Latest KFF Health News Stories
As Temperatures Climb, A New Push To Keep Workers Safe
Over the past decade, more than 350 workers nationwide have died from heat-related illness, and tens of thousands have had heat-related problems serious enough that they missed at least one day of work. Proposed federal legislation, modeled on California regulations, would create the first national standards for protecting workers from heat-related stress.
Insurers Running Medicare Advantage Plans Overbill Taxpayers By Billions As Feds Struggle To Stop It
An enhanced government effort to catch insurers that overcharge Medicare faces resistance from the insurance industry.
Costos adicionales bloquean el tratamiento para prevenir el VIH
Aunque muchas aseguradoras cubren PrEP, los costos por las pruebas adicionales que hay que realizarse pueden bloquear el acceso a esta terapia preventiva.
Opinion writers weigh in on these health care issues and others.
Media outlets focus on news from Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Hawaii, Tennessee, Virginia, Connecticut, California, North Carolina, District of Columbia, New Hampshire, Missouri, Georgia, Washington, Maryland, Oregon, Colorado, Ohio, Florida and West Virginia.
Editorial pages focus on some of the options being discussed to replace or modify the Health Law.
An appeals court in Missouri found that the trial of Michael Johnson was fundamentally unfair. Johnson was found guilty in 2015 of neglecting to tell sexual partners he had HIV. He denied those charges. Many laws on “HIV crimes,” were written in the 1980s. “We don’t charge people with other incurable diseases, like hepatitis, with a criminal offense for exposing others,” said Eric M. Selig, a lawyer who negotiated on Johnson’s behalf. On news on HIV is on unexpected costs associated with HIV prevention medicine.
While recent news about Alzheimer’s focused on disappointing failed drug trials, two new studies discussed at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference look at how clean living helps lower the chances of developing wasting brain diseases by as much as 60%. Give up red meat, don’t smoke, exercise more, read more books and limit red wine to one glass a night. “This research is exciting in that it shows there are actionable things we can do to try to counteract genetic risk for dementia,” said Elzbieta Kuźma, a research fellow at the University of Exeter Medical School who worked on one the studies.
Babies As Young As 3 Months Old Are Being Held In U.S. Custody Without Any Parents At The Facilities
A Center for Investigative Reporting report finds that a dozen children arrived at Child Crisis Arizona starting in mid-June, after it garnered a $2.4 million contract to house unaccompanied children through January 2022. It’s unclear where the children’s parents are. In other news from the crisis at the border: a momentary reprieve in arrests, a commemorative coin’s connection to a toxic culture within Border Patrol, ICE raids, and more.
The Tennessean looks at the dramatic negative effects the paperwork system — which has now been replaced — had on the state’s children. Medicaid news comes out of Indiana, New York and Montana, as well.
Update To Controversial Hospital Star Ratings Delayed Until Expert Panel Reviews Changes
The American Hospital Association spoke out in support of CMS’ decision to hold off on releasing the ratings, which have long provoked push back from the industry over the methodology the agency uses.
The drug ampicillin, once a mainstay for treating the infections, has been abandoned as a gold standard because multiple strains of UTIs are resistant to it. “This is crazy. This is shocking,” said Lance Price, director of the Antibiotic Resistance Action Center at George Washington University. In other public health news: mental health and apps, sleep training, firefighter suicides, skull fractures in infants, climate change and health, young blood, and more.
When it looked like New York might pass a menthol cigarette ban, tobacco lobbyists invoked Eric Garner — a man who was killed on Staten Island by police officers enforcing cigarette regulations — in their arguments that it would disproportionately hurt black residents. The bill was set aside.
The case against Johnson & Johnson was the first of of more than 2,000 actions by state and local governments accusing drug manufacturers of contributing to the epidemic, and is expected to set the tone for the court challenges following it. Meanwhile, the Sackler family is left reeling as details over Purdue Pharma’s marketing strategy continue to emerge.
As more states pass strict abortion regulations, advocates for women on both sides of the debate are joining forces to focus on workplace safeguards for new moms. Abortion news comes out of Missouri, Oklahoma and Georgia, as well.
The legislation, which passed the House by a 402-12 vote, would fund all current and future medical claims from 9/11 survivors through 2090.
Democrats Urge Trump To Remove Language About Biologics In Trade Agreement
The lawmakers say the pending language in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement “would hinder Congress from taking action to increase competition and enhance patient access to more affordable medicines.”
Judge Patty Schwartz, writing for the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, said the Affordable Care Act plainly states that women must be provided preventive health services. The Trump administration’s rules that would allow employers to deny workers insurance coverage for birth control due to religious or moral objections sparked an immediate court challenge when rolled out in November.
The House Oversight Committee’s investigation into the Trump administration’s 2018 policy shows that many children were kept in government custody far longer than previously known. At least 18 infants and toddlers under two years old were separated from their parents and “kept apart for 20 days to half a year.” Meanwhile, the Trump administration agrees to allow a Stanford University pediatrician to conduct an independent investigation into health conditions for migrant children at the detention facilities.
Republican lawmakers are taking a new look at the options to replace the health law in case the court challenge working its way toward the Supreme Court is successful. The party has long struggled to craft replacement legislation, and had in previous months abandoned efforts to do so.