pocket health expenses were moderate.
Read MoreNov 11, 2021
Vehicle emissions, oil and gas drilling and climate change have combined to create more days with unhealthy levels of the colorless, odorless gas from Denver to Phoenix.
Read MoreNov 11, 2021
A health center with clinics on Chicago’s southwest side that serves mostly Hispanic patients has provided the most covid shots to kids in the city by being accessible, (literally) speaking the language of the community and setting up pop-up clinics at schools and parks. It provides a few lessons as the nation gears up to vaccinate 5- to 11-year-olds.
Read MoreNov 11, 2021
Kids who need a hormone-blocking drug to delay puberty have lost an off-label option. The nearly identical drug the company still sells costs eight times more.
Read MoreNov 11, 2021
Congress is making slow progress toward completing its ambitious social spending bill, although its Thanksgiving deadline looks optimistic. Meanwhile, a new survey finds the average cost of an employer-provided family plan has risen to more than $22,000. That’s about the cost of a new Toyota Corolla. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Anna Edney of Bloomberg News and Rebecca Adams of CQ Roll Call join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews Rebecca Love, a nurse academic and entrepreneur, about the impending crisis in nursing.
Read MoreNov 11, 2021
Medicare officials say complaints are rising from seniors lured into private plans with misleading information or enrolled without their consent. In response, officials have threatened to penalize the private companies selling Medicare Advantage and drug plans if they or agents working on their behalf mislead consumers.
Read MoreNov 11, 2021
Some insurers pocketed ‘eye-popping’ overpayments, billing records show.
Read MoreNov 10, 2021
Hospitals and doctors are facing more demands for ivermectin as a covid-19 treatment, despite a lack of proof it works. In some Republican-dominated states, pushing for ivermectin interventions has become a conservative rallying cry.
Read MoreNov 10, 2021
The infrastructure bill passed Friday funnels $15 billion into lead pipe remediation. Water quality experts say the cost of getting rid of all lead pipes could ultimately cost $60 billion. Still, some health advocates say the new funding will be transformative in allowing communities such as Houston’s Fifth Ward to fix its pipes.
Read MoreNov 10, 2021
But providers do not expect contraception to blunt the law’s effects.
Read MoreNov 9, 2021
Democratic negotiators on Capitol Hill appear to be nearing a compromise on President Joe Biden’s social spending agenda, spurred partly by Democratic losses on Election Day in Virginia. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court hints it might allow abortion providers to sue Texas over its restrictive new ban. But the relief, if it comes, could be short-lived if the court uses a second case, challenging a law in Mississippi, to weaken or overturn Roe v. Wade. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times and Mary Ellen McIntire of CQ Roll Call join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews KHN’s Rae Ellen Bichell, who reported and wrote the latest KHN-NPR “Bill of the Month” feature about an emergency bill for a nonemergency birth.
Read MoreNov 9, 2021
In light of the pandemic’s shocking death toll among seniors, organizations are trying new strategies to help older Americans get better care.
Read MoreNov 9, 2021
KHN answers questions for seniors about how this new benefit might work.
Read MoreNov 9, 2021
A last-minute agreement among lawmakers restored a provision seeking to hold down rising costs of prescription medicines. Although details on which drugs will be targeted remain sketchy, the legislation would help patients buying insulin and cap Medicare beneficiaries’ out-of-pocket drug costs at $2,000 a year.
Read MoreNov 8, 2021
About 21% of patients diagnosed with covid during a hospital stay died, according to data analyzed for KHN. In-hospital rates of spread varied widely and patients had no way of checking them.
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