Latest KFF Health News Stories
There were 19 suicides on VA campuses from October 2017 to November 2018, including a Marine Colonel who — dressed in his uniform blues and medals — sat on top of his military and VA records and killed himself with a rifle outside the Bay Pines Department of Veterans Affairs. “It’s very important for the VA to recognize that the place of a suicide can have great meaning. There is a real moral imperative and invitation here to take a close inspection of the quality of services at the facility level,” said Eric Caine, director of the Injury Control Research Center for Suicide Prevention at the University of Rochester.
Analysis Reveals Uneven Quality Of Care At VA Hospitals Across The Country
USA Today’s analysis shows VA facilities have lower death rates than civilian hospitals, but many also have higher rates of preventable infections and severe bed sores — a sign of potential neglect.
New White House Report Hints That Trump Wants To Move On From Battle Over Health Law
The shift in tone in the Council of Economic Advisers may reflect an acknowledgment that the Democrats successfully campaigned in the midterms on saving the health law.
The tone has been set among the huge field of emerging 2020 presidential contenders: drug prices are a winning issue. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and a slew of other Democrats have signed on to support legislation that would allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices and strip patent exclusivity from pharmaceutical companies if those negotiations fail. The bill faces longshot odds in the Republican-controlled Senate, but it follows the recent trend of lawmakers getting tough on the pharmaceutical industry. In other news, Johnson & Johnson will become the first drugmaker to start listing prices in TV ads.
The poll found a mix of results about what people favored when it came to where health care should be headed. “Folks are clearly saying the system is still sort of broken to some degree, but there isn’t a lot of consensus around how to fix it in one way or another,” said Mohamed Younis, editor-in-chief of Gallup. Meanwhile, a new “Medicare for All” bill would set up a system that would pre-pay hospitals for care.
“He had a long tradition of introducing legislation on the first day of each new Congress to guarantee health care for every single American,” former President Barack Obama wrote of former Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), who died Thursday. “Because of him, we’ve come closer to that vision than ever before. And when we finally achieve it — and we will — we’ll all owe him our gratitude.”
The case provided the first significant test of abortion rights since the July retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy, a Reagan appointee who was a pivotal middle-ground figure on the issue. Chief Justice John Roberts joined the liberals to form the majority on the case. The Louisiana admitting privileges law is similar to one out of Texas that was knocked down by the Supreme Court. With this decision, the justices likely committed themselves to giving a full review of the Louisiana case during their next term.
First Edition: February 8, 2019
Mark your calendar: Join our Facebook Live chat, “Helping People Age With Independence,” with KHN columnist Judith Graham on Tuesday, Feb. 12, at 12:30 p.m. Share your questions or experiences ahead of time, or ask questions on Facebook during the event.
Editorial writers focus on these health issues and others.
Different Takes: No Going Backwards On ‘Medicare For All’; Mining The GOP For New Health Care Ideas
Opinion writers weigh in on health care policies.
Research Roundup: Health Law Coverage; HPV Vaccine; And Medicare Part D
Each week, KHN compiles a selection of recently released health policy studies and briefs.
Media outlets report on news from New York, Texas, Massachusetts, Michigan, California, North Carolina, Ohio, Florida, Georgia and Arizona.
It is not uncommon for patients to share the same name and birthday, which can get confusing for traditional record-keeping systems. But technology that relies on things like fingerprints or other physical characteristics could hold the key to eliminating some of the mistakes can result from those mix-ups. In other health technology news: the challenges of telemedicine, virtual reality and childbirth, and electronic health records.
African-Americans have long complained of being ignored by doctors and having their concerns downplayed, with several studies over the years even showing that white doctors sometimes think black patients are less likely to feel pain. The controversy over Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, who was graduating from medical school at the time the blackface photo was published, has, for some, reaffirmed that mistrust. In other public health news: Alzheimer’s, wildfires, e-cigarettes, HIV-tainted blood and more.
An outbreak of measles in the Pacific Northwest has cast a new spotlight on the anti-vaccination movement, and officials are encouraging any parents who haven’t vaccinated their kids to make sure to get the shot as more states are hit with cases. Demand for the vaccine is surging in the area, even from families who were previously hesitant.
After Rape Of Comatose Woman, Arizona Governor Requests New Regulations To Protect Disabled Patients
“All Arizonans deserve to be safe — and we have a special responsibility to protect those with disabilities,” Gov. Doug Ducey said in a statement. Arizona in the 1990s created an exemption from state regulation for intermediate care facilities for individuals with developmental disabilities, and now lawmakers are trying to close that loophole.
Many commercial and Medicare Advantage plans use Medicare fee-for-service rates as a benchmark for most medical services, but a new study showed those rates aren’t comparable for mental health services.
But Florida activists face additional obstacles to get the measure in front of voters. While in Idaho, Maine, Nebraska and Utah, advocates only needed a simple majority for approval, Florida ballot measures must get at least 60 percent support. However, supporters have been cleared by the Florida Division of Elections to begin collecting signatures. Medicaid news comes out of North Carolina, as well.
New Opioid-Rehab Experiment: Alphabet Joins With Ohio Health Care Provider For Tech-Focused Approach
Ohio is one of the states hardest hit by the drug epidemic. The Google parent company said on Tuesday that it will help launch an independent nonprofit called OneFifteen that plans to set up an addiction-treatment facility in Dayton with housing and a behavioral health treatment center. Other news on the epidemic looks at using Twitter to spot usage trends; the impact of antidepressants; the restructuring of the White House drug office and more.
The debate over safe-injection sites has been growing across the country, with advocates saying they will save lives and help get users into treatment. On the flip side, many lawmakers and other leaders worry that it condones drug use in the midst of an aggressive epidemic. Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, who’s visited a safe injection program in Vancouver, said U.S. Attorney William McSwain is relying on the failed drug policies of the past.
