Latest KFF Health News Stories
First Edition: January 10, 2020
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Some Disability Advocates Delighted With Warren’s Outreach Efforts And The Scope Of Her Plan
“Candidates are actually listening to disabled people,” said Rebecca Cokley, director of the Disability Justice Initiative at the Center for American Progress Action Fund. “This is how policy should be made. It matters who’s at the table.” Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s plan is sprawling, touching on education, employment, Social Security, technology, housing, incarceration, and more, in addition to focusing on health care.
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.
Media outlets focus on news from Mississippi, Florida, Nebraska, Georgia, Kansas, Washington, Wisconsin, California, Georgia, and Massachusetts.
Editorial pages focus on these and other health issues.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Opinion writers weigh in on ways to lower health care costs and other health issues.
Media outlets report on news from Illinois, Mississippi, Texas, Georgia, Louisiana, Alabama, New York, Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Indiana, California, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Missouri, Florida, Texas and Iowa.
Video surveillance recorded Samuel James Gulick standing on the porch of the Planned Parenthood building and spray-painting in red letters the Crusader slogan “Deus vult” (God wills it).
Under the terms of the settlement, each woman who saw Dr. George Tyndall during his time at USC would be guaranteed a $2,500 payment, whether or not she had alleged abuse. Women who allege the worst abuse and would be willing to be screened by a psychologist could be eligible for payments of up to $250,000.
