KFF Health News On NPR

When False Information Goes Viral, COVID-19 Patient Groups Fight Back

Fear and uncertainty about the coronavirus have made online patient support groups fertile ground for the spread of misinformation. But some in these groups make fact-checking a part of the mission to support fellow COVID sufferers.

Crooked Media and KHN’s ‘No Mercy’ Dissect Fallout After Rural Hospital Shuts

Crooked Media’s “America Dissected” explores the rural health crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. Podcast guest KHN Editor-in-Chief Elisabeth Rosenthal said: “I expect we’ll see a lot more rural hospital failures.”

They Work in Several Nursing Homes to Eke Out a Living, Possibly Spreading the Virus

An analysis of location data from 30 million smartphones found that facilities across the country that share the most workers also had the most COVID-19 infections. The “Kevin Bacon of nursing homes” in each state — the one with the most staffers working at other nursing homes — was likely to have the worst outbreaks of coronavirus contagion.

‘You’re Going to Release Him When He Was Hurting Himself?’

Daniel Prude’s family knew he needed psychiatric care and tried to get it for him. Instead, his encounter with police hours after he was released from Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, New York, proved fatal.

Public Health Officials Face Wave Of Threats, Pressure Amid Coronavirus Response

Public health officials are confronting growing pressure — and threats — across the country as the backlash to the coronavirus response continues. At least 27 state and local health leaders have resigned, retired or been fired since April across 13 states.

Eerie Emptiness Of ERs Worries Doctors As Heart Attack And Stroke Patients Delay Care

Emergency department volumes are down 40 to 50 percent across the country. Doctors worry a new wave of cardiac patients is headed their way — people who have delayed care and will be sicker and more injured when they finally seek care.

Before ‘Tidal Wave’ Of Illness, Nursing Home Thought It Had COVID-19 Contained

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.

Why Hoarding Of Hydroxychloroquine Needs To Stop

Six states — Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas —  have taken steps to limit inappropriate prescriptions for the medicine and preserve supplies for patients who take it for lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.

Listen: The Hard-Knock Health Law Turns 10 Amid Pandemic

On the 10th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, Kaiser Health News chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner and Kaiser Family Foundation Executive Vice President Larry Levitt put the law in perspective.