Los casos de sarampión están aumentando en Estados Unidos. En el primer trimestre de este año, se registró un número de casos 17 veces mayor con respecto al promedio registrado durante el mismo período en los cuatro años anteriores, según los Centros para el Control y Prevención de Enfermedades (CDC).…

A Tennessee agency that is supposed to hold accountable and grade the nation’s largest state-sanctioned hospital monopoly awards full credit on dozens of quality-of-care measurements as long as it reports any value — regardless of how its hospitals actually perform. Ballad Health, a 20-hospital system in northeast Tennessee and southwest…

Florida se ha convertido en el primer estado en permitir que los obstetras realicen cesáreas fuera de los hospitales, apoyando a un grupo médico de un consorcio privado que afirma que el cambio reducirá costos y brindará a las mujeres embarazadas un ambiente de parto más hogareño, que muchas desean.…

Florida has become the first state to allow doctors to perform cesarean sections outside of hospitals, siding with a private equity-owned physicians group that says the change will lower costs and give pregnant women the homier birthing atmosphere that many desire. But the hospital industry and the nation’s leading obstetricians’…

En 2020 y 2023, el gobierno federal cambió su postura sobre quiénes podían donar órganos y sangre de manera segura, reduciendo las restricciones para hombres que tienen sexo con hombres. Pero las limitaciones que impone la Administración de Drogas y Alimentos (FDA) sobre la donación de tejidos, un término general…

The federal government in 2020 and 2023 changed who it said could safely donate organs and blood, reducing the restrictions on men who have had sex with another man. But the FDA’s restrictions on donated tissue, a catchall term encompassing everything from a person’s eyes to their skin and ligaments,…

Renuka Rayasam For the past year and a half, Tandra Cooper Harris and her husband, Marcus, who both have diabetes, have struggled to fill their prescriptions for the medications they need to control their blood sugar. Without Ozempic or a similar drug, Cooper Harris suffers blackouts, becomes too tired to…

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles County has launched one of the most ambitious efforts in the nation to tackle medical debt, targeting hospitals for their role in feeding a $2.9 billion problem. For over a year, the nation’s most populous county has worked on a comprehensive plan to track patient…

Measles is on the rise in the United States. In the first quarter of this year, the number of cases was about 17 times what it was, on average, during the same period in each of the four years before, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Half…

GRASS VALLEY, Calif. — Here in the rugged foothills of California’s Sierra Nevada, the streets aren’t littered with needles and dealers aren’t hustling drugs on the corner. But meth is almost as easy to come by as a hazy IPA or locally grown weed. Quinn Coburn knows the lifestyle well.…

Durante el último año y medio, Tandra Cooper Harris y su esposo, Marcus, ambos viven con diabetes, han luchado para volver a llenar sus recetas de los medicamentos que necesitan para controlar su azúcar en sangre. Sin Ozempic o un medicamento similar, Cooper Harris sufre desmayos, se cansa demasiado para…

May 21, 2024 Article HTML On KFF Health News’ “What the Health?,” chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner sat down with Atul Grover of the Association of American Medical Colleges to talk about its recent analysis showing that graduating medical students are avoiding training in states with abortion bans and major…

Angela Hart When a doctor in Pasadena, California, reported in October that a hospital patient was exhibiting classic symptoms of dengue fever, such as vomiting, a rash, and bone and joint pain, local disease investigators snapped into action. The mosquito-borne virus is common in places like Southeast Asia, East Africa,…

About a year into the process of redetermining Medicaid eligibility after the covid-19 public health emergency, more than 20 million people have been kicked off the joint federal-state program for low-income families. A chorus of stories recount the ways the unwinding has upended people’s lives, but Native Americans are proving…

TURLOCK, Calif. — For much of his young life, Jorge Sanchez regularly gasped for air, at times coughing so violently that he’d almost throw up. His mother whisked him to the emergency room late at night and slept with him to make sure he didn’t stop breathing. “He’s had these…

For help, call or text the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline at 1-833-TLC-MAMA (1-833-852-6262) or contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by dialing or texting “988.” Spanish-language services are also available. BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — Milagros Aquino was trying to find a new place to live and had been struggling…

For many patients, seeing a nurse practitioner has become a routine part of primary care, in which these “NPs” often perform the same tasks that patients have relied on doctors for. But NPs in specialty care? That’s not routine, at least not yet. Increasingly, though, nurse practitioners and physician assistants…

The Host Public health officials are watching with concern since a strain of bird flu spread to dairy cows in at least nine states, and to at least one dairy worker. But in the wake of covid-19, many farmers are loath to let in health authorities for testing. Meanwhile, another…

Noam N. Levey ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Jolynn Mungenast spends her days looking for ways to help people pay their hospital bills. Working out of a warehouse-like building in a scruffy corner of this former industrial town, Mungenast gently walks patients through health insurance options, financial aid, and payment plans. Most…

By Dan Weissmann May 15, 2024 Article HTML Dan Weissmann Facility fees are charges tacked on for visiting a doctor’s office or even a telehealth visit. They’re becoming increasingly common and they can add hundreds of dollars to your bill. “An Arm and a Leg” host Dan Weissmann wants to…

Brett Kelman and Anna Werner, CBS News The FDA never inspected Johns Dental Laboratories during more than a decade in which it made the Anterior Growth Guidance Appliance, or “AGGA,” a dental device that has allegedly harmed patients and is now the subject of a criminal investigation. According to FDA…

Ash Panakam is about to graduate from Harvard Medical School. She’s from Georgia and always assumed she would return to the South for her residency. But the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision overturning the nationwide right to abortion changed everything. “Ultimately I shifted my selection pretty drastically,” she said. “I was…

Julie Rovner, KFF Health News and Rachana Pradhan Isabella Rosario Blum was wrapping up medical school and considering residency programs to become a family practice physician when she got some frank advice: If she wanted to be trained to provide abortions, she shouldn’t stay in Arizona. Blum turned to programs…

The Host A new analysis finds that graduating medical students were less likely to apply this year for residency training in states that ban or restrict abortion. That was true not only for aspiring OB-GYNs and others who regularly treat pregnant patients, but for all specialties. Meanwhile, another study has…

When doctors began using the drug sotorasib in 2021 with high expectations for its innovative approach to attacking lung cancer, retired medical technician Don Crosslin was an early beneficiary. Crosslin started the drug that July. His tumors shrank, then stabilized. But while the drug has helped keep him alive, its…

The Biden administration’s plan to set minimum staffing levels for nursing homes prompted comments from more than 46,500 people and organizations — including residents of homes and nurses with harrowing stories about conditions inside. One resident purchased a bullhorn with a siren to get nurses’ and aides’ attention because he…

President Joe Biden counts among his accomplishments the record-high number of people, more than 21 million, who enrolled in Obamacare plans this year. Behind the scenes, however, federal regulators are contending with a problem that affects people’s coverage: rogue brokers who have signed people up for Affordable Care Act plans,…

In his 2015 State of the Union address, President Barack Obama announced a precision medicine initiative that would later be known as the All of Us program. The research, now well underway at the National Institutes of Health, aims to analyze the DNA of at least 1 million people across the United States to build a diverse health database. The key…

SACRAMENTO, California – Las familias de personas con discapacidades intelectuales y del desarrollo dicen que el gobernador Gavin Newsom no está cumpliendo con un aumento programado para los trabajadores que cuidan de sus seres queridos. Sus defensores advierten sobre posibles demandas contra el estado si los servicios para estas personas…

Los titulares explotaron después que el Departamento de Agricultura confirmara que el virus de la gripe aviar H5N1 ha infectado a vacas lecheras en todo el país. Las pruebas han detectado el virus en el ganado en nueve estados, principalmente en Texas y Nuevo México, y más recientemente en Colorado,…

Darius Tahir Since becoming a father a few months ago, I’ve been nursing a grudge against something tiny, seemingly inconsequential, and often discarded: instructional manuals. Parenthood requires a lot of gadgetry to maintain a kid’s health and welfare. Those gadgets require puzzling over booklets, decoding inscrutable pictographs, and wondering whether…

Headlines are flying after the Department of Agriculture confirmed that the H5N1 bird flu virus has infected dairy cows around the country. Tests have detected the virus among cattle in nine states, mainly in Texas and New Mexico, and most recently in Colorado, said Nirav Shah, principal deputy director at…

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Families of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities say Gov. Gavin Newsom is reneging on a scheduled raise for the workers who care for their loved ones, and advocates warn of potential lawsuits if disability services become harder to get. Citing California’s budget deficit, the Democratic governor…

Una mañana de enero de 2021, Carol Rosen recibió un tratamiento estándar para el cáncer de mama metastásico. Murió después de tres semanas de sufrimiento, con un dolor insoportable causado por la misma droga que debería haber ayudado a prolongar su vida. Rosen, maestra jubilada de 70 años, pasó sus…

Dan Weissmann When Change Healthcare, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, got hit by a cyberattack this winter, a big chunk of the nation’s doctors, pharmacists, hospitals, and therapists stopped getting paid. The hack also limited health providers’ ability to share medical records and other information critical to patient care. The…

Phil Galewitz, KFF Health News Private Medicaid health plans lost millions of members in the past year as pandemic protections that prohibited states from dropping anyone from the government program expired. But despite Medicaid’s unwinding, as it’s known, at least two of the five largest publicly traded companies selling plans…

The Host Julie Rovner KFF Health News @jrovner Read Julie’s stories. Julie Rovner is chief Washington correspondent and host of KFF Health News’ weekly health policy news podcast, “What the Health?” A noted expert on health policy issues, Julie is the author of the critically praised reference book “Health Care…

CHARLESTON, S.C. — When he recently walked into the dental clinic at the Medical University of South Carolina donning a bright-blue pullover with “In Our DNA SC” embroidered prominently on the front, Lee Moultrie said, two Black women stopped him to ask questions. “It’s a walking billboard,” said Moultrie, a…

New technologies are making it easier for companies to fix prices and discriminate against individual consumers, the Biden administration’s top consumer watchdog said Tuesday. Algorithms make it possible for companies to fix prices without explicitly coordinating with one another, posing a new test for regulators policing the market, said Lina…

The Biden administration finalized nursing home staffing rules Monday that will require thousands of them to hire more nurses and aides — while giving them years to do so. The new rules from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services are the most substantial changes to federal oversight of the…

For the past year, police Detective Tim Lillard has spent most of his waking hours unofficially investigating his wife’s death. The question has never been exactly how Ann Picha-Lillard died on Nov. 19, 2022: She succumbed to respiratory failure after an infection put too much strain on her weakened lungs.…

Bernard J. Wolfson SAN FRANCISCO — Chinese Hospital, located in the heart of this city’s legendary Chinatown, struggles with many of the same financial and demographic challenges that plague small independent hospitals in underserved areas across the country. Many of its patients are aging Chinese speakers with limited incomes who…

Two months after a cyberattack on a UnitedHealth Group subsidiary halted payments to some doctors, medical providers say they’re still grappling with the fallout, even though UnitedHealth told shareholders on Tuesday that business is largely back to normal. “We are still desperately struggling,” said Emily Benson, a therapist in Edina,…

Carrie Lester looks forward to the phone call every Thursday from her doctors’ medical assistant, who asks how she’s doing and if she needs prescription refills. The assistant counsels her on dealing with anxiety and her other health issues. Lester credits the chats for keeping her out of the hospital…

The Host Mary Agnes Carey KFF Health News @maryagnescarey Read Mary Agnes’ stories. Lawmakers in Washington this week held the first congressional hearing on the Change Healthcare cyberattack, a breach that sent shock waves through the health care system as payments for care ground to a halt and left some…

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Nearly a half-million health workers who stand to benefit from California’s nation-leading $25 minimum wage law could be in for a rude awakening if hospitals and other health care providers follow through on potential cuts to hours and benefits. A medical industry challenge to a new minimum…

A pair of heart devices linked to hundreds of injuries and at least 14 deaths has received the FDA’s most serious recall, the agency announced Monday. The recall comes years after surgeons say they first noticed problems with the HeartMate II and HeartMate 3, manufactured by Thoratec Corp., a subsidiary…

More than $4.3 billion in opioid settlement money has landed in the hands of city, county and state officials to date — with billions more on the way. But instead of using the cash to add desperately needed treatment, recovery and prevention services, some places are using it to replace…

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Sixth-grade boys were lining up to be measured in the Mann Arts and Science Magnet Middle School library. As they took off their shoes and emptied their pockets, they joked about being the tallest. “It’s an advantage,” said one. “You can play basketball,” said another. “A…

MODESTO, Calif. — When American Advanced Management made a bid for the bankrupt Madera Community Hospital last year, many local officials and others involved in trying to reopen the facility didn’t take the company seriously. The 11-year-old firm, based in Modesto, was already running a handful of small, rural hospitals,…

Nearly two hours into a Capitol Hill hearing focused on rural health, Rep. Brad Wenstrup emphatically told the committee’s five witnesses: “Hang with us.” Federal lawmakers face a year-end deadline to solidify or scuttle an array of covid-era payment changes for telehealth services that include allowing people to stay in…

Dan Weissmann Covering the American health care system means we tell some scary stories. This episode of “An Arm and a Leg” sounds like a real horror movie.  It uses one of Hollywood’s favorite tropes: machines taking over. And the machines belong to the private health insurance company UnitedHealth Group. …

Until last week, the system that is used to enroll people in federal Affordable Care Act insurance plans inadvertently allowed access by insurance brokers to consumers’ full Social Security numbers, information brokers don’t need. That raised concerns about the potential for misuse. The access to policyholders’ personal information was one…

When the FDA recently convened a committee of advisers to assess a cardiac device made by Abbott, the agency didn’t disclose that most of them had received payments from the company or conducted research it had funded — information readily available in a federal database. One member of the FDA…

Nonprofit hospitals created largely to serve the poor are adding concierge physician practices, charging patients annual membership fees of $2,000 or more for easier access to their doctors. It’s a trend that began decades ago with physician practices. Thousands of doctors have shifted to the concierge model, in which they…

Michelle Andrews Companies have increasingly offered generous fertility benefits to attract and keep top-notch workers. Now, the federal government is getting in on the act. Starting this year, federal employees can choose plans that cover several fertility services, including up to $25,000 annually for in vitro fertilization procedures and up…

A TMJ patient in Maine had six surgeries to replace part or all of the joints of her jaw. Another woman in California, desperate for relief, used a screwdriver to lengthen her jawbone daily, turning screws that protruded from her neck. A third in New York had bone from her…

Rae Ellen Bichell and Lindsey Toomer, Colorado Newsline DENVER — In February, Norma Brambila’s teenage daughter wrote her a letter she now carries in her purse. It is a drawing of a rose, and a note encouraging Brambila to “keep fighting” her sickness and reminding her she’d someday join her…

DENVER, Colorado. — En febrero, la hija adolescente de Norma Brambila le escribió una carta que ahora lleva en su cartera. Es un dibujo de una rosa y una nota alentadora que anima a su mamá a “seguir luchando” contra su enfermedad, y que le recuerda que algún día se…

GRINNELL, Iowa — A for-profit company has proposed turning a boarded-up former nursing home here into a psychiatric hospital, joining a national trend toward having such hospitals owned by investors instead of by state governments or nonprofit health systems. The companies see a business opportunity in the shortage of inpatient…

Julie Appleby, KFF Health News Some consumers covered by Affordable Care Act insurance plans are being switched from one plan to another without their express permission, potentially leaving them unable to see their doctors or fill prescriptions. Some face large IRS bills for back taxes. Share Your Story Do you…

By Julie Appleby and Hannah Norman and Oona Tempest April 1, 2024 Article HTML Julie Appleby, KFF Health News and Hannah Norman, KFF Health News and Oona Tempest How patients are seeing their doctor is changing, and that could shape access to and quality of care for decades to come.…

En enero, Susanne Gilliam, de 67 años, estaba yendo a recoger el correo afuera de su casa cuando se cayó al resbalar sobre una capa de hielo negro. Sintió una punzada de dolor en la rodilla y el tobillo de la pierna izquierda. Después de llamar a su marido por…

Susanne Gilliam, 67, was walking down her driveway to get the mail in January when she slipped and fell on a patch of black ice. Pain shot through her left knee and ankle. After summoning her husband on her phone, with difficulty she made it back to the house. And…

Hannah Norman, KFF Health News Christian Espinoza, director of a Southern California drug-treatment provider, recently began employing a powerful new assistant: an artificial intelligence algorithm that can perform eye exams with pictures taken by a retinal camera. It makes quick diagnoses, without a doctor present. His clinics, Tarzana Treatment Centers,…

The Federal Trade Commission has long argued that competition makes the economy better. But some states have stopped the agency from blocking hospital mergers that create local or regional monopolies, and the results have been messy. Two dozen states have at some point passed controversial legislation waiving anti-monopoly laws, allowing rival hospitals…

Jason George began noticing in September that Medicaid payments had stalled for some of his assisted living facility residents, people who need help with daily living. Guardian Group Montana, which owns three small facilities in rural Montana, relies on the government health insurance to cover its care of low-income residents.…

Christian Espinoza, director de operaciones de una red de clínicas de tratamiento del sur de California, comenzó recientemente a emplear un nuevo asistente poderoso: un algoritmo de inteligencia artificial (IA) que puede realizar exámenes de la vista con imágenes tomadas por una cámara retinal. Realiza diagnósticos rápidos, sin la presencia…

One January morning in 2021, Carol Rosen took a standard treatment for metastatic breast cancer. Three gruesome weeks later, she died in excruciating pain from the very drug meant to prolong her life. Rosen, a 70-year-old retired schoolteacher, passed her final days in anguish, enduring severe diarrhea and nausea and…

As the federal government negotiates with drugmakers to lower the price of 10 expensive drugs for Medicare patients, impatient legislators in some states are trying to go even further. Leading the pack is Colorado, where a new Prescription Drug Affordability Review Board is set to recommend an “upper payment limit” for drugs…

Brett Kelman and Samantha Liss In the small Appalachian city of Bristol, Virginia, City Council member Neal Osborne left a meeting on the morning of Jan. 3 and rushed himself to the hospital. Osborne, 36, has Type 1 diabetes. His insulin pump had malfunctioned, and without a steady supply of…

The new chief of the Social Security Administration outlined for senators Wednesday a plan to tackle overpayments and clawbacks, which affect millions of beneficiaries and, he said, have caused “grave injustices” and left people “in dire financial straits.” As a joint investigation by KFF Health News and Cox Media Group…

The Host Julie Rovner KFF Health News @jrovner Read Julie’s stories. Julie Rovner is chief Washington correspondent and host of KFF Health News’ weekly health policy news podcast, “What the Health?” A noted expert on health policy issues, Julie is the author of the critically praised reference book “Health Care…

Amy Sherman, PolitiFact We cut the federal deficit by $160 billion because Medicare will no longer have to pay those exorbitant prices to Big Pharma. President Joe Biden in his State of the Union address, March 7, 2024 President Joe Biden has been making his case for reelection to voters…

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s plan for a conservative alternative to Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion has cost taxpayers at least $26 million so far, with more than 90% going toward administrative and consulting costs rather than medical care for low-income people. Kemp’s Georgia Pathways to Coverage offers government health insurance to people…

Almost all new parents go through it: the distress of hearing their child scream at the doctor’s office. They endure the emotional torture of having to hold their child down as the clinician sticks them with one vaccine after another. “The first shots he got, I probably cried more than…

The Biden administration has hit on a strategy to deal with the massive, industry-paralyzing cyberattack on a UnitedHealth Group unit: pressuring insurers to fix it. Federal officials have been in constant conversation with senior leaders at UnitedHealth and across the industry, including at a Monday meeting where Department of Health…

Sarah Feldman, de 35 años, recibió las primeras cartas amenazantes del Centro Médico Mount Sinai en noviembre pasado. El sistema hospitalario de Nueva York le advirtió que tenía problemas para negociar un acuerdo de precios con UnitedHealthcare, que incluye los planes de salud de Oxford, la aseguradora de Feldman. “Estamos…

Gayle Borne ha cuidado a más de 300 niños en Springfield, Tennessee. Niños que rara vez han visto a un médico y que han sido tan descuidados que ni siquiera pueden hablar. Una ley que este estado aprobó en 2023 —que requiere el consentimiento de los padres biológicos o tutores…

Sarah Feldman, 35, received the first ominous letters from Mount Sinai Medical last November. The New York hospital system warned it was having trouble negotiating a pricing agreement with UnitedHealthcare, which includes Oxford Health Plans, Feldman’s insurer. “We are working in good faith with Oxford to reach a new fair…

In early 2019, Jennifer Hepworth and her husband were stunned by a large bill they unexpectedly received for their daughter’s prescription cystic fibrosis medication. Their payment had risen to $3,500 from the usual $30 for a month’s supply. That must be a mistake, she told the pharmacy. But it wasn’t.…

The Host The general election campaign for president is (unofficially) on, as President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have each apparently secured enough delegates to become his respective party’s nominee. And health care is turning out to be an unexpectedly front-and-center campaign issue, as Trump in recent weeks…

En diciembre se lanzó al mercado zuranolona, un tratamiento muy esperado para la depresión postparto, con la promesa de que iba a ser un medicamento accesible y de acción rápida para una enfermedad debilitante. Pero la mayoría de los seguros de salud privados aún no han determinado cómo, y si,…

The Social Security Administration’s new chief is promising to overhaul the agency’s system of clawing back billions of dollars it claims was wrongly sent to beneficiaries, saying it “just doesn’t seem right or fair.” In an interview with KFF Health News, SSA Commissioner Martin O’Malley said that in the coming…

Shelly Olson’s mother, who has dementia, has lived at the Scandia Village nursing home in rural Sister Bay, Wisconsin, for almost five years. At first, Olson said, her mother received great care at the facility, then owned by a not-for-profit organization, the Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society. Then in 2019,…

Gayle Borne has fostered more than 300 children in Springfield, Tennessee. She’s cared for kids who have rarely seen a doctor — kids so neglected that they cannot speak. Such children are now even more vulnerable because of a law Tennessee passed last year that requires the direct consent of…

April Dembosky, KQED A much-awaited treatment for postpartum depression, zuranolone, hit the market in December, promising an accessible and fast-acting medication for a debilitating illness. But most private health insurers have yet to publish criteria for when they will cover it, according to a new analysis of insurance policies. The…

Colorado hopes to join Florida to become only the second state authorized to import prescription drugs from Canada. But they’re hitting the same hurdles: drugmakers — and the FDA. Colorado officials recently amended their 2022 importation application with the Food and Drug Administration, in the process revealing new correspondence that…

David Hilzenrath Top U.S. officials in the Washington area have received preferential treatment from a little-known health care program run by the military, potentially jeopardizing care for other patients including active-duty service members, according to Pentagon investigators. Share Your Executive Medicine Story Do you have experience with the federal executive…

Proveedores de salud y expertos en adicciones advierten que una iniciativa en California, que ayuda a pacientes con trastorno por consumo de sustancias a iniciar tratamientos de largo plazo luego de recibir el alta de salas de emergencias, tiene una estructura de financiamiento inestable, por lo que algunos empleados críticos…

Margaret Parsons, one of three dermatologists at a 20-person practice in Sacramento, California, is in a bind. Since a Feb. 21 cyberattack on a previously obscure medical payment processing company, Change Healthcare, Parsons said, she and her colleagues haven’t been able to electronically bill for their services. She heard Noridian…

In a little more than two years as CEO of a small hospital in Wyoming, Dave Ryerse has witnessed firsthand the worsening financial problems eroding rural hospitals nationwide. In 2022, Ryerse’s South Lincoln Medical Center was forced to shutter its operating room because it didn’t have the staff to run…

Aneri Pattani MOBILE, Ala. — In this Gulf Coast city, addiction medicine doctor Stephen Loyd announced at a January event what he called “a game-changer” for state and local governments spending billions of dollars in opioid settlement funds. The money, which comes from companies accused of aggressively marketing and distributing…

Many states that tout themselves as protectors of reproductive health care, including California, Michigan and Pennsylvania, have little-noticed laws on the books protecting hospitals that refuse to provide it. The laws shield at least some hospitals from liability for not providing care they object to on religious grounds, leaving little recourse for patients. The…

A Maryland firm that oversees the nation’s largest independent network of primary care medical practices is facing a whistleblower lawsuit alleging it cheated Medicare out of millions of dollars using billing software “rigged” to make patients appear sicker than they were. The civil suit alleges that Aledade Inc.’s billing apps…

California’s efforts to expand access to abortion care are enabling more types of medical practitioners to perform certain abortion procedures — potentially a boon for patients in rural areas especially, but a source of concern for doctors’ groups that have long fought efforts to expand the role of non-physicians. The…

When President Barack Obama signed legislation in 2010 to create the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, he said the new agency had one priority: “looking out for people, not big banks, not lenders, not investment houses.” Since then, the CFPB has done its share of policing mortgage brokers, student loan companies,…

Vanessa G. Sánchez Health providers and addiction experts warn the funding structure is unstable for a California initiative that steers patients with substance use disorder into long-term treatment after they are discharged from emergency rooms, which has already led some critical employees to leave their jobs. Supporters of CA Bridge’s…

Darius Tahir Early in the morning of Feb. 21, Change Healthcare, a company unknown to most Americans that plays a huge role in the U.S. health system, issued a brief statement saying some of its applications were “currently unavailable.” By the afternoon, the company described the situation as a “cyber…

Over the past two years, Madeline Beal has heard frustration and even bewilderment during public meetings about ethylene oxide, a cancer-causing gas that is used to sterilize half of the medical devices in the U.S. Beal, senior risk communication adviser for the Environmental Protection Agency, has fielded questions about why…

Debra Prichard was a retired factory worker who was careful with her money, including what she spent on medical care, said her daughter, Alicia Wieberg. “She was the kind of person who didn’t go to the doctor for anything.” That ended last year, when the rural Tennessee resident suffered a…

Mary Delgado’s first pregnancy went according to plan, but when she tried to get pregnant again seven years later, nothing happened. After 10 months, Delgado, now 34, and her partner, Joaquin Rodriguez, went to see an OB-GYN. Tests showed she had endometriosis, which was interfering with conception. Delgado’s only option,…

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California voters will decide March 5 whether to pump billions more dollars into combating the nation’s worst homelessness crisis, an investment Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom argues will finally provide the housing and treatment so badly needed by tens of thousands of homeless people. Newsom is spearheading Proposition…

Lauren Sausser Warning: Some readers may find graphic details in this article to be offensive or disturbing. CAMDEN, S.C. — Three ongoing federal lawsuits filed in South Carolina accuse the state of forcing boys and girls to undergo traumatic genital exams during child abuse investigations, even when no allegations of…

States are redefining when medical professionals can get mental health treatment without risking notifying the boards that regulate their licenses. Too often, health care workers wait to seek counseling or addiction treatment, causing their work and patient care to suffer, said Jean Branscum, CEO of the Montana Medical Association, an…

The Host The Alabama Supreme Court’s groundbreaking ruling last week that frozen embryos have legal rights as people has touched off a national debate about the potential fallout of the “personhood” movement. Already the University of Alabama-Birmingham has paused its in vitro fertilization program while it determines the ongoing legality…

The United States is knee-deep in what some experts call the opioid epidemic’s “fourth wave,” which is not only placing drug users at greater risk but is also complicating efforts to address the nation’s drug problem. These waves, according to a report out today from Millennium Health, began with the…

Rachana Pradhan and Hannah Recht Nurse midwife Beverly Maldonado recalls a pregnant woman arriving at Ascension Saint Agnes Hospital in Maryland after her water broke. It was weeks before the baby would have any chance of survival, and the patient’s wishes were clear, she recalled: “Why am I staying pregnant…

Last year alone, David Mitchell paid $16,525 for 12 little bottles of Pomalyst, one of the pricey medications that treat his multiple myeloma, a blood cancer he was diagnosed with in 2010. The drugs have kept his cancer at bay. But their rapidly increasing costs so infuriated Mitchell that he…

Daniel Chang and Andy Miller As a part-time customer service representative, Jolene Dybas earns less than $15,000 a year, which is below the federal poverty level and too low for her to be eligible for subsidized health insurance on the Obamacare marketplace. Dybas, 53, also does not qualify for Medicaid…

Anthony Stumbo’s heart sank after the doctor shared his mother’s chest X-ray. “I remember that drive home, bringing her back home, and we basically cried,” said the internal medicine physician, who had started practicing in eastern Kentucky near his childhood home shortly before his mother began feeling ill. “Nobody wants…

Céline Gounder, KFF Health News’ editor-at-large for public health, appeared Feb. 14 on “CBS Mornings” to discuss why the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may be weighing a change in its current isolation guidelines for people with covid-19, and how to protect others if they continue to test positive. …

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Drug overdose deaths in California state prisons rebounded to near record levels last year even as corrections officials touted the state’s intervention methods as a model for prisons and jails across the United States. At least 59 prisoners died of overdoses last year, according to a KFF…

Nothing melts our hearts like a health policy valentine. Readers made us swoon this season, writing poetic lines about prescription drug pricing, medical debt, primary care shortages, and more.  Here are some of our favorites, starting with the grand prize winner and first runner-up, whose entries were each turned into…

In the battle to control health care costs, hospitals are deploying their political power to protect their bottom lines. The point of contention: For decades, Medicare has paid hospitals — including hospital-owned physician practices that may not be physically located in a hospital building — about double the rates it…

GoFundMe started as a crowdfunding site for underwriting “ideas and dreams,” and, as GoFundMe’s co-founders, Andrew Ballester and Brad Damphousse, once put it, “for life’s important moments.” In the early years, it funded honeymoon trips, graduation gifts, and church missions to overseas hospitals in need. Now GoFundMe has become a…

Estados están invirtiendo miles de millones de dólares en un experimento de atención médica de alto riesgo: utilizar fondos ya escasos de seguros de salud públicos para proporcionar vivienda a los estadounidenses más pobres y enfermos. California está liderando esta tendencia, destinando gran parte de un presupuesto de $12 mil…

The Senate Finance Committee contemplated the future yesterday: artificial intelligence and its potential applications to health care. And it turns out the future looks an awful lot like the past and present: Democrats want regulations. And the industry wants money. “There are a lot of reasons to be optimistic,” Finance…

Vignesh Ramachandran If you or someone you know may be experiencing a mental health crisis, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by dialing or texting “988.” Spanish-language services are also available. Colorado lawmakers have proposed a pair of measures they say will improve the availability of mental health resources…

Ronnie Cohen In April, a dozen years after a federal agency classified formaldehyde a human carcinogen, the Food and Drug Administration is tentatively scheduled to unveil a proposal to consider banning the chemical in hair-straightening products. The move comes at a time of rising alarm among researchers over the health…

Phil Galewitz, KFF Health News Halfway through what will be the biggest purge of Medicaid beneficiaries in a one-year span, enrollment in the government-run health insurance program is on track to return to roughly pre-pandemic levels. Medicaid, which covers low-income and disabled people, and the related Children’s Health Insurance Program…

Legisladores de Colorado han propuesto un par de medidas que, dicen, mejorarán el acceso a recursos de salud mental para la industria agrícola del estado, donde el estrés, la ansiedad y la depresión entre trabajadores en ranchos y granjas han surgido como problemas críticos, agravados desde la pandemia. Los proyectos…

States are plowing billions of dollars into a high-stakes health care experiment that’s exploding around the country: using scarce public health insurance money to provide housing for the poorest and sickest Americans. California is going the biggest, pumping $12 billion into an ambitious Medicaid initiative largely to help homeless patients…

We’re halfway through the Medicaid “unwinding,” in which states are dropping people from the government health insurance program for the first time since the pandemic began. Millions of people have been dumped from the rolls since April, often for procedural issues like failing to respond to notices or return paperwork.…

Katheryn Houghton “IT’S BEEN REVEALED THAT FAUCI BROUGHT COVID TO THE MONTANA ONE YEAR BEFORE COVID BROKE OUT IN THE U.S!” An ad from the Matt Rosendale for Montana campaign A fundraising ad for U.S. Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.) shows a photo of Anthony Fauci, former director of the National…

Katheryn Houghton The head of the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services said the agency has nearly cleared its backlog of incomplete contracts that risked people’s access to health services. Even so, some organizations say the state still owes them tens of thousands of dollars for services already…

Federal policymakers have been trying for a long time to lure more primary care providers to understaffed areas. The Biden administration boosted funding in 2022 to address shortages and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) pushed sweeping primary care legislation in 2023. But when KFF Health News set out last year to map where the primary care workforce shortages…

The Federal Trade Commission has challenged the validity of over 100 drug product patents, focusing on devices used to deliver medicines, like inhalers and autoinjectors, in an effort to increase competition and potentially lower some prices. The FTC says drugmakers illegitimately use the patents to prevent competitors from offering cheaper…

In late 2022, Sarah Gutilla’s treatment-resistant depression had grown so severe, she was actively contemplating suicide. Raised in foster care, the 34-year-old’s childhood was marked by physical violence, sexual abuse, and drug use, leaving her with life-threatening mental scars. Out of desperation, her husband scraped together $600 for the first…

Dan Weissmann Navigating the U.S. health care system can feel like a “battle royale.” From challenging unfair medical bills to wrestling with insurance companies over pre-authorizations, patients have to be ready to stick up for themselves.  So, how can you stay cool and confident in these fights? In this rebroadcast…

What do herring fishing and health policy have in common? Quite a bit, it turns out, owing to a case now before the Supreme Court. If the justices rule as expected, based on this month’s oral arguments, they could dramatically change the way federal health agencies operate. “The upheaval caused…

Letters to the Editor is a periodic feature. We welcome all comments and will publish a selection. We edit for length and clarity and require full names. In response to Sarah Jane Tribble’s report about growing enrollment in Medicare Advantage plans — and the growing concerns — a senior policy adviser at the…

Ian Hodgson, Tampa Bay Times and Christopher O’Donnell, Tampa Bay Times An executive at Teva Pharmaceuticals flagged Publix Super Markets in October 2015 after detecting what he called in an email “serious red flags” with the grocery chain’s orders of powerful opioids. The share of high-strength oxycodone orders was well…

If you or someone you know may be experiencing a mental health crisis, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by dialing or texting “988.” To reach the Native and Strong Lifeline, call “988” and press 4. Amanda MorningStar has watched her children struggle with mental health issues, including suicidal…

Chantal Panozzo and her husband followed their primary care doctors’ orders last year after they both turned 45, now the recommended age to start screening for colorectal cancer. They scheduled their first routine colonoscopies a few months apart. Panozzo said she was excited to get a colonoscopy, of all things,…

Elisabeth Rosenthal When Kristy Uddin, 49, went in for her annual mammogram in Washington state last year, she assumed she would not incur a bill because the test is one of the many preventive measures guaranteed to be free to patients under the 2010 Affordable Care Act. The ACA’s provision…

A U.S. Senate committee on Thursday launched an examination of assisted living, holding its first hearing in two decades on the industry as leaders of both parties expressed concern about the high cost and mixed quality of the long-term care facilities. The federal government has minimal oversight of assisted living,…

It’s daggers out at the Federal Trade Commission in its fight against anticompetitive practices in health care. This past year, it has issued more stringent guidelines to block and discourage hospital mergers, and it investigated practices by middlemen in the drug supply chain. Now drug manufacturers themselves are in the agency’s crosshairs. In November, the FTC…

LOS ANGELES ― Carla Brown waits on an air mattress, eager for her occupational therapist to arrive at her apartment next to the Hollywood Freeway, mere blocks from where she once camped on the sidewalk. She moved into the one-bedroom apartment on the second floor of PATH Villas Hollywood, a…

In the year and a half since its launch, 988 — the country’s easy-to-remember, three-digit suicide and crisis hotline — has received about 8.1 million calls, texts, and chats. While much attention has been focused on who is reaching out and whether the shortened number has accomplished its goal of…

By Sarah Jane Tribble January 22, 2024 Article HTML Sarah Jane Tribble, KFF Health News As enrollment in private Medicare Advantage plans grows, so do concerns about how well the coverage works, including from people who say they are stuck in the private plans as their health declines. KFF Health…

Some members of Congress are demanding federal oversight of billions of dollars in opioid settlements, which state and local governments began spending over the past two years — with some using it to plug budget holes rather than fight the addiction crisis. This month, Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) and Rep.…

SAN FRANCISCO — Every year, thousands of bankers, venture capitalists, private equity investors, and other moneybags flock to San Francisco’s Union Square to pursue deals. Scores of security guards keep the homeless, the snoops, and the patent-stealers at bay, while the dealmakers pack into the cramped Westin St. Francis hotel…

Mitchell Black and Noam N. Levey McALESTER, Okla. — It took little more than an hour for Deborah Hackler to dispense with the tall stack of debt collection lawsuits that McAlester Regional Medical Center recently brought to small-claims court in this Oklahoma farm community. Hackler, a lawyer who sues patients…

Charity Watkins sensed something was deeply wrong when she experienced exhaustion after her daughter was born. At times, Watkins, then 30, had to stop on the stairway to catch her breath. Her obstetrician said postpartum depression likely caused the weakness and fatigue. When Watkins, who is Black, complained of a…

Cuando fui a hacerme mi mamografía anual en noviembre, el asistente del centro radiológico en Manhattan me hizo una pregunta inesperada: ¿querría pagar $40 para que un programa de inteligencia artificial (IA) la analizara? “El seguro no lo cubre”, aclaró. No tenía idea de cómo evaluar la propuesta. Sentí que…

The number of older adults with disabilities — difficulty with walking, seeing, hearing, memory, cognition, or performing daily tasks such as bathing or using the bathroom — will soar in the decades ahead, as baby boomers enter their 70s, 80s, and 90s. But the health care system isn’t ready to…

KEOKUK, Iowa — Folks in this Mississippi River town hope a new federal program can revive the optimism engraved long ago in a plaque on the side of their hospital. “Dedicated to the Future of Health Care in the Tri-State Area,” the sign declares. “May 11, 1981.” More recent placards…

Montana health organizations say a state government backlog in paying its contractors has hindered their ability to provide care, and they worry the bottleneck’s ripple effects will be felt long after the money comes through. Several organizations waiting for contracts to be approved and funding to arrive said that more…

Don Thompson SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Gavin Newsom is revisiting California’s phase-in of a nation-leading $25 minimum wage for health workers in the face of a projected $38 billion deficit, less than three months after he approved the measure. But renegotiating wages could threaten a delicate compromise between unions and…

Kevin Stansbury, the CEO of Lincoln Community Hospital in the 800-person town of Hugo, Colorado, is facing a classic Catch-22: He could boost his rural hospital’s revenues by offering hip replacements and shoulder surgeries, but the 64-year-old hospital needs more money to be able to expand its operating room to…

Kevin Stansbury, CEO del Lincoln Community Hospital de Hugo, un pueblo de 800 habitantes en Colorado, se enfrenta a un clásico dilema: podría aumentar los ingresos de su hospital rural ofreciendo prótesis de cadera y operaciones de hombro, pero el centro de salud, con 64 años de antigüedad, necesita más…

The Food and Drug Administration’s unprecedented approval of Florida’s plan to import drugs from Canada was made possible only after Alex Azar, as the Trump administration’s Health and Human Services secretary, certified that bringing medicines over the border could be done safely. Azar made the historic declaration in September 2020,…

Washington’s infamous revolving door took an unusual turn for former Health and Human Services secretary Alex Azar. Azar spent about a decade with pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Co. before coming to the nation’s capital to lead HHS in the Trump administration. But in September 2020, just a couple of…

The Host As this election year begins in earnest, making it harder for Congress to pass bills, lawmakers on Capitol Hill are still struggling to fund the government for the fiscal year that began last October. And many health priorities hang in the balance. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is again…

Congress is back this week and feverishly working on a bipartisan agreement to fund the government for the rest of the 2024 fiscal year. Ahead of a potential vote, I spoke with Jesse Ehrenfeld, the president of the American Medical Association, the nation’s largest lobby group for doctors, about his…

Cecilia Nowell After Iowa lawmakers passed a ban on gender-affirming care for minors in March, managers of an LGBTQ+ health clinic located just across the state line in Moline, Illinois, decided to start offering that care. The added services would provide care to patients who live in largely rural eastern…

As I checked in at a Manhattan radiology clinic for my annual mammogram in November, the front desk staffer reviewing my paperwork asked an unexpected question: Would I like to spend $40 for an artificial intelligence analysis of my mammogram? It’s not covered by insurance, she added. I had no…

When Phyllisa Deroze was told she had diabetes in a Fayetteville, North Carolina, emergency department years ago, she was handed pamphlets with information on two types of the disease. One had pictures of children on it, she recalled, while the other had pictures of seniors. Deroze, a 31-year-old English professor…

The share of rural Americans who live in communities without a hospital grows each year. It’s part of an ongoing collapse in rural health care that has persisted for decades and isn’t improving, despite regulatory efforts to shore up small-hospital finances. Since 2010, about 150 rural hospitals have shuttered and…

When KFF Health News published an article in August about the “prior authorization hell” Sally Nix said she went through to secure approval from her insurance company for the expensive monthly infusions she needs, we thought her story had a happy ending. That’s because, after KFF Health News sent questions…

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Ariella Morrow, an internal medicine doctor, gradually slid from healthy self-esteem and professional success into the depths of depression. Beginning in 2015, she suffered a string of personal troubles, including a shattering family trauma, marital strife, and a major professional setback. At first, sheer grit and…

CAIRO, Ga. — Zita Magloire carefully adjusted a soft measuring tape across Kenadie Evans’ pregnant belly. Determining a baby’s size during a 28-week obstetrical visit is routine. But Magloire, a family physician trained in obstetrics, knows that finding the mother’s uterus and, thus, checking the baby, can be tricky for…

Dan Weissmann Some hospitals sue patients who can’t afford to pay their medical bills. Such lawsuits don’t tend to bring in much money for the hospital but can really harm patients already experiencing financial hardships. In this episode of “An Arm and a Leg,” Dan Weissmann goes toe-to-toe with Scott…

As pundits and politicos spar over whether Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign will factor into the outcome of the 2024 election, one thing is clear: Kennedy’s political following is built on a movement that seeks to legitimize conspiracy theories. His claims decrying vaccines have roiled scientists and medical experts…

Thank you for your interest in supporting Kaiser Health News (KHN), the nation’s leading nonprofit newsroom focused on health and health policy. We distribute our journalism for free and without advertising through media partners of all sizes and in communities large and small. We appreciate all forms of engagement from…

A Tennessee dentist who has been sued by multiple TMJ and sleep apnea patients over an unproven dental device he invented has said under oath that he never taught dentists to use the device for those ailments — contradicting video footage of him telling dentists how to use it. Steve…

Marine Corps veteran Ron Winters clearly recalls his doctor’s sobering assessment of his bladder cancer diagnosis in August 2022. “This is bad,” the 66-year-old Durant, Oklahoma, resident remembered his urologist saying. Winters braced for the fight of his life. Little did he anticipate, however, that he wouldn’t be waging war…

The Senate Finance Committee is ramping up oversight of Social Security’s overpayment problem and plans to meet with the agency every month “until it is fixed.” The Social Security Administration assured lawmakers in the past that it had been addressed, but “what you all found in your reporting is that…

(Oona Tempest/KFF Health News) Living with diabetes, Carlton “PeeWee” Gautney Jr. relied on a digital device about the size of a deck of playing cards to pump insulin into his bloodstream. The pump, manufactured by device maker Medtronic, connected plastic tubing to an insulin reservoir, which Gautney set to release…

Over the past year there’s been movement to rein in the three big PBMs, which face little regulation though they help set drug prices and drug choices for 80 percent of Americans and their doctors. The House voted Dec. 11, 320-71, for legislation that would require the PBMs to change…

SAN DIEGO — Erinn Maury knew Remicade wasn’t the right drug for Patti Schulte, a rheumatoid arthritis patient the physician saw at her Millersville, Maryland, practice. Schulte’s swollen, painful joints hadn’t responded to Enbrel or Humira, two drugs in the same class. But the insurer insisted, so Schulte went on…

In September 2022, Elyse Greenblatt of Queens returned home from a trip to Rwanda with a rather unwelcome-back gift: persistent congestion. She felt a pain in her sinuses and sought a quick resolution. Covid-19 couldn’t be ruled out, so rather than risk passing on an unknown infection to others in…

Too old and too sick for a heart transplant, Arvid Herrman was given a choice: Have a mechanical pump implanted in his heart, potentially keeping him alive for several years, or do nothing and almost certainly die within a year. The 68-year-old Wisconsin farmer chose the pump, called a HeartMate…

The head of the Social Security Administration has sent a letter of apology to members of Congress about testimony in which she understated the extent of the agency’s overpayments to beneficiaries. “I want to apologize for any confusion or misunderstanding during the October hearing,” acting Commissioner Kilolo Kijakazi wrote in…

Pharma money is all over the place — in universities, companies doing continuing medical education for doctors and in prominent patient advocacy organizations that are household names across America. Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy nonprofit, reports today that between 2010 and 2022, the drug industry’s main lobbying group and member…