Weekly Edition: February 7, 2020

On Drug Pricing, The President’s Numbers Are Still Off
By Shefali Luthra We checked again. The data has not changed.

Trump On ‘Medicare for All’ And The Costs Of Extending Health Care To Undocumented Immigrants 
By Shefali Luthra In his Feb. 4 State of the Union address, President Donald Trump said the cost of extending health care to people regardless of their citizenship status would "bankrupt" the U.S.

More Resources — Check These Fact Checks From Previous Trump Health Care Claims
Here's a sampling of recent fact checks related to some of the health care claims made during President Donald Trump's Feb. 4 State of the Union speech.

Women Shouldn’t Get A Bill For An IUD … But Sometimes They Do
By Shefali Luthra The Affordable Care Act requires that insurers cover birth control with no out-of-pocket costs, but the enforcement mechanism is weak and a pending court case could add further complications.

Patients Stuck With Bills After Insurers Don’t Pay As Promised
By Lauren Weber Insurance companies often require patients to have medical procedures, devices, tests and even some medicines preapproved to ensure the insurers are willing to cover the costs. But that doesn’t guarantee they’ll end up paying. Some patients are getting stuck with unexpected bills after the medical service has been provided.

Watch: Let’s Talk About Trump’s Health Care Policies
By Hannah Norman KHN’s Shefali Luthra examines the president’s talking points on a range of topics — from insurance coverage, access to care and affordability issues to preexisting condition protections and prescription drug costs.

Why Home Health Care Is Suddenly Harder To Come By For Medicare Patients
By Judith Graham Medicare has changed how it pays for services. In response, agencies across the country are firing therapists, limiting physical, occupational and speech therapy, and terminating services for some longtime, severely ill patients.

What To Do If Your Home Health Care Agency Ditches You
By Judith Graham If you’re told Medicare’s home health benefits have changed, don’t believe it: Coverage rules haven’t been altered and people are still entitled to the same types of services. All that has changed is how Medicare pays agencies.

To Boost Bottom Lines, Single-Payer May Be Just What These Restaurateurs Ordered
By Shefali Luthra Small-business owners, frustrated by the byzantine health system, are warming to the idea of a “Medicare for All,” government-run system, even if it increases their taxes. But they have questions.

Patients Caught In Crossfire Between Giant Hospital Chain, Large Insurer
By Brian Krans Insurance giant Cigna and San Francisco-based Dignity Health have failed to ink a 2020 contract, leaving nearly 17,000 patients in California and Nevada scrambling to find new health care providers. Meanwhile, Dignity faces financial and legal challenges while it strives to implement its merger with Catholic Health Initiatives, which created one of the nation’s largest Catholic hospital systems.

Feds Slow Down But Don’t Stop Georgia’s Contentious Effort To Ditch ACA Marketplace
By Steven Findlay The state proposes to jettison the federal insurance exchange and instead send people buying individual coverage to private companies to choose coverage. It would also cap how much money is spent on premium subsidies, which could mean some consumers would be put on a wait list if they needed financial help buying a plan.

Good Rehab Is Hard To Find
By Bernard J. Wolfson Helping a loved one overcome addiction isn’t easy. Start by listening to people who have been through it. They can help find effective treatment and avoid unethical or incompetent operators.

As VA Tests Keto Diet To Help Diabetic Patients, Skeptics Raise Red Flags
By Jasper Craven The Department of Veterans Affairs is partnering with Virta Health, a California startup that offers remote coaching and monitoring for people with Type 2 diabetes to help them follow the ultra-low carbohydrate diet.

Public Health Officials Offer Scant Details On U.S. Coronavirus Patients
By Anna Maria Barry-Jester and Anna Almendrala To date, the U.S. has multiple confirmed cases of the viral infection that originated in Wuhan, China. That includes cases in which the virus passed from person to person within this country. So why don’t health officials share more information with the public?

Listen: Which Is The Greater Threat — The Coronavirus Or The Flu?
Kaiser Health News reporter Liz Szabo talked to Connecticut Public Radio about the risks of the novel coronavirus compared with influenza.

Listen: Updates On Coronavirus Outbreak And How It Affects Chinese Immigrants
California Healthline reporters Anna Maria Barry-Jester and Anna Almendrala spoke with WNHN’s “The Attitude w/ Arnie Arnesen” about the novel coronavirus and its impact on Asian immigrants in the United States.

KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: Fact-Checking President Trump’s State Of The Union
President Donald Trump spent a good deal of time on health issues in his State of the Union address, but not everything he said checks out. Meanwhile, Iowa Democrats heading into the caucuses said health is their top issue, but it’s hard to see how that played out in their actual choices. Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Kimberly Leonard of the Washington Examiner and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss this and more. Also, Rovner interviews KHN’s Julie Appleby and NPR’s Selena Simmons-Duffin about the latest “Bill of the Month” feature.

Beyond Burnout: Docs Decry ‘Moral Injury’ From Financial Pressures Of Health Care
By Melissa Bailey Doctors and other clinicians say they're enduring moral injury because the business of health care interferes with patient care.