The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
Showing 41 - 60 of 85
Unvaccinated people are filling intensive care beds and dying of covid in record numbers in Tennessee and other Southern states. Many tell their nurses and doctors they regret the decision not to get the vaccine when they could.
Many more people could benefit from the lifesaving treatment than are receiving it, which has made for messy triaging as the delta variant surges across the South and in rural communities with low covid vaccination rates.
Community Health Systems, a large, for profit hospital chain, shrank from more than 200 to 84 facilities. It is continuing to sue patients for hospitals that now exist as little more than legal entities.
Vermont and Massachusetts lead the nation, with more than 70% of adults having had at least one dose of a covid-19 vaccine. Southern states like Tennessee lag far behind.
Some immigrant groups are closing the ethnic gap on COVID-19 shots. For many Kurdish Americans, their fears about vaccination are entangled with their experiences in refugee camps after fleeing Iraq.
Hospitalizations are down 62% for childhood respiratory illnesses, a study shows. Masking and social distancing are keeping a variety of viruses in check this flu season.
As the speed of covid vaccinations picks up, so do the reports of doses going to waste. Health officials are trying to rein in waste without slowing down vaccinations.
Community health clinics are key to getting more Black and Hispanic Americans vaccinated, federal officials say. In Nashville, a vaccination push at federally funded clinics is underway.
In most Tennessean counties, residents currently eligible to get the coronavirus vaccine are health care workers, long-term care residents and people 75 and older. But don't expect strict enforcement.
More than 93,000 COVID patients are hospitalized across the country. But beds and space aren't the main concern for hospital administrators — It's the health care workforce.
The CARES Act provides funding that pays the bills for uninsured COVID-19 patients. But the death of a young man in Nashville shows some patients don't know about the program until it’s too late.
Health experts agree masks are the cheapest, best weapon against the coronavirus pandemic. But how should mask-wearing be enforced? Mandates? Fines? Polite requests? It’s hard to figure out what works as President Donald Trump's behavior keeps the debate alive over whether they should be worn at all.
The National Institutes of Health has suggested minorities should be overrepresented in COVID-19 vaccine trials — perhaps at rates that are double their percentage of the U.S. population. But efforts to recruit patients from racial minority groups are just beginning, while some trials have already advanced to phase 3.
Epidemiologists are having a hard time predicting whether Labor Day will be like the Fourth of July and Memorial Day, when celebrations fanned the flames in coronavirus hot spots around the South and West.
Nationwide, coronavirus infection numbers are trending down, but several states are seeing upticks, with the heaviest impact falling on communities of color and nursing home residents.
Some large employers interpreted themselves as exempt from new federal laws that say tests for the coronavirus should be free to patients. Large academic medical centers are holding back from sending bills to these patients to avoid a backlash over surprise billing.
Just about anyone who wants a coronavirus test in the state of Tennessee can get one. How? The state got buy-in and lots of participation from private labs by assuring them it will pay them.
Though it already had one staff member testing positive for the coronavirus, the Gallatin Center for Rehabilitation and Healing did not tell 911 operators this fact as it called ambulances to take residents in respiratory distress to the hospital, a WPLN investigation reveals.
Many health officials around the nation have not released data on the ethnic and racial demographics of people tested for the new coronavirus. But public health experts said the anecdotes are adding up, and they fear the response to the pandemic will result in predictable health care disparities.
There is currently no central coordination of the supply of protective garb and masks in U.S. hospital inventories. A CDC project wants hospitals to share that information for the good of all.
Stay informed by signing up for the Morning Briefing and other emails:
© 2026 KFF