Latest KFF Health News Stories
High-Deductible Plans Jeopardize Financial Health Of Patients And Rural Hospitals
Small hospitals and patients in rural areas have been hit hard by the boom in high-deductible health plans. Often when a patient arrives at a rural hospital needing critical care, the person is stabilized and transferred to a larger facility. But bills from the first site of care generally get applied to the patient’s deductible. When patients can’t afford their deductible, the smaller hospital winds up eating the costs.
Family Doctors In Rural America Tackle Crisis Of Addiction And Pain
For rural physicians, the burden of responding to the opioid epidemic falls squarely on their already loaded shoulders. For one doctor in a small Wisconsin village, there was no question that she wanted to rise to the challenge.
KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: Democrats Roll Dice On SCOTUS And The ACA
A group of Democratic state attorneys general are betting the Supreme Court will take up the case and overturn a federal appeals court ruling in time for the 2020 elections. In other high-court news, most Republicans in Congress are asking the justices to use a Louisiana law to overturn the landmark abortion-rights ruling, Roe v. Wade. Joanne Kenen of Politico, Stephanie Armour of The Wall Street Journal and Paige Winfield Cunningham of The Washington Post join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss this and more. Rovner also interviews NPR’s Richard Harris, who wrote the latest KHN-NPR “Bill of the Month” feature.
Editorial pages focus on these and other health issues.
Media outlets focus on news from Mississippi, Florida, Nebraska, Georgia, Kansas, Washington, Wisconsin, California, Georgia, and Massachusetts.
Research Roundup: Sudden Infant Death, Health Care Spending, Pelvic Exams And More
Each week, KHN compiles a selection of recently released health policy studies and briefs.
Hospital Roundup: Closures, New Leaders, Class-Action Lawsuits, Unions And More
Media outlets report on hospital news out of California, Maryland, Louisiana, Washington, Texas and Tennessee.
“We want to help people feel safe participating in the conversation on Twitter by giving them more control over the conversations they start,” the San Francisco-based company said in a tweet.
As part of a growing interest in the link between mental health and the minimum wage, the new study finds that the wage hikes lower the suicide rates more when it is harder to find a job like in 2009. Public health news is on a new CDC flu forecast and a new outbreak, chronic fatigue syndrome, individualized medicine, more recalls of Zantac, 5 risk factors for longevity, rising numbers of electric scooter injuries, as well.
New documents support growing evidence that concerns about misuse raised even in the early days of the epidemic were countered time and again by Purdue Pharma sales reps. Other news on the opioid epidemic looks at needle exchanges, addiction treatment providers, HIV infections, and more.
Biggest Ever One-Year Drop In Cancer Death Rates Attributed To Strides Made In Lung Tumor Treatments
Even patients with late-stage cancers are surviving for several years — rather than months — after treatment starts. The overall cancer death rate fell by nearly 30% from 1991 through 2017. The study wasn’t all positive: declines in the death rates from prostate, breast and colon cancer are slowing, despite those cancers being easy to scan for.
Researchers in China have “initially identified” the new virus, a coronavirus, as the pathogen behind a mysterious, pneumonia-like illness that has sickened 59 people in the city of Wuhan. It doesn’t appear to be spreading within humans rapidly, but scientists in the region are cautious even 17 years after the SARS outbreak.
Apart from prescription drug struggles, for the first time, Walgreens executives also seemed to acknowledge fallout from the acquisition of health insurer Aetna by rival CVS Health Corp. Other pharmaceutical news focuses on congressional drug pricing efforts, the ghosts of J.P. Morgan’s past, and a look ahead to 2020.
Appeals Court Rejects Trump Administration’s Bid To Implement ‘Public Charge’ Immigration Policy
The “public charge” rule would potentially deny green cards to immigrants over their use of public benefits including Medicaid. Two other injunctions against the rule have been lifted by other courts, leaving this decision by a federal appeals court in New York as the only nationwide bar to the Trump administration putting the new rule into practice.
The ministries promotes cheaper options than health plans offered under the ACA, but the groups don’t guarantee that they’ll actually cover the cost of medical bills when the need arises. As such alternatives gain in popularity, some states are starting to take a closer look.
First Edition: January 9, 2020
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
The method of finding the most expensive, hard-to-treat patients and better coordinating their care was touted as a popular idea for containing health care costs. A new study offers a harsh reality check on the benefits of such a strategy though. The surprising lack of results offers a cautionary tale about how difficult it is to improve patients’ care and reduce costs.
‘An Arm And A Leg’: Watch Your Back — And Your Wallet
Cathryn Jakobson Ramin, author of the book “Crooked,” says chronic low back pain is not a medical condition. Nonetheless, that complaint sends millions of Americans down a path of expensive imaging tests, ongoing therapies and invasive surgery — all with limited effectiveness for many patients. In a conversation with “An Arm and a Leg” podcast host Dan Weissmann, Ramin shares her journey of back pain and recovery.
Reduce Health Costs By Nurturing The Sickest? A Much-Touted Idea Disappoints
Nearly a decade ago, Dr. Jeffrey Brenner and his Camden Coalition appeared to have an answer to remake American health care: Treat the sickest and most expensive patients. But a rigorous study in the New England Journal of Medicine shows the approach doesn’t save money. “We built a brilliant intervention to navigate people to nowhere,” Brenner tells the “Tradeoffs” podcast.
Listen: A Renewed Focus On Health Care In 2020
KHN’s Julie Rovner joins Stephen Henderson of “Detroit Today” on WDET, an NPR station, to talk about the pivotal role of health care issues in the 2020 presidential campaign.