KHN Weekly Edition 061121
Labor Department Issues Emergency Rules to Protect Health Care Workers From Covid
Christina Jewett
Citing the deaths of thousands of health care workers, the new rules will force employers to report fatalities or hospitalizations to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and provide higher-quality protective gear, among other actions.
Doctor on Call? Lawmakers Debate How Much to Pay for Phone Appointments
Rachel Bluth
Phone visits became an option for many Medicare and Medicaid patients during the pandemic. Now policymakers are deciding whether they’re worth the money.
Farmworkers Recall Mistreatment as Colorado Aims to Guarantee Medical Access
Esther Honig and Rae Ellen Bichell
Agricultural workers living in employer-owned housing can have trouble getting health care. It’s symptomatic of bigger gaps in worker protections that the pandemic spotlighted, say proponents of a newly passed Colorado bill for farmworker rights.
Biden Kept His Promise to Increase Covid-Testing Capacity, Even as Demand for Testing Drops
Victoria Knight
Experts told us that the system’s capacity has improved and people now have access to different testing options.
KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Our 200th Episode!
The federal approval of a controversial drug to treat Alzheimer’s disease has reignited the debate over drug prices and the way the Food and Drug Administration makes decisions. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden seeks to gain goodwill overseas as he announces the U.S. will provide 500 million doses of covid vaccine to international health efforts. Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet, Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times and Joanne Kenen of Politico join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also, Rovner interviews Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, the new administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. And to mark the podcast’s 200th episode, the panelists discuss what has surprised them most and least over the past four years.
Lawmakers Pressure Newsom to ‘Step Up’ on Racism as a Public Health Issue
Angela Hart
California Democratic lawmakers are asking Gov. Gavin Newsom to approve $100 million per year to fund programs that address health inequality and structural racism.
Change to Gilead Assistance Program Threatens PrEP Access, HIV Advocates Say
Carmen Heredia Rodriguez
Safety-net clinics especially are bracing for how the drugmaker’s policy shift could reduce their budgets and hamstring their ability to provide care to an at-risk population.
New Montana Laws Enshrine Health Care Alternatives, for Better or Worse
Andrea Halland
Direct primary care and health care sharing ministries can offer people more accessible or cheaper health care options, but they lack the benefits of traditional insurance and aren’t regulated.
Can a Subscription Model Fix Primary Care in the US?
Bernard J. Wolfson
Medical subscriptions, a $199 million CEO payday and the race to fix primary care in the U.S. One Medical is betting big that a subscription model can fix primary care. But the firm faces competition from CVS, Target and large hospital systems.
Zooming Into the Statehouse: Nursing Home Residents Use New Digital Skills to Push for Changes
Susan Jaffe
Connecticut residents who learned how to communicate with family and friends through digital technology when their nursing homes closed to visitors last year used that skill to testify remotely during legislative hearings on bills affecting them.
An Anti-Vaccine Film Targeted to Black Americans Spreads False Information
Will Stone
A new movie produced by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s anti-vaccine group tries to capitalize on the covid-19 pandemic, the racial justice movement and renewed interest in the history of medical racism.
Women Now Drink as Much as Men — And Are Prone to Sickness Sooner
Aneri Pattani
Young women have closed the gender gap for excessive drinking. And that was before the pandemic. The trend is particularly troubling because women are at greater risk for blackouts, liver disease, cardiovascular diseases and certain cancers linked to alcohol use.
Unused Johnson & Johnson Covid Doses Are Piling Up as FDA Waits to See if Shelf Life Can Be Extended
Rachana Pradhan and Christina Jewett
As vaccine expiration dates loom, states with hundreds of thousands of doses on hand say demand is tanking and there’s no easy way to donate to other states or countries that might want them
Boeing Tested Air Purifiers Like Those Widely Used in Schools. It Decided Not to Use Them in Planes.
Christina Jewett and Lauren Weber
The technology that schools have been snapping up in the fight against covid “has not shown significant disinfection effectiveness” to install on its planes, Boeing found. Now the company’s study is being debated in a proposed class-action suit.
Kidney Experts Say It’s Time to Remove Race From Medical Algorithms. Doing So Is Complicated.
Rae Ellen Bichell and Cara Anthony
When estimating how well a patient’s kidneys are working, doctors frequently turn to an equation that depends on a question: Is the patient Black? Kidney experts are now debating how to remove the race adjustment and whether the question is a function of sound science. It’s considered just the first step in dismantling institutional racism in kidney care.
With Roots in Civil Rights, Community Health Centers Push for Equity in the Pandemic
Shalina Chatlani, WWNO
Community health centers were born in the 1960s to reach low-income communities. But some rural health experts say federally qualified health centers were a missing piece in achieving early equity in the vaccine rollout.
Trying to Avoid Racist Health Care, Black Women Seek Out Black Obstetricians
Verónica Zaragovia, WLRN
Besides shared culture and values, a Black physician can offer Black patients a sense of safety, validation and trust. By contrast, the impact of systemic racism can show up starkly in childbirth. Black women are three times as likely to die after giving birth as white women in the United States.
Montana Med School Clash Revives For-Profit Vs. Nonprofit Flap
Victoria Knight
Two medical schools vie to open in Montana, highlighting the rapid spread of for-profit schools and their previously tarnished business model.
With Restrictions Tightening Elsewhere, California Moves to Make Abortion Cheaper
Rachel Bluth
California lawmakers are debating a bill that would eliminate out-of-pocket costs that often prevent people from obtaining abortions, proponents say.
Covid Was a Tipping Point for Telehealth. If Some Have Their Way, Virtual Visits Are Here to Stay.
Noam N. Levey
Pressure is mounting on Congress and the Biden administration to make permanent pandemic-inspired rules that fueled telehealth growth. Some fear fraud and ballooning costs.
Hoy, las mujeres toman tanto como los hombres, pero sufren las consecuencias antes
Aneri Pattani
Desde hace casi un siglo, las mujeres han ido cerrando la brecha de género en el consumo de alcohol, las borracheras y los trastornos que acarrea.