KHN

Children under 12 can’t get a vaccine, so parents are concerned about how to keep them safe as classes resume — especially as the delta variant spreads.

The U.S. Senate worked well into its scheduled August recess to pass a bipartisan infrastructure bill and a budget blueprint that outlines a much larger bill — covering key health priorities — to be written this fall. Meanwhile, the latest surge of covid is making both employers and schools rethink their opening plans. Joanne Kenen of Politico, Mary Ellen McIntire of CQ Roll Call and Yasmeen Abutaleb of The Washington Post join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also, for “extra credit,” the panelists suggest their favorite health policy stories of the week they think you should read, too.

The Silicon Valley giant has been cryptic about its plan for the growing mound of health data available through its iPhones and watches. Health systems have experimented with the company’s health app, but it hasn’t yet become central to treatment.

When the program began half a century ago, backers believed the benefits would expand over time, but politics and concerns about money have stymied most efforts. Now congressional Democrats are looking to add vision, dental and hearing care.

With schools reopening, poll finds two-thirds of parents support mandating masks for unvaccinated students, but resistance to vaccinating students remains high. “My child is not a test dummy,” one Black parent told pollsters. Some parents deferred the decision to their teens.

Congress tapped a national academies committee to examine a drug cost issue. It got a report that includes “egregious” failures to disclose conflicts of interest.

The CDC recommends that pregnant people be vaccinated against covid-19, based on new safety and effectiveness evidence on the covid vaccines.

Amid a surge in covid-19 cases driven by the highly contagious delta variant, nearly 1,500 health systems across the nation are requiring their employees to get vaccinated. In Montana and Oregon, that’s not an option.

Doctors tied to professional sports teams share in investment bonanza.

The Florida governor’s order said schools couldn’t mandate that students wear masks and that the state could deny funding to school districts that didn’t comply.

Facing bankruptcy, Detroit largely dismantled its public health department in 2012, and the city essentially went two years without a government-run public health system. Five years later, this major American city offers a grim cautionary tale.

As the nation confronts the delta variant, many consumers are again facing delays getting tested. The problem appears most acute in the South and Midwest, where new infections are growing the fastest.

Abigail Matos-Pagán, a critical care expert who has galvanized relief efforts after hurricanes and earthquakes, is on a mission to inoculate as many Puerto Rican residents as possible.

Aggressive sales tactics have allegedly led surgeons to use defective or wrong-size implants, screws or other products on patients, including former Olympian Mary Lou Retton.

A proposal breezing through the state legislature would make it illegal to obstruct someone from getting a covid-19 shot, or any other vaccine, but some free speech experts say it goes too far.

Covid is back with a vengeance, with some people clamoring for booster shots while others harden their resistance to getting vaccinated at all. Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration is pushing hard on drugmaker Pfizer’s request to upgrade the emergency authorization for its vaccine and give it final approval. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Rachel Cohrs of Stat and Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also, for “extra credit,” the panelists suggest their favorite health policy stories of the week they think you should read, too.

Pharmacy benefit managers have curtailed in-person audits of pharmacy claims during the pandemic, switching to virtual audits done by computer. That has markedly increased the number of claims they can review — and the chances for payment denials — squeezing pharmacies and bringing in more cash for the benefit companies.

The latest research shows that although deaths in nursing homes received enormous attention, far more older adults who perished from covid lived outside of institutions. People with dementia and other severe neurological conditions, chronic kidney disease and immune deficiencies were hit especially hard.

State health officials say the federal government will likely reject any work or community engagement requirements, which were key to Republican lawmakers agreeing to extend the program that insures 100,000 low-income Montana adults.