Latest News On Illinois

Latest KFF Health News Stories

Hospital Investigated for Allegedly Denying an Emergency Abortion After Patient’s Water Broke

KFF Health News Original

Federal officials have ordered the probe after reports that a woman whose water broke at 18 weeks could not get medical care recommended by her doctors to end the pregnancy because hospital officials were concerned about Missouri’s strict abortion law.

$38,398 for a Single Shot of a Very Old Cancer Drug

KFF Health News Original

Lupron, a drug patented half a century ago, treats advanced prostate cancer. It’s sold to physicians for $260 in the U.K. and administered at no charge. Why are U.S. hospitals — which may pay nearly as little for the drug — charging so much more to administer it?

A Billing Expert Saved Big After Finding an Incorrect Charge in Her Husband’s ER Bill

KFF Health News Original

A medical billing specialist investigated her husband’s ER bill. Her sleuthing took over a year but knocked thousands of dollars off the hospital’s charges — and provides a playbook for other consumers.

Baby, That Bill Is High: Private Equity ‘Gambit’ Squeezes Excessive ER Charges From Routine Births

KFF Health News Original

Hospitals, boosted by private equity-backed staffing companies, have embraced a new idea: the obstetrics emergency department. Often, it is just a triage room in the labor-and-delivery area, but it bills like the main emergency department.

Shattered Dreams and Bills in the Millions: Losing a Baby in America

KFF Health News Original

On top of fearing for their children’s lives, new parents of very fragile, very sick infants can face exorbitant hospital bills — even if they have insurance. Medical bills don’t go away if a child dies.

Public Health Agencies Adapt Covid Lessons to Curb Overdoses, STDs, and Gun Violence

KFF Health News Original

Know-how gained through the covid pandemic is seeping into other public health areas. But in a nation that has chronically underfunded its public health system, it’s hard to know which changes will stick.

On the Wisconsin-Illinois Border: Clinics in Neighboring States Team Up on Abortion Care

KFF Health News Original

When Roe v. Wade was overturned, Wisconsin banned nearly all abortions. To preserve access, now more than a dozen providers are traveling across the border into Illinois to treat patients. This partnership between Planned Parenthood organizations could be a model as dozens of abortion clinics close across the U.S.

Nursing Homes Are Suing the Friends and Family of Residents to Collect Debts

KFF Health News Original

Debt lawsuits — long a byproduct of America’s medical debt crisis — can ensnare not only patients but also those who help sick and older people be admitted to nursing homes, a KHN-NPR investigation finds.

The Push for Abortion Lawmaking After ‘Dobbs’ Is Unique, Legal and Political Experts Say

KFF Health News Original

The surge of calls for special legislative sessions to pass abortion laws is an unusual occurrence in modern U.S. history, according to experts — one caused by the Supreme Court’s decision to give states more power to regulate abortion.

States Fight Student Mental Health Crisis With Days Off

KFF Health News Original

In early 2022, Illinois joined a growing number of states where lawmakers and school leaders are trying to combat the ongoing student mental health crisis by granting days off for mental health needs.

Caskets Wrapped in Colorful Images Pay Tribute to Young Lives Lost to Trauma and Violence

KFF Health News Original

Mourners are wrapping caskets in imagery, similar to the way companies wrap logos around cars, trucks, and buses. Across the country, casket-wrap companies create custom designs, too often for grieving parents who have lost their children to gun violence.

States Have Yet to Spend Hundreds of Millions of Federal Dollars to Tackle Covid Health Disparities

KFF Health News Original

A year ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention awarded states and local health departments $2.25 billion to help people of color and other populations at higher risk from covid. But a KHN review shows public health agencies across the country have been slow to spend it.