KFF Health News’ Weekly Edition: Jan. 5, 2024

In Year 6, KFF Health News-NPR’s ‘Bill of the Month’ Helps Patients in a Changing System
In the sixth year of the KFF Health News-NPR “Bill of the Month” series, patients shared more than 750 tales of medical billing problems, and reporters analyzed more than $730,000 in charges — including more than $215,000 owed by 12 patients and their families.

States Begin Tapping Medicaid Dollars to Combat Gun Violence
By Samantha Young The Biden administration is allowing states to use money from the insurance program for low-income and disabled residents to pay for gun violence prevention. California and six other states have approved such spending, with more expected to follow.

Older Americans Say They Feel Trapped in Medicare Advantage Plans
By Sarah Jane Tribble As enrollment in private Medicare Advantage plans grows, so do concerns about how well the insurance works, including from those who say they have become trapped in the private plans as their health declines.

Most People Dropped in Medicaid ‘Unwinding’ Never Tried to Renew Coverage, Utah Finds
By Phil Galewitz Medicaid officials in Utah conducted a survey to answer a burning question in health policy: What happened to people dropped from the program in the post-pandemic “unwinding”?

Doctors Are as Vulnerable to Addiction as Anyone. California Grapples With a Response.
By Bernard J. Wolfson The Medical Board of California, which licenses MDs, is developing a program to evaluate, treat, and monitor doctors with alcohol and drug problems. But there is sharp disagreement over whether those who might volunteer for the program should be subject to public disclosure and over how much participants should pay.

Woman Petitions Health Insurer After Company Approves — Then Rejects — Her Infusions
By Lauren Sausser Illustration by Oona Zenda Even people with good insurance aren't guaranteed affordable care, as this KFF Health News follow-up to one patient’s saga shows.

Patients With Narcolepsy Face a Dual Nightmare of Medication Shortages and Stigma
By Lauren Peace, Tampa Bay Times It's been more than a year since the FDA declared a national shortage of Adderall, and it’s affecting more than just patients with ADHD. Those with narcolepsy, a much rarer condition, are often treated with the same medication. Without it, they're often unable to drive or function as usual.

California Is Poised to Protect Workers From Extreme Heat — Indoors
By Samantha Young Only a few states have rules to protect workers from the growing threat of extreme heat, either indoors or outdoors. California is expected to adopt heat standards for indoor workers in spring, even as federal legislation has stalled.

Can Family Doctors Deliver Rural America From Its Maternal Health Crisis?
By Sarah Jane Tribble Family medicine doctors already deliver most of rural America's babies, and efforts to train more in obstetrics care are seen as a way to cope with labor and delivery unit closures.

Child Care Gaps in Rural America Threaten to Undercut Small Communities
By Jazmin Orozco Rodriguez Deep gaps in rural America’s child care system threaten communities’ stability by shrinking the workforce and inhibiting economic potential. Now that pandemic-era federal aid for child care programs and low-income families has ended, it’s up to state and local leaders to find solutions.

Mental Health Courts Can Struggle to Fulfill Decades-Old Promise
By Sam Whitehead Mental health courts have been touted as a means to help reduce the flow of people with mental illness into jails and prisons. But the specialized diversion programs can struggle to live up to that promise, and some say they’re a bad investment.

States Expand Health Coverage for Immigrants as GOP Hits Biden Over Border Crossings
By Phil Galewitz More than 1 million immigrants, most lacking permanent legal status, are covered by state health programs. Several states, including GOP-led Utah, will soon add or expand such coverage.

RFK Jr.’s Campaign of Conspiracy Theories Is PolitiFact’s 2023 Lie of the Year
By Madison Czopek, PolitiFact and Katie Sanders, PolitiFact Debate and speculation are heating up over whether Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign will factor into the outcome of the 2024 election. But one thing is clear: Kennedy’s political following is built on a movement that seeks to legitimize conspiracy theories.

KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': New Year, Same Abortion Debate
Some Supreme Court justices were wrong if they assumed overturning "Roe v. Wade" would settle the abortion issue before the high court. At least two cases are awaiting consideration, and more are in the legal pipeline. Meanwhile, Congress once again has only days until the next temporary spending bill runs out, with no budget deal in sight. Lauren Weber of The Washington Post, Shefali Luthra of The 19th, and Victoria Knight of Axios join KFF Health News chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews Sandro Galea, dean of the Boston University School of Public Health, about how public health can regain public trust.

An Arm and a Leg: When Hospitals Sue Patients (Part 2)
By Dan Weissmann Why do hospitals sue patients who can’t afford to pay their medical bills? On this episode of “An Arm and a Leg,” host Dan Weissmann investigates such lawsuits and covers new laws and regulations that may change this practice.

Listen to ‘Tradeoffs’: How the Loss of a Rural Hospital Compounds the Collapse of Care
Six years ago, the hospital in Fort Scott, Kansas, shuttered, leaving residents in the small community without a cornerstone health care institution. In the years since, despite new programs meant to save small hospitals, dozens of other communities have watched theirs close.

Listen to the Latest ‘KFF Health News Minute’
“Health Minute” brings original health care and health policy reporting from the KFF Health News newsroom to the airwaves each week.