Latest KFF Health News Stories
First Edition: September 8, 2015
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Research Roundup: PTSD And Vietnam Vets; Kids’ Use Of Antipsychotic Drugs; Calif.’s Elder Poor
Each week, KHN compiles a selection of recently released health policy studies and briefs.
Viewpoints: GOP Efforts Would Raise Deficits; Abortion And Down Syndrome
A selection of opinions on health care from around the country.
Health care stories are reported from California, Massachusetts, Colorado, Florida, Kansas, Ohio, Texas and New York.
Calif. Prison Outbreak Of Legionnaires’ Contained While Inmates In Other States Reported Ill
New York City finds contaminated water at a facility where four contracted Legionnaires’ disease and the prisoner death toll rises to eight in Illinois. Meanwhile a mystery gastrointestinal illness strikes 220 at an Arizona jail.
Veterans Face Transportation Barriers When Seeking VA Health Care
Meanwhile, an inspector general report finds “serious” problems with enrollment data among the wider Department of Veterans Affairs issues delaying care.
Be On Guard Against Medicare Schemes
With an uptick in Medicare fraud, The Los Angeles Times offers tips to seniors for avoiding becoming a victim, while Reuters reports on how health care costs should factor into your retirement planning.
Truvada Highly Effective At Preventing HIV Transmission, Insurer Study Finds
The daily prescription medication has had mixed reception from medical professionals and gay communities, with some calling it an “end to the HIV epidemic” while others see it as a “party drug.”
‘Improper Diagnosis’ May Account For Part Of ADHD Rate Jump, Report Says
In other children’s health news, thousands of landlords have not properly filed their rental units with Maryland’s lead registry, and a new study examines why some kids get allergies and others don’t.
Puerto Rico’s Health Care Crisis, Fiscal Collapse Becomes Prominent Issue On The Stump
Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton will kick off a push on women’s issues, Ben Carson appeals to evangelicals with positions on abortion and health care while a presidential run by Vice President Joe Biden, still grieving his son, will be influenced by his “emotional energy.”
Mass. Hospitals Considering Merger In Effort To Combat Rising Health Costs
The negotiations between Beth Israel Deaconess and Lahey Health follow a number of high-profile mergers in recent months. In other health care business news, autoworker contract talks continue to look at a health-care co-op across the industry, a hospice chain in the South settles a whistleblower suit and Oscar, an insurance start-up, is profiled.
Cheaper? First New Biosimilar Drug Still Expensive — For Now
The price of Zarxio, made by Novartis, will likely be 15 percent lower eventually than Amgen’s Neupogen — but The Washington Post says that the actual spending on the drugs in the short term will be much closer. Pharmaceutical companies are bracing for a barrage of biosimilar drugs that could cut into their profits. Elsewhere, more seniors find themselves in the Medicare Part D “doughnut hole,” and a hedge-fund manager vows to keep challenging drug patents.
N.Y. Lawmakers Urge Congress To Extend Law Covering 9/11 Responders’ Health Problems
The law is slated to expire in October 2016. Also on Capitol Hill, the Senate Finance Committee chairman suggests that Congress might repeal the health law’s device tax through a special budgetary rule, and Democrats are calling for investigations of the antiabortion activists who released secretly recorded videos about Planned Parenthood.
Abortion Providers File Supreme Court Appeal Of Texas Law That Has Shuttered Clinics
In June, justices granted an emergency appeal to put a temporary hold on Texas’ new clinic regulations that would leave the state with only 10 abortion providers. If the court hears the case, it would result in the first major abortion ruling since 2007.
Financial Losses Prompt Highmark To Cut Health Plan Offerings On Obamacare Exchanges
In other news on state insurance plans, the California Association of Health Plans opposes legislation that would tax health plan participants while California Healthline reports on the success of the state’s takeover of a local health plan.
Administration Unveils Protections For Transgender Patients’ Health Services
The new guarantees are part of a wide-ranging proposed rule that would bar discrimination based on gender in insurance coverage, treatments and access.
First Edition: September 4, 2015
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Viewpoints: Concern About Firms’ Move To Self-Insurance; An Ice-Bucket Challenge Success?
A selection of opinions on health care from around the country.
Longer Looks: A Cancer Diagnosis; Oliver Sacks; Replicating Studies; The Return Of IUDs
Each week, KHN’s Shefali Luthra finds interesting reads from around the Web.
Health care stories are reported from California, Ohio, Georgia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, North Carolina, Minnesota, California and Nebraska.
