KHN Weekly Edition: Jan. 14, 2022
Justices Block Broad Worker Vaccine Requirement, Allow Health Worker Mandate to Proceed
By Julie Rovner
The Supreme Court temporarily blocked a federal rule requiring larger businesses to mandate employees be vaccinated or wear masks and undergo weekly testing. At the same time, however, it allowed a federal order that health care workers be vaccinated.
Incidental Cases and Staff Shortages Make Covid’s Next Act Tough for Hospitals
By Lauren Weber and Phil Galewitz and Andy Miller
As omicron sweeps the country, many hospitals are dealing with a flood of people hospitalized with covid — including those primarily admitted for other reasons. While often milder cases, so-called incidental covid infections still drain the beleaguered health care workforce and can put them and other patients at higher risk for contracting covid.
With No End in Sight to Pandemic Life, Parents Find Disruption Is the New Normal
By Katharine Gammon
Amid covid-related staffing shortages and testing requirements, school systems are stretched thin. And so are parents’ nerves.
As Omicron Surges, Effort to Vaccinate Young Children Stalls
By Rachana Pradhan and Hannah Recht
Just 18% of 5- to 11-year-olds are fully vaccinated, with rates varying significantly across the country, a KHN analysis of federal data shows. Pediatricians say the slow pace and geographic disparities are alarming, especially against the backdrop of record numbers of cases and pediatric hospitalizations.
How Not to Use Rapid Covid Tests
By Julie Appleby and Phil Galewitz
Although at-home antigen testing remains a useful tool, experts warn it is often used inappropriately and can provide false confidence for people concerned about safety.
Ask KHN-PolitiFact: Is My Cloth Mask Good Enough? The 2022 Edition
By Victoria Knight
With the omicron variant surging throughout the U.S., many experts warn that a single-layer cloth mask is not enough protection. Instead, they recommend an upgrade: layering wardrobe masks with surgical masks or wearing an N95 or KN95 respirator.
Left Behind: Medicaid Patients Say Rides to Doctors Don’t Always Come
By Rebecca Grapevine and Andy Miller
States are required to set up transportation to medical appointments for adults, children and people with disabilities enrolled in the Medicaid program, and contracts can be worth tens of millions of dollars for transportation companies. But patients say the companies that deliver those rides are showing up late — and sometimes not at all — leaving them in bad weather, disrupting their care and even causing injuries.
Clinics Say State’s New Medicaid Drug Program Will Force Them to Cut Services
By Samantha Young
On Jan. 1, California started buying prescription drugs for its nearly 14 million Medicaid enrollees, a responsibility that had primarily been held by managed-care insurance plans. State officials estimate California will save hundreds of millions of dollars by flexing its purchasing power, but some health clinics expect to lose money.
Black-Owned Hospice Seeks to Bring Greater Ease in Dying to Black Families
By Blake Farmer, Nashville Public Radio
National data shows that Black Medicare patients and their families are not making the move to comfort care as often as white patients are. Experts speculate it's related to spiritual beliefs and widespread mistrust in the medical system due to decades of discrimination.
App Attempts to Break Barriers to Bankruptcy for Those in Medical Debt
By Blake Farmer, Nashville Public Radio
Medical bills are a leading reason people get stuck in a cycle of debt. Declaring bankruptcy is one lifeline, but attorney and court fees can put it out of reach. The nonprofit Upsolve created an app it calls the “TurboTax of bankruptcy” to help people hit the reset button and rebuild their financial lives.
Watch and Listen: Examining the Risks of Covid’s Spread Within Hospitals
KHN Midwest correspondent Lauren Weber talks about the risks of covid’s spread in hospitals on the “1A” radio program and on the Newsy TV network.
Long-Excluded Uterine Cancer Patients Are a Step Closer to 9/11 Benefits
By Erica Hensley
More than 20 years after the terrorist attacks, the World Trade Center Health Program is considering covering the most common form of uterine cancer, in what patient advocates say is a key acknowledgment of the women affected by the 9/11 fallout.
Fire Closes Hospital and Displaces Staff as Colorado Battles Omicron
By Kate Ruder
The most destructive fire in state history has knocked a hospital out of service and left health care workers homeless with omicron driving new covid hospitalizations.
KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Dealing With Drug Prices
Medicare officials tentatively plan to restrict the use of a controversial Alzheimer’s drug to only those patients participating in clinical trials, while the Department of Health and Human Services looks into lowering the monthly Medicare Part B premium. Meanwhile, covid confusion still reigns, as the Biden administration moves, belatedly, to make more masks and tests available. Joanne Kenen of Politico and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet and Rachel Cohrs of Stat join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more.