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As a warming climate intensifies storms, KFF Health News has identified more than 170 U.S. hospitals at risk of significant and potentially dangerous flooding. Climate experts warn that the Trump administration’s cuts leave the nation less prepared.
In this video report, InvestigateTV and KFF Health News take viewers to Alabama, Idaho, and West Virginia to explore how gaps in internet connectivity and telehealth access cause residents to live sicker and die younger on average than their peers in well-connected regions.
Taxpayers — through federal infrastructure programs — have paid billions of dollars to internet companies to hook up rural Americans. Some communities have nothing to show for it, leaving medically vulnerable rural patients disconnected and without access to telehealth.
Technological gaps handicap rural hospitals as billions in federal funding to modernize infrastructure lags. The reliance on outdated technology and piecemeal systems challenge staffs and erode patient care.
Nearly 3 million Americans live sicker, shorter lives in the hundreds of rural counties where doctor shortages are the worst and poor internet connections mean little or no access to telehealth services.
The helicopter evacuation of 70 people from a Tennessee hospital during Hurricane Helene is considered a success story. The building was destroyed by floodwaters, but no one died. In hindsight, why was it built next to a river?
New court filings and lobbying reports reveal an industry drive to tamp down critics — and retain billions of dollars in overcharges.
The story of MitraClip, a device Dr. Oz helped invent to treat faulty heart valves, is a cautionary tale about the science, business, and regulation of medical technology.
Most Medicare enrollees have two or more chronic health conditions, making them eligible for a federal program that rewards physicians for doing more to manage their care. It shows promise in reducing costs. But not many doctors have joined.
Some pumps used in end-stage heart failure caused a buildup of biological material that blocks blood flow from the device to the heart’s aorta. The FDA’s recall affects nearly 14,000 devices.
Most of the doctors the FDA tapped to advise it on an Abbott medical device had financial ties to the company. The FDA didn’t disclose the payments.
Want to know how much opioid settlement money your city, county, or state has received so far? Or how much it's expecting in the future? Use our new searchable database to find out.
Demand for help monitoring patients’ vital signs remotely has taken off since a Medicare change in 2019. Dozens of companies now push the service to help overburdened primary care doctors — and as a revenue stream. But some policy experts say its growth has outpaced oversight and evidence of effectiveness.
Thousands of medical devices are sold, and even implanted, with no safety tests.
The HeartMate 3 is considered the safest mechanical heart pump of its kind, but a federal database contains more than 4,500 reports in which the medical device may have caused or contributed to a patient’s death.
Mandy Cohen, the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, earned praise for her leadership and communication as the face of North Carolina’s response to covid-19. People in the state’s most vulnerable communities tell a more complicated story.
Facing rare scrutiny from federal auditors, some Medicare Advantage health plans failed to produce any records to justify their payments, government records show. The audits revealed millions of dollars in overcharges to Medicare over three years.
Taxpayers had to foot the bills for care that should have cost far less, according to records released after KHN filed a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act. The government may seek to recover up to $650 million as a result.
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