Latest KFF Health News Stories
First Edition: February 19, 2020
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Analysis: Who Profits From Steep Medical Bills? The People Tasked With Fixing Them.
Surprise bills are just the latest weapons in a decades-long war among health care industry players over who gets to keep the fortunes generated each year from patient illness: $3.6 trillion in 2018. The practice is an outrage, yet no one in the health care sector wants to unilaterally make the type of big concessions that would change things.
Five Years Later, HIV-Hit Town Rebounds. But The Nation Is Slow To Heed Lessons.
In February 2015, an unprecedented HIV outbreak fueled by intravenous drug use hit the small city of Austin, Indiana. Under pressure, then-Gov. Mike Pence reluctantly allowed a syringe exchange. Five years later, HIV is undetectable in most of the outbreak patients. Still, the lessons haven’t been learned nationwide. Fewer than a third of the 220 counties deemed by the federal government as vulnerable to similar outbreaks have active syringe-exchange programs.
School Districts Grapple With Quarantines, Face Masks And Fear
In the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, school districts, especially those with large Chinese student populations, are in uncharted territory as they apply new federal travel rules to their students. Some also are weighing requests from parents that are more about fear than science, such as whether to allow students with no travel history to stay home from school.
Distritos escolares lidian con cuarentenas, mascarillas y miedo
Los distritos pisan territorio desconocido cuando aplican reglas federales a sus cuerpos estudiantiles. Y muchas veces toman decisiones sin orientación oficial.
Surge In Enrollment As Californians Avoid Penalty, Receive State Aid
Although a new state tax penalty and state financial aid motivated people to sign up for health insurance this year, Covered California is reopening enrollment for those who said they weren’t aware of them.
Perspectives: FDA Roadblocks For States’ Drug Importation Plans Make Them Unlikely To Succeed
Read recent commentaries about drug-cost issues.
A Bipartisan Senate Drug Pricing Bill Even Got Trump’s Thumbs Up. So Why Is It On Life Support?
Read about the biggest pharmaceutical development and pricing stories from the past week in KHN’s Prescription Drug Watch roundup.
Editorial pages focus on these health topics and others.
Media outlets report on news from Georgia, Massachusetts, California, Texas, Colorado, Florida, Kansas, Mississippi, District of Columbia, Nebraska, Maryland, North Carolina, Michigan, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania.
Florida Vascular Doctor Allegedly Took $26M In Insurance Scam To Fund Political Aspirations
From September 2015 to this month, Dr. Moses deGraft-Johnson submitted scores of fraudulent claims to health insurers, including Medicare, Medicaid and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida, court papers said.
The New York Times explains why the numbers of soldiers with brain injuries kept rising after Iran’s missile attack and how CT scans and blood tests often come up short. Public health news is on pelvic exams, dementia, transplants, end-of-life care, genetic research, child abuse, pollution, foot health, assisted living care, test results, shingles, tattoos, alcoholic liver disease, and safe sex, as well.
Influencers Suggest No-Fluid Diets As Way To ‘Reset’ Your Kidneys. Experts Say: Don’t Do This.
“Your body likes homeostasis,” said Dr. Pauline Yi, a physician at UCLA Health Beverly Hills. “If you’re going to cut back on water, your body will produce hormones and chemicals to hold onto any water.” In other news: sneaky sugars, sleep and obesity, the Mediterranean diet, and exercise via video games.
Childhood Cancer Is No Longer A Death Sentence, But Long-Term Health Effects Linger Into Adulthood
A new study suggests that scientists need to get a better handle on the ways battling cancer can affect the health of a patient throughout their lives. For example, chemotherapy can weaken the heart and lead to long-term cardiovascular problems. Other oncology news focuses on melanoma as well as radioactive products.
Whereas the lowest-earning hospitals dedicated $72.30 of every $100 of net income to charity care, the top earning hospitals devoted just $11.50 to charity care for the uninsured. Other hospital news comes out of North Carolina, Iowa, Florida and California.
Arkansas Senator Stokes Debunked Conspiracy That Coronavirus Was Manufactured By Chinese Government
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) later walked back his comments about the origins of the coronavirus, but the statement reflects a worrying trend of high-ranking people spreading misinformation about the outbreak. In other news on how the United States is handling the crisis: 5 cities to start testing any patients with flu-like symptoms for coronavirus, Asian-Americans continue to face unsettling weight of public scrutiny in wake of outbreak, and more.
Scientists explain how the virus is killing patients–mostly elderly or people with underlying medical conditions–when about 80 percent only have mild symptoms from the infection. In other news related to the science behind the outbreak: a forecast of an epidemic, the infection rate, how long the virus can linger on surfaces, a treatment option, and more.
The ruling, written by a Reagan-appointed judge, upheld a lower court’s stance that Arkansas’ plan to add work requirements to its Medicaid program was “arbitrary and capricious” and failed to show how such rules would help Medicaid to meet its mission of covering the poor. The Trump administration has been encouraging states to add work requirements, but so far has come up short in the courts.
‘Juul Is Almost Old School’: How Efforts To Regulate Teen Vaping Are Behind The Actual Trends
While regulators have been focusing on vaping products like Juul e-cigarettes, teens have been turning to disposable pods, which come in an array of flavors and remain unregulated.
The union for culinary workers, a powerful force in a state where entertainment and tourism is big, had issued warnings against “Medicare for All” because the union has fought so hard for its health care coverage. That sparked backlash among Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) supporters, whose online harassment of union members provoked a slap on the wrists from its leaders. Sanders’ rivals are jumping on the weak spot ahead of the state’s caucuses.