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Latest KFF Health News Stories

Medical Boards Pressured to Let It Slide When Doctors Spread Covid Misinformation

KFF Health News Original

State medical boards have an obligation to investigate complaints about doctors, including those who may spread false information about medical care. But in Florida, Tennessee, and other states, lawmakers are moving to protect physicians using unproven covid treatments or spreading misinformation.

Covid Precautions Are Part of Hispanic Community’s Efforts to Tend to Community Good

KFF Health News Original

Among many Latinos, especially recent immigrants, there is a cultural emphasis on living in harmony within one’s community — called “convivir” in Spanish. That notion may have helped drive improvements in covid vaccination and testing rates.

What Are Taxpayers Spending for Those ‘Free’ Covid Tests? The Government Won’t Say.

KFF Health News Original

Inquiries lead from one federal office to the next, with no clear answers. At one Army Contracting Command, a protocol office employee says that “voicemail has been down for months.” And the email address listed for fielding media inquiries? “The army stopped using the email address about eight years ago.”

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: FDA Takes Center Stage

KFF Health News Original

Congress is set to start its once-every-five-years review of the law that authorizes user fees to finance the hiring of personnel to speed the FDA review of drugs. The periodic renewals of “PDUFA” also give lawmakers a chance to make other changes to the agency at the hub of the pandemic. Meanwhile, the FDA could also find itself at the center of the abortion debate and a controversial new medication to treat Alzheimer’s disease. Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico, and Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more.

Skirmish Between Biden and Red States Over Medicaid Leaves Enrollees in the Balance

KFF Health News Original

The Biden administration is getting rid of several policies implemented by Trump-era appointees that restricted enrollment. Federal officials now say states can no longer charge premiums to low-income residents enrolled in Medicaid and have ruled out work requirements.