Latest KFF Health News Stories
Despite New Doubts, ‘Hotspotting’ Help For Heavy Health Care Users Marches On
A high-profile effort in Camden, New Jersey, to reduce health spending by identifying high-cost patients and giving them more coordinated and preventive medical care has been copied around the country. Many of those groups are pushing forward with the efforts, despite a recent critical study of the Camden initiative.
Bloomberg On Health Care: Translating His Mayoral Record To The National Stage
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg uses health care as a key message in his Democratic presidential primary run. Now that he will be taking the stage in the Feb. 19 debate, the message could take on even more prominence.
Readers And Tweeters Fired Up Over Employer’s No-Nicotine Policy
Kaiser Health News gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories.
KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: SCOTUS Punts On ACA Case — For Now
The Supreme Court said it won’t hear an expedited case that threatens to overturn the Affordable Care Act. That means the future of the ACA will continue to be a top political issue through the November election. Meanwhile, a major doctors’ group endorses “Medicare for All.” Sort of. And both sides in the abortion debate mark the 47th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s landmark Roe v. Wade ruling. Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico and Caitlin Owens of Axios join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss this and more. Also, for extra credit, the panelists suggest their favorite health policy stories of the week they think you should read, too.
Opinion writers tackle these and other health issues.
Media outlets report on news from California, Virginia, Colorado Massachusetts, Iowa, Illinois, North Carolina, Georgia, Connecticut, Washington, Louisiana, New York, Ohio, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Texas.
Research Roundup: Low-Carb And Low-Fat Diets, Physician Burnout, Gender Disparities In Pay, And More
Each week, KHN compiles a selection of recently released health policy studies and briefs.
‘He Grew A Lot’: Migrant Parents Who Were Deported Under Trump Reunited With Children
Nine parents who were separated from their children for over a year reunited with them in the United States. The emotional scene was a small slice of the emotional fallout that’s come from the zero-tolerance policies that have separated thousands of children from their parents in recent years.
The analysis is “the latest in a long, long line of studies showing the harm done to children when they are consigned to the chaos of foster care,” said Richard Wexler of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform. In other public health news: smoking, chronic loneliness, tech and wildfire safety, ancient DNA, a fly’s brain, hospice care, and more.
At Height Of Feud Between Azar And Verma, White House Advisers Drew Up List Of Replacements
Advisers were braced for HHS Secretary Alex Azar or CMS Administrator Seema Verma to abruptly leave the Trump administration as they waged an increasingly public and personal feud last year. The issue has since seemed to simmer down. In other HHS and CMS news, a new study looks at what Medicare paid for undelivered post-op visits in 2018.
The county unveiled new online resources, but it is still limited by what it can offer Missouri doctors who don’t have the luxury of a statewide database like the rest of the country. Opioid news comes out of Massachusetts and Ohio, as well.
House Lawmakers To Haul Juul, Other Companies Into Hearings To Grill Them On Youth Vaping Epidemic
Many of the companies are also subjects of multiple congressional investigations into marketing and business practices that allegedly target young people.
More than half a dozen states are considering legislation that would penalize doctors for performing certain treatments for transgender patients. The speed and number of state bills has mobilized activists, suicide prevention groups and civil rights organizations. In 2018, the American Academy of Pediatrics released a policy statement that recommended giving youths “access to comprehensive gender-affirming and developmentally appropriate health care,” while noting the benefits and risks of using hormones that delay puberty.
Public health officials in Huntington, West Virginia, began making changes after a bit of national shaming. Small but concerted efforts have started to change the tide for the town. In other food health news: a look at how Michael Bloomberg got New York City to eat its veggies, food stamps in Baltimore, and more.
Although Johnson & Johnson posted better than expected earnings, its sales fell short of estimates. Some of the company’s most lucrative medicines face competition from generics and biosimilars. Other news on the health industry focuses on short-term plans, mergers, a teeth-straightening business, a hospital’s efforts to retain patients, and more.
The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association and 18 of its member organizations are teaming up with Civica Rx, a nonprofit that is already selling drugs used in hospitals to health systems. The move comes not long after California Gov. Gavin Newsom floated a similar proposal, in which the state would contract with outside manufacturers to sell generic drugs under a California label.
The country has made big leaps in preparedness since the anthrax scare of 2001, but the United States still has a ways to go. Meanwhile, health officials scramble to contain the coronavirus after diagnosing the first U.S. patient with the illness. And a top NIH official says human trials for a vaccine could begin within three months.
Media outlets offer broad coverage of the virus that China is working to contain during a busy travel season. Although the illness has caused at least 17 deaths so far, most of those patients were older men with previous health ailments.
Trump To Become First President To Speak In Person At March For Life Event
Although in the past, President Donald Trump described himself as “pro-choice,” since he ran his 2016 campaign he’s ardently courted supporters within the antiabortion movement. The announcement comes just a few days after the Susan B. Anthony List and its affiliated super PAC said it would spend $52 million to help the president’s reelection.
The funding for Texas was cut during the Obama administration after the state Legislature excluded Planned Parenthood from the Healthy Texas Women program. Other conservative states are watching the outcome of the decision as they consider excluding abortion providers from their programs as well.