092320 Medicare and aging

Rural Hospitals Teeter on Financial Cliff as COVID Medicare Loans Come Due
By Sarah Jane Tribble A lack of direction from federal administrators is causing confusion for many hospital administrators. Rural hospitals are among the ones hit hardest.

It’s Not Just Insulin: Lawmakers Focus on Price of One Drug, While Others Rise Too
By Rachana Pradhan While insulin is the poster child for outrageous prescription costs, patients are paying ever more to treat depression, asthma, HIV, cholesterol and more. And the pandemic has overtaken efforts to force the issue in Congress.

Why Black Aging Matters, Too
By Judith Graham Photos by Heidi de Marco Older Blacks are perishing quietly, out of sight, victims of the pandemic and a lifetime of racism and its attendant adverse health effects.

In Face of COVID Threat, More Dialysis Patients Bring Treatment Home
By Heidi de Marco Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, more patients are administering dialysis to themselves at home rather than receiving it in a clinic. Although home dialysis limits exposure to the virus, it comes with its own challenges.

New Dental Treatment Helps Fill Cavities and Insurance Gaps for Seniors
By Michelle Crouch A new treatment for tooth decay is cheaper, quicker and less painful than getting a filling. Originally touted as a solution for kids, silver diamine fluoride is poised to become a game changer for treating cavities in older adults or those with disabilities that make oral care difficult.

A Pandemic Upshot: Seniors Are Having Second Thoughts About Where to Live
By Judith Graham More than 70,000 residents and staff members at nursing homes and assisted living facilities have died of COVID-19, and others are under strict rules designed to keep the disease from spreading. That has evoked concern that living in a communal facility could be dangerous.

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: It’s Scandal Week
President Donald Trump this week issued a prescription drug pricing order unlikely to lower drug prices, and he contradicted comments by his director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the need for mask-wearing and predictions for vaccine availability. Meanwhile, scandals erupted at the CDC, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Food and Drug Administration. And the number of people without health insurance grew in 2019, reported the Census Bureau, even while the economy soared. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Tami Luhby of CNN and Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss this and more. Plus, for extra credit, the panelists recommend their favorite health policy stories of the week they think you should read, too.

Urban Hospitals of Last Resort Cling to Life in Time of COVID
By Jordan Rau and Emmarie Huetteman Rural hospitals have been closing at a quickening pace in recent years, but a number of inner-city hospitals now face a similar fate. Experts fear that the economic damage inflicted by the COVID pandemic is helping push some of these urban hospitals over the edge at the very time their services are most needed.