KHN Weekly Edition: July 29, 2022

The Ambulance Chased One Patient Into Collections
By Bram Sable-Smith After a car wreck, three siblings were transported to the same hospital by ambulances from three separate districts. The sibling with the most minor injuries got the biggest bill.

Nursing Homes Are Suing the Friends and Family of Residents to Collect Debts
By Noam N. Levey Debt lawsuits — long a byproduct of America’s medical debt crisis — can ensnare not only patients but also those who help sick and older people be admitted to nursing homes, a KHN-NPR investigation finds.

Hospices Have Become Big Business for Private Equity Firms, Raising Concerns About End-of-Life Care
By Markian Hawryluk Private equity firms are seeing opportunities for profit in hospice care, once the domain of nonprofit organizations. The investment companies are transforming the industry — and might be jeopardizing patient care — in the process.

Everything You Need to Know About Paxlovid — Especially, Should You Take It?
By Michelle Andrews Paxlovid has eclipsed other available therapies for preventing life-threatening covid symptoms in high-risk patients. But even as doctors praise its effectiveness, many say they have unanswered questions about prescribing the drug and want more and better data about it.

To Stem the Spread of Monkeypox, Health Departments Tap Into Networks of Those Most at Risk
By Céline Gounder Although the disease is currently spreading almost exclusively among men who have sex with men, some cases are turning up in other populations — and that number is likely to grow if public health officials don’t effectively nip the outbreak in the bud.

What the Polio Case in New York Tells Us About the End of Polio
By Arthur Allen The Rockland County case isn’t expected to cause a major outbreak, but it shows how even this rare disease can pop up in undervaccinated communities.

The US Mental Health Hotline Network Is Expanding, but Rural Areas Still Face Care Shortages
By Christina Saint Louis On July 16, a three-digit number, 988, became the centerpiece of a nationwide effort to unify responses to Americans experiencing mental health crises. But many people, especially those in rural areas, will continue to find themselves far from help if they need more support than call operators can offer.

Watch: Navigating Social Media After Mass Shootings
By Hannah Norman A University of Pennsylvania professor shares advice on navigating the intersection of gun violence and social media as part of KHN’s new “Spotlight” interview series.

Health Insurance Price Data: It’s Out There, but It’s Not for the Faint of Heart
By Julie Appleby Health insurers and self-insured employer plans are now required to post their negotiated rates for almost every type of medical service. But navigating through the trove of information is no easy task.

Even Well-Intended Laws Can’t Protect Us From Inaccurate Provider Directories
By Bernard J. Wolfson State and federal laws require health plans to offer accurate lists of participating doctors and facilities, but consumers still struggle to get timely appointments with providers.

Ad Targeting Manchin and AARP Mischaracterizes Medicare Drug-Price Negotiations
By Victoria Knight and Colleen DeGuzman The advocacy group American Commitment said empowering Medicare to negotiate drug prices would raid it of billions of dollars. Drug pricing experts say that that’s not the case and that such policies would instead reduce costs for the Medicare program and seniors.

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Manchin Makes a Deal
In a rare surprise for official Washington, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) announced a deal to expand the planned health bill in the Senate to include provisions raising taxes and addressing climate change. The measure would include a third year of expanded subsidies for the Affordable Care Act, but not health care coverage for people left out of Medicaid in states that failed to expand the program. Meanwhile, the ACA goes back to court, and the Biden administration restores anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people that were rolled back by the Trump administration. Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico, Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet, and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews Dr. Céline Gounder of KHN about the latest on the monkeypox outbreak.

‘American Diagnosis’: Two Indigenous Students Share Their Path to Medicine
A lack of Native physicians means many tribal communities rely on doctors who don’t share their lived experience, culture, or spiritual beliefs. In Episode 9, meet two medical students working to join the ranks of Indigenous physicians.

‘True Cost of Aging’ Index Shows Many Seniors Can’t Afford Basic Necessities
By Judith Graham The Elder Index, developed by researchers at the University of Massachusetts-Boston, shows that nearly 5 million older women living alone, 2 million older men living alone, and more than 2 million older couples have incomes that make them economically insecure.

Post-‘Roe,’ People Are Seeking Permanent Sterilizations, and Some Are Being Turned Away
By Aaron Bolton, MTPR and Ellis Juhlin Doctors in states where abortion is or could be banned say more patients are seeking permanent sterilization procedures, but some patients are reporting that providers are unwilling to operate on people of childbearing age.

Listen: Can California Lower the Price of Insulin?
California Healthline senior correspondent Angela Hart describes California’s ambitious plan to manufacture generic insulin under the state’s new “CalRx” drug label.

Journalists Reexamine Mental Health Barriers, Gun Control Laws, and Homelessness
KHN and California Healthline staff made the rounds on national and local media this week to discuss their stories. Here’s a collection of their appearances.