The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
Colleen DeGuzman was a Peggy Girshman Fellow at KFF Health News until March 2024.
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A report based on millions of urine drug tests found the United States is facing a rise in the use of multiple drugs at once, which not only is often more deadly but complicates treatment efforts.
Medicare pays hospitals about double what it pays other providers for the same services. The hospital lobby is fighting hard to make sure a switch to "site-neutral payments” doesn't become law.
Dozens of crisis counselors responded to a survey about their work experiences, painting a picture of uneven training, uncertainty about how long to stay on the line, and different policies on whether to inform a caller when police are on their way.
California’s governor vetoed a bill extending insurance coverage for kids with hearing loss, but most states now require it.
Many people from racial and ethnic minority groups brace themselves for insults and judgments before medical appointments, according to a new survey of patients that reaffirms the prevalence of racial discrimination in the U.S. health system.
Monica Bertagnolli, the president’s choice to head the National Institutes of Health, appeared before a Senate committee this week. Her confirmation has been held up by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who has demanded President Joe Biden work more aggressively to lower prescription drug prices.
School nurses treat children daily for a wide range of illnesses and injuries, and sometimes serve as a young patient’s only health provider. They also function as a point person for critical public health interventions. Yet many states don’t require them, and school districts struggle to hire them.
Unsafe sleep environments are among the main reasons accidental suffocation or strangulation is a hard-to-solve public health problem.
As much of the U.S. faces extremely high summer temperatures, Texas’ Republican governor, Greg Abbott, has taken steps that effectively eliminate mandated water breaks for construction workers. In response, protesters from the Lone Star State came to Washington, D.C., to press for federal protections for such outdoor workers.
The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, a national hotline, reached its first-year milestone this month.
A little-noticed provision of sweeping legislation to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration would make it easier to fly human organs from donor to recipient.
The computer program, designed in 1996 to be a secure location for foster children’s medical and school records and histories of neglect and abuse, is older than Google — and has had far fewer updates.
Responding to covid has taken so much attention and energy that some public health workers believe it pushed tuberculosis off people’s radar.
The first fentanyl-related deaths of students in an area south of Austin, Texas, were reported over the summer. The school district, parents, and students are trying to deal with the aftermath.
School lockdown drills are designed to prepare students for violent threats. But for some students, especially those with special needs, the drills can trigger or exacerbate mental health problems. Texas is taking a step toward balancing safety and mental health with new regulations around how the drills are conducted. “If some kids are coming away traumatized or we’re magnifying existing trauma, we’re not moving in the right direction,” one expert says.
The gay community is disproportionally affected by the monkeypox outbreak, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says public health efforts should prioritize gay and bisexual men. But in the South, some LGBTQ+ advocates fear that this is not happening consistently. They say they are having to take matters into their own hands in the absence of a coordinated response from state governments.
A study published in JAMA leads to questions about the uneven distribution of pediatric nephrologists nationwide. Children with end-stage kidney disease feel the impact.
The advocacy group American Commitment said empowering Medicare to negotiate drug prices would raid it of billions of dollars. Drug pricing experts say that that’s not the case and that such policies would instead reduce costs for the Medicare program and seniors.
In California, where inmates manufacture glasses for Medi-Cal, enrollees and providers can wait months for their orders. Now, state lawmakers are considering allowing clinics to order from private labs as well.
An article in the New England Journal of Medicine takes a sweeping look at how heat — which can be a byproduct of air pollution and climate change — adversely affects people’s health, especially that of kids.
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