Latest KFF Health News Stories
‘Like A Ghost Town’: Erratic Nursing Home Staffing Revealed Through New Records
Daily nursing home payroll records just released by the federal government show the number of nurses and aides dips far below average on some days and consistently plummets on weekends.
Podcast: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’ ACA Under Fire. Again.
In this episode of KHN’s “What the Health?” Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Anna Edney of Bloomberg News and Julie Appleby of Kaiser Health News discuss the health politics of the latest Supreme Court pick, as well as the Trump administration’s efforts to further undermine the Affordable Care Act. Plus, for extra credit, the panelists recommend their favorite health stories of the week.
El toque humano en un hospital: por qué importa que los médicos sean compasivos
La actitud de los médicos al momento de hablar de temas difíciles como el final de la vida pueden hacer la diferencia en la calidad de vida del paciente y las preocupaciones de la familia.
Más recortes a los fondos para programas de navegadores de ACA
Los Centros de Servicios de Medicare y Medicaid anunciaron que están reduciendo el dinero para financiar el trabajo de los navegadores, que ayudan a las personas a inscribirse y comprar o cambiar de plan de salud
Editorial pages focus on these and other health issues.
Parsing Policies: Choose Politicians Who Want To Keep Coverage For Pre-Existing Conditions
Opinion pages express views on various aspects of the health law.
Each week, KHN’s Shefali Luthra finds interesting reads from around the Web.
Media outlets report on news from New York, Texas, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, Ohio, Delaware, California, Florida and New Hampshire.
The small step has proven to be simple yet effective at a time when patients are at their most vulnerable for another attempt. In other public health news: high blood pressure, diets, positive people, mysterious attacks, anti-aging drugs, and more.
New, Faster Method Of Gene Editing Allows Scientists To Turn T Cells Into ‘Living Cancer Drugs’
“We’re living in an amazing moment in cancer immunotherapies,” said microbiologist Alexander Marson, co-author of the study that appears in Nature. In other news on cancer research, “re-homing” cells are found to improve survival in mice.
Recent laws have now made it legal to breastfeed in public in all 50 states, while others have been passed to strengthen workplace protections for nursing mothers.
The findings come from a congressional investigation into drug distributors and their potential failure to report suspicious prescription activity. The report, in particular, focused on the disparity between what AmerisourceBergen and McKesson flagged. The two distributors shipped nearly identical volumes of opioids to Missouri, but the number of suspicious orders each company reported were nowhere close: 224 from AmerisourceBergen and 16,714 from McKesson.
Millions In Funding For Gun Violence Research Rejected By Republican Appropriators
The lawmakers argued that the CDC is already free to study firearm injuries and that the language would risk further politicizing the spending bill. News on health savings accounts and drugged driving also comes out of Capitol Hill.
Under Pressure, Trump Administration Expected To Streamline Process Of Reuniting Separate Families
To speed up the reunions, the government will no longer insist on fingerprinting all adults in a household where a child will live, or require home visits by a social worker. Meanwhile, tech issues aren’t helping the problems. And lawmakers’ tarrying at a House Appropriations Committee highlights just how hard it will be to pass immigration measures in this Congress.
Where as the GOP has picked one message to focus on for the Supreme Court nomination battle — Brett Kavanaugh’s credentials — Democrats are being pulled in a lot of different directions. “We have a long history of making simple arguments overly complicated, and we have a long history of thinking that we need to compartmentalize our messages for different groups,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.). “We need to get over both of those addictions if we are going to defeat Brett Kavanaugh.”
The company won glowing praise from the White House after it decided to delay its price hikes, but experts say the move is not going to make a big difference to any of the players involved — including the consumers. Meanwhile, congressional Democrats want more information on the deal between Pfizer and President Donald Trump. And, while the president had success with one company doesn’t mean the rest aren’t going ahead and raising their prices.
Medical Tourism Is A $68 Billion A Year Industry, And More And More Startups Want In
Tech companies are looking to emulate Airbnb or Hotels.com, but for people looking for medical services in a different country. In other industry news: cost control has become a top priority for health system executives, health care acquisitions are proving too expensive for private equity firms, and Amazon wants to nudge even further into the health care landscape.
Attorney General Mike DeWine said he wanted to include a reasonable work requirement for the program, as well as wellness incentives, but that he favors maintaining the expansion. Medicaid news comes out of Texas, Kansas and California as well.
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Insurers Fall Short In Catching And Reporting Medicaid Fraud, Inspectors Find
Medicaid has struggled for years with poor oversight and billions lost to improper payments. A new report finds that despite their fraud-fighting rhetoric, Medicaid managed-care companies are not as rigorous as they should be in ensuring the integrity of the Medicaid payment system.