Health care costs & insurance 070820
‘Please Tell Me My Life Is Worth A LITTLE Of Your Discomfort,’ Nurse Pleads
Anna Almendrala
Health care workers on the front lines of the COVID crisis have spent exhausting months working and self-quarantining off-duty to keep from infecting others, including their families. Encountering people who indignantly refuse face coverings can feel like a slap in the face.
US Nurses At For-Profit Hospital Chain To Strike Over Cuts And PPE Shortages
Michael Sainato, The Guardian
Health care workers report understaffing, long hours and protective equipment shortages at HCA Healthcare hospitals.
Workers Filed More Than 4,100 Complaints About Protective Gear. Some Still Died.
Christina Jewett and Shefali Luthra and Melissa Bailey
As health workers were dying of COVID-19, federal work-safety officials filed just one citation against an employer and rapidly closed complaints about protective gear.
Hospital Executive Charged In $1.4B Rural Hospital Billing Scheme
Lauren Weber and Barbara Feder Ostrov
In an investigation last year, KHN detailed the rise and fall of Miami businessman Jorge A. Perez’s rural hospital empire, which spanned eight states and encompassed half of the rural hospital bankruptcies in 2019.
Trabajadora esencial recibe una factura pandémica de $1,840 por COVID
Sarah Varney
Ten cuidado si tu médico te envía a la sala de emergencias para una prueba de COVID, porque cualquier atención adicional que recibas allí podría tener un alto precio.
If You’ve Lost Your Health Plan In The COVID Crisis, You’ve Got Options
Julie Appleby
But some of those options, like special enrollment periods, are time-sensitive.
Essential Worker Shoulders $1,840 Pandemic Debt Due To COVID Cost Loophole
Sarah Varney
Carmen Quintero had symptoms of COVID-19, couldn’t get tested and ended up with a huge bill. She also was told to self-isolate and assume she had the coronavirus — which is hard when you live with elders.
Pruebas para el VPH y el cáncer cervical podrían hacerse en casa
Charlotte Huff
El Instituto Nacional del Cáncer lanzará un estudio que involucrará a unas 5,000 mujeres para evaluar si la autoprueba casera puede equivaler a la que realiza el médico en un consultorio.
NIH Spearheads Study To Test At-Home Screening For HPV And Cervical Cancer
Charlotte Huff
The National Cancer Institute plans to launch a multisite study next year involving roughly 5,000 women to assess whether self-sampling at home for the human papillomavirus that causes cervical cancer is comparable to screening in a doctor’s office.
Si perdiste tu seguro de salud por la crisis de COVID-19, tienes opciones
Julie Appleby
Algunos pueden adquirir un seguro de salud bajo ACA apelando a un período especial de inscripción. Otros descubren que pueden aplicar para Medicaid. Hay alternativas pero el tiempo corre.
Wealthy Hospital Taps Craft Breweries For Aid To Buy Masks, Gloves
Phil Galewitz
Although the federal government has poured billions of dollars into hospitals to defray their losses from the coronavirus outbreak, new streams of fundraising have emerged — including health worker-themed beer that adds “a drop in the bucket.”
Citing COVID, Sutter Pushes To Revisit Landmark Antitrust Settlement
Jenny Gold
Six months after agreeing to a $575 million settlement in a landmark antitrust case, Sutter Health has yet to pay a single dollar and now says the terms may be untenable, given the strain caused by the pandemic.
California Lawmakers Block Health Care Cuts
Samantha Young
State legislators and Gov. Gavin Newsom have hammered out an agreement on a budget that rejects Newsom’s proposed cuts to health care services for older and low-income people.
Ghost Bill: UVA Siphons Couple’s Tax Refund To Pay 20-Year-Old Medical Debt
Michelle Andrews
Jane Collins and Anthony Blow were stunned to learn last fall that their state tax refund was being reduced by $110 because the Charlottesville medical center said they owed money for care their son received in 2001 and 2002.
KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: The Pandemic Shifts; The Politics, Not So Much
While federal and state officials continue to wrangle over coronavirus testing, the population testing positive is skewing younger. Meanwhile, the Trump administration wins a round in court over its requirements for hospitals to publicly reveal their prices, and the fight over the fate of the Affordable Care Act heats up once again. Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Paige Winfield Cunningham of The Washington Post and Kimberly Leonard of Business Insider join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss this and more. Also, Rovner interviews former Obama administration health aide Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, who has written a new book comparing international health systems.
2021 Health Plans Granted Leeway To Limit Consumers’ Benefit From Drug Coupons
Michelle Andrews
A rule finalized this spring by the Trump administration permits employers and insurers not to apply drug company copayment assistance toward enrollees’ deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums for any drug.
COVID Catch-22: They Got A Big ER Bill Because Hospitals Couldn’t Test For Virus
Julie Appleby
Americans who had coronavirus symptoms in March and April are getting big hospital bills — because they were not sick enough to get then-scarce COVID tests. Some insurers say they are trying to correct these bills, but patients may have to put up a fight.
Analysis: How A COVID-19 Vaccine Could Cost Americans Dearly
Elisabeth Rosenthal
The United States is the only developed nation unable to balance cost, efficacy and social good in setting prices.