Latest KFF Health News Stories
News from across the country focuses on young people’s mental health issues, the psychological toll of racism, bed shortages, prison care, and more.
Media outlets report on news from Pennsylvania, Georgia, California, Minnesota, Florida, New Hampshire, Texas, Virginia, Iowa, Ohio and Massachusetts.
Following a large conference last week, there was a sense that disappointing failure after disappointing failure has left the field desperate and in need of new ideas. But there’s reason to hope. Not only is there plenty of money out there to support research, there’s also a movement to include players who have been previously cast aside in the conversation. In other public health news: car crashes, vaccines, drowning, surgery, knee injuries, and more.
It isn’t clear yet what kind of policies Congress is considering that could hurt the pharmaceutical industry’s bottom line, but it has been reported that the reforms could cost the industry $115 billion. In other pharmaceutical news: the CVS-Aetna merger, hep C treatment and prisoners, biotech, and President Donald Trump’s drug pricing strategy.
“We can’t continue to be all things for all people,” Gov. Mike Dunleavy said in June, “we don’t have the money to do that.” But advocates say preventive dental care saves money because it catches problems before they become more costly. Medicaid news comes out of Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina and Wisconsin.
Chicago Safety Net Hospitals Say They Won’t Survive Under ‘Fair Workweek’ Ordinance
The hospitals say that complying with the rule, which requires employees to compensate workers when there are last-minute schedule changes, would mean a collective $30 million loss. Meanwhile, Chicago-area chains have been reconfiguring themselves to become specialty hospitals. Other hospital news comes out of California, Massachusetts and Kansas, as well.
Lawmakers across the country and federally have been trying to figure out the best way to address surprise medical bills. But one of the main causes of the problem –ambulance rides — isn’t in any of the proposed legislation. “If you call 911 for an ambulance, it’s basically a coin flip whether or not that ambulance will be in or out of network,” said Christopher Garmon, a health economist at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Meanwhile, legislation in the House over the bills is unlikely to be addressed until after August recess.
Despite increased resources and attention, problems continue to plague the Rosebud hospital on the Rosebud Sioux reservation in South Dakota. Even amid concerted efforts to improve quality of care at the hospital, a constant leadership churn and the dearth of qualified staff remained problematic. A separate report finds that Native American patients were put at increased risk for opioid abuse by government hospitals.
Barring a settlement, the two counties are scheduled to go to trial in October as the first case among the consolidated lawsuits brought by about 2,000 cities, counties, Native American tribes and other plaintiffs. Recently released data shows just how hard-hit those counties — and the rest of the country — were by the opioid crisis. Media outlets dive into the new data to get a better sense of the roots of the epidemic.
One estimate puts the number of detainees with mental illnesses between 3,000 and 6,000. “This is a system that, for a long time, has failed to understand, neglected, and even ignored the mental health needs of folks caught up in it,” said Elizabeth Jordan, director of the Immigration Detention Accountability Project at the Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center. “But under this administration … it has gotten so much worse.” In other news on the border crisis: sleep deprivation in young detainees, protesters at an Oklahoma Army base, and human-rights violations at a Florida detention center.
Trump Administration Backtracks On Immediately Enforcing Changes To Family Planning Funding
The clinics now have two months to comply with the rule changes, which critics say directly target Planned Parenthood. The department had said last Monday that it would require immediate compliance. That caught clinics off guard and led Planned Parenthood and other providers to say they would defy the order.
The Trump administration issued a regulation last year allowing short-term health care plans to last up to 12 months instead of three. The plans don’t have to adhere to the health law’s strict regulations, so critics blast them as being “junk insurance.” U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, however, ruled that the plans aims to “minimize the harm and expense” for individuals who might otherwise decide not to purchase insurance because of high premiums.
Health care is one of the dividing issues for the crowded 2020 Democratic field, but the candidates’ stances on the issue underscore how different their philosophies can be. Meanwhile, those candidates who support “Medicare for All” are still grappling with the issue of how to pay for it. And The New York Times fact checks President Donald Trump’s rhetoric on the Democrats’ plans.
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
How The Eastern Cherokee Took Control Of Their Health Care
An innovative hospital run by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in North Carolina showcases an alternative model of health care that could have lessons for other tribal communities and beyond.
Biden’s ‘Incremental’ Health Plan Still Would Be A Heavy Lift
The proposal is far from minimal and includes several provisions that Congress has failed repeatedly to enact, including some that were part of the original Affordable Care Act debate.
A Conservative Group Paints Trump’s Drug-Pricing Experiment As ‘Socialist.’ Is It?
The Americans for Tax Reform commercial takes too broad a brush against an initiative under consideration by the administration that would be part of the president’s promise to curb high drug prices.
Must-Reads Of The Week From Brianna Labuskes
Newsletter editor Brianna Labuskes wades through hundreds of health care policy stories each week, so you don’t have to.
Empleadores buscan nuevas formas de abordar la salud mental de los trabajadores
Mientras que un diagnóstico de cáncer puede generar solidaridad en el trabajo, admitir un trastorno psicótico puede provocar juicio, miedo y evasivas entre los compañeros.
¿Tu médico te ha preguntado sobre el cambio climático?
La Organización Mundial de la Salud llama al cambio climático “el mayor desafío para la salud del siglo XXI”, y una docena de sociedades médicas estadounidenses instan a la acción para limitar el calentamiento global.