KHN Weekly Edition: November 19, 2021
The ER Charged Him $6,500 for Six Stitches. No Wonder His Critically Ill Wife Avoided the ER.
Blake Farmer, Nashville Public Radio
With few options for health care in their rural community, a Tennessee couple’s experience with one outrageous bill could have led to a deadly decision the next time they needed help.
Stranded by the Pandemic, He Had Only Travel Insurance. It Left Him With a $38,000 Bill.
Arthur Allen
Although it’s possible to buy travel insurance that provides some health coverage, the devil is in the fine print. Obama-era laws that prevent refusal of payment for preexisting conditions don’t apply to travel insurance.
Congressional Doctors Lead Bipartisan Revolt Over Policy on Surprise Medical Bills
Michael McAuliff
Congress last year shielded consumers from unexpected out-of-network charges, but hospitals and doctors have decried the arbitration plan put forward by the Biden administration for negotiating these bills as favoring insurers. More than 150 members of the House agree.
Your Out-of-Pocket Health Care Costs Need Not Be a Mystery
Bernard J. Wolfson
A new California law requires health insurance companies to notify consumers how much remains on their deductibles and how close they are to their annual out-of-pocket spending limits.
As Big Pharma and Hospitals Battle Over Drug Discounts, Patients Miss Out on Millions in Benefits
Sarah Jane Tribble and Emily Featherston, InvestigateTV
The number of pharmacies dispensing 340B discounted drugs soared to more than 31,000 this year. Drugmakers struck back by halting some discounts. Hospitals say they are losing millions of dollars — and cutting back services to patients — as a result.
How Rural Communities Are Losing Their Pharmacies
Markian Hawryluk
More than 1,000 independent rural pharmacies have closed since 2003, leaving 630 communities with no retail drugstore. As 41 million people stuck in pharmacy deserts make do, the remaining drugstores struggle to survive.
Public Opinion Is Unified on Lowering Drug Prices. Why Are Leaders Settling for Less?
Elisabeth Rosenthal
Politicians and many health experts have done their best to see the glass half-full in the plan put forward by congressional Democrats and the president. But it’s “a far cry” from what other nations do to rein in drug prices, and polls show most voters demand more protection.
Patients Get Stranded Out of Network as Insurer-Hospital Contract Talks Fall Apart
Andy Miller
As hospital systems and insurers adjust to the pandemic, their contract negotiations grow increasingly fraught. Contracts for in-network care are ending without a new deal, leaving patients suddenly with out-of-network bills or scrambling to find new in-network providers.
Missouri’s Thin Dental Safety Net Stretched Amid Medicaid Expansion
Bram Sable-Smith
An estimated 275,000 Missouri adults can get dental insurance now as the state has expanded who is eligible for Medicaid. But with so few dentists participating in the program, the state’s already-backlogged dental clinics are facing a glut of new clients.
Vaccine-or-Test Requirements Increase Work and Costs for Governments
Amanda Michelle Gomez and Phil Galewitz
But state and local officials embrace the requirement because it creates a safer workplace while allowing employees to continue working.
Quarantine and Tracing Rules Are All Over the Map for Students
Sheila Mulrooney Eldred
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers guidance but calls for localities to set quarantine rules for unvaccinated children exposed to someone with covid-19. That's led to a pandemic patchwork of rules.
Live Performers Find Red State Rules a Tough Act to Follow
Bruce Alpert
Theater companies and musical ensembles are restarting live performances after a crippling pandemic pause. In some conservative states, artists find creative ways to get around state laws that go against public health recommendations.
KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Boosting Confusion
Federal health officials appear poised to extend a recommendation for covid boosters to all adults, following moves by some governors and mayors to broaden the eligible booster pool as caseloads rise. Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration finally has a nominee to head the agency: former FDA chief Robert Califf. And Medicare premiums for consumers will likely rise substantially in 2022, partly due to the approval of a controversial drug to treat Alzheimer’s disease. Tami Luhby of CNN, Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet and Rachel Cohrs of Stat join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews Dan Weissmann, host of the “An Arm and a Leg” podcast.
A Covid Head-Scratcher: Why Lice Lurk Despite Physical Distancing
Rae Ellen Bichell
With kids back in school, business is picking back up for professional nitpickers. But how are kids getting head lice if they’re physically distancing in the classroom?
Schools, Pediatricians Look to Make Up Lost Ground on Non-Covid Vaccinations
Kate Ruder
Health officials hope the rollout of covid shots for young children and other initiatives will boost routine vaccine rates that dropped during the pandemic and narrow socioeconomic disparities.
California Plans for a Post-Roe World as Abortion Access Shrinks Elsewhere
Rachel Bluth
While other states dramatically restrict abortion and the conservative-leaning U.S. Supreme Court weighs Roe v. Wade, California is preparing to absorb the country’s abortion patients.
Texas Abortion Law Harms Survivors of Rape and Incest, Activists Say
Ashley Lopez, KUT
While anti-abortion activists say abortion exceptions are a “punishment” to “innocent human life,” social workers say Texas’ new abortion law rigidly curtails options for rape and incest survivors at a moment when they need the “power and control” of choice to begin healing.
What Happens After a Campus Suicide Is a Form of Prevention, Too
Aneri Pattani
The scientific term is “postvention,” and it informs how to navigate the emotional challenges that follow such a tragedy.
Journalists Offer Primers on Medicare Open Enrollment and Death Benefits Amid Covid
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.