KHN Weekly Edition: March 17, 2023

FDA Looks Into Dental Device After KHN-CBS News Investigation of Patient Harm
By Brett Kelman and Anna Werner, CBS News The FDA’s interest in the AGGA dental device follows a KHN-CBS News investigation, according to a former agency official.

An Arm and a Leg: Wrestling With a Giant: How to Dispute a Hospital Bill
By Dan Weissmann One listener tried to dispute a $1,300 “facility fee” with the treating hospital, his insurer, a bill-mediation service provided by his employer, and finally a debt collector. He didn’t win, but he learned valuable lessons about advocating for hospital discounts.

New CDC Opioid Guidelines: Too Little, Too Late for Chronic Pain Patients?
By Sam Whitehead and Andy Miller In November, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new guidelines for prescribing opioids for pain, allowing physicians more flexibility. But doctors, patients, and advocates wonder if the updated standards will be too little, too late to help chronic pain patients in a country still focused on fighting the ongoing opioid crisis.

Feds Move to Rein In Prior Authorization, a System That Harms and Frustrates Patients
By Lauren Sausser The federal government wants to change the way health insurers use prior authorization — the requirement that patients get permission before undergoing treatment. Designed to prevent doctors from deploying expensive, ineffectual procedures, prior authorization has become a confusing maze that denies or delays care, burdens physicians with paperwork, and perpetuates racial disparities. New rules may not be enough to solve the problems.

Temp Nurses Cost Hospitals Big During Pandemic. Lawmakers Are Now Mulling Limits.
By Bram Sable-Smith Missouri is considering making it a felony to jack up temporary health care staffing prices during a statewide or national emergency. It’s one of at least 14 states looking to reel in travel nurse costs, after many hospitals struggled to pay for needed staffers earlier in the covid pandemic.

Black Lung Resurgence Drives Push to Protect Coal Miners Against Silica Dust
By Taylor Sisk Since 2005, central Appalachia has recorded a tenfold increase in cases of severe black lung disease among long-term coal miners. Now, federal regulators are expected to propose a new rule to protect against silica dust, which causes the most severe form of black lung, progressive massive fibrosis.

Pandemic Stress, Gangs, and Utter Fear Fueled a Rise in Teen Shootings
By Liz Szabo Illustration by Oona Zenda With their brains still developing and poor impulse control, teens who carry firearms might never plan to use them. But some do.

California’s Covid Misinformation Law Is Entangled in Lawsuits, Conflicting Rulings
By Bernard J. Wolfson A state law says giving false information to patients about covid-19 constitutes unprofessional conduct for which regulators can discipline doctors. Vaccine skeptics, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., join civil liberties groups and others in arguing that it violates free speech.

Colorado Bill Would Encourage, But Not Require, CPR Training in High Schools
By Helen Santoro Colorado is one of 10 states without a law requiring CPR training for high school students, but proposed legislation that recently passed the state House would only strongly urge schools to teach this lifesaving skill.

Two Counties Square Off With California Over Mental Health Duties
By Angela Hart The state wants to stop paying Kaiser Permanente for treating severely mentally ill Medi-Cal patients in Sacramento and Solano counties and force the counties to take on the task. The counties’ leaders say they can’t afford it.

The US Remains a Grim Leader in Preterm Births. Why? And Can We Fix It?
By Sarah Varney American women are more likely to deliver their babies prematurely than women in most developed countries. It’s a distinction that coincides with high rates of maternal and infant death, billions of dollars in costs, and even lifelong disabilities for the children who survive.

KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Judging the Abortion Pill
Any day now a conservative federal judge in Texas could upend the national abortion debate by requiring the FDA to rescind its approval of mifepristone, a drug approved in the U.S. more than 20 years ago that is now used in more than half of abortions nationwide. Meanwhile, a controversial study on masks gets a clarification, although it may be too late to change the public impression of what it found. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Jessie Hellmann of CQ Roll Call, and Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet join KHN chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Plus, for “extra credit,” the panelists suggest health policy stories they read this week they think you should read, too.

Listen to ‘Tradeoffs’: Medical Debt Delivers ‘A Shocking Amount of Misery’
By Noam N. Levey Medical debt in America pushes families to the edge. Ariane Buck and his wife, Samantha, were denied care at their doctor's office because of an unpaid bill of less than $100. A trip to the emergency room added thousands of dollars to their health care debt, which topped $50,000 by the time they filed for bankruptcy.

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