The FTC Escalates Biden’s Fight Against Drug Prices
By Elisabeth Rosenthal
January 25, 2024
KFF Health News Original
It’s daggers out at the Federal Trade Commission in its fight against anticompetitive practices in health care. This past year, it has issued more stringent guidelines to block and discourage hospital mergers, and it investigated practices by middlemen in the drug supply chain. Now drug manufacturers themselves are in the agency’s crosshairs. In November, the FTC challenged the validity of more […]
States Get in on the Prior Authorization Crackdown
By Bram Sable-Smith
February 15, 2024
KFF Health News Original
Last month, my colleague Lauren Sausser told you about the Biden administration’s crackdown on insurance plans’ prior authorization policies, with new rules for certain health plans participating in federal programs such as Medicare Advantage or the Affordable Care Act marketplace. States are getting in on the action, too. Prior authorization, sometimes called pre-certification, requires patients […]
Climate Change Raises Pressure on Biden To Keep Workers Cooler
By Samantha Young
January 19, 2024
KFF Health News Original
With climate change posing rising threats to human health, the Biden administration is drafting federal rules to protect construction crews, warehouse workers, delivery drivers and the rest of America’s workforce from extreme heat. The regulatory effort has been years in the making, and its fate is far from certain. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration […]
What a Bison Goring Can Teach Us About Rural Emergency Care
By Arielle Zionts
December 20, 2023
KFF Health News Original
Millions of Americans live in “ambulance deserts” — areas that are more than a 25-minute drive to the nearest emergency medical services (EMS) station. The most rural areas can be more than an hour away from help. These sparsely populated communities can have trouble sustaining ambulance services, if small patient volumes and low reimbursements […]
The Market for Biosimilars Is Funky. The Industry Thinks PBMs Are To Blame
By Arthur Allen
December 19, 2023
KFF Health News Original
Over the past year there’s been movement to rein in the three big PBMs, which face little regulation though they help set drug prices and drug choices for 80 percent of Americans and their doctors. The House voted Dec. 11, 320-71, for legislation that would require the PBMs to change some of the ways they […]
Advocates Say a Practice Harms Disabled Children, Yet Congressional Action Is Stalled
By Fred Clasen-Kelly
Illustration by Oona Zenda
February 2, 2024
KFF Health News Original
In the photos, a 9-year-old boy with autism appears barricaded between cubbies and furniture stacked near the walls of a North Carolina classroom. His mother, Erin McGrail, said her son was physically restrained at least 14 times while in third grade at Morrisville Elementary School. She said she learned details of his seclusion only after […]
Republicans Once Championed Public Health. What Happened?
By Julie Rovner
December 13, 2023
KFF Health News Original
It wasn’t that long ago that Republicans were all-in on boosting public health spending. “The highest investment priority in Washington should be to double the federal budget for scientific research,” former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) wrote in a 1999 op-ed in The Washington Post. Big spending increases for the National Institutes of Health soon […]
Medicare Advantage Is Popular, but Some Beneficiaries Feel Buyer’s Remorse
By Sarah Jane Tribble
January 23, 2024
KFF Health News Original
Medicare Advantage plans are booming — 30.8 million of the 60 million Americans with Medicare are now enrolled in the private plans rather than the traditional government-run program. But a little-known fact: Once you’re in a Medicare Advantage plan, you may not be able to get out. Traditional Medicare usually requires beneficiaries to pay 20 […]
Alex Azar’s Unusual Spin Through the Revolving Door
By Phil Galewitz
January 12, 2024
KFF Health News Original
Washington’s infamous revolving door took an unusual turn for former Health and Human Services secretary Alex Azar. Azar spent about a decade with pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Co. before coming to the nation’s capital to lead HHS in the Trump administration. But in September 2020, just a couple of months before former president Donald […]
The AMA Wants a Medicare Cut Reversed – And Lawmakers To Stay Out of Care
By Julie Rovner
January 11, 2024
KFF Health News Original
Congress is back this week and feverishly working on a bipartisan agreement to fund the government for the rest of the 2024 fiscal year. Ahead of a potential vote, I spoke with Jesse Ehrenfeld, the president of the American Medical Association, the nation’s largest lobby group for doctors, about his organization’s priorities in Washington. Some […]
‘Forever Chemicals’ Contaminate America’s Freshwater Fish
By Hannah Norman
January 4, 2024
KFF Health News Original
Gone fishing? Depending on the lake, your catch may not be safe to eat. A group of chemicals collectively known as PFAS are found in hundreds of consumer goods, including dental floss, rain jackets and nonstick cookware. Over decades, these chemicals have spewed from manufacturing plants and landfills into local ecosystems, polluting surface water and […]
Nikki Haley Wants ‘Consensus’ on Contraception. It’s Not That Easy.
By Julie Rovner
February 22, 2024
KFF Health News Original
Nikki Haley, the last candidate standing between Donald Trump and the GOP presidential nomination, insists that being “unapologetically pro-life” doesn’t make her anti-birth control. “Let’s find consensus,” she urged at a GOP presidential debate in November. “Let’s make sure we make contraception accessible.” If only consensus were that easy. In some conservative circles, contraception is […]
Millions of Dollars Flow From Pharma to Patient Advocacy Groups
By Rachana Pradhan
December 15, 2023
KFF Health News Original
Pharma money is all over the place — in universities, companies doing continuing medical education for doctors and in prominent patient advocacy organizations that are household names across America. Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy nonprofit, reports today that between 2010 and 2022, the drug industry’s main lobbying group and member companies provided at least $6 […]
West Virginia City Once Battered by Opioid Overdoses Confronts ‘Fourth Wave’
By Taylor Sisk
March 13, 2024
KFF Health News Original
Years of struggle prepared residents in Cabell County, West Virginia, to confront the latest wave of the opioid epidemic as mixtures of fentanyl and other drugs claim lives nationwide.
Medical School on Cherokee Reservation Will Soon Send Doctors to Tribal, Rural Areas
By Arielle Zionts
November 1, 2023
KFF Health News Original
Native Americans and rural residents are underrepresented in medical schools. But in this new program, 25% of students are Indigenous and half are from rural areas.
States Fight Student Mental Health Crisis With Days Off
By Giles Bruce
June 13, 2022
KFF Health News Original
In early 2022, Illinois joined a growing number of states where lawmakers and school leaders are trying to combat the ongoing student mental health crisis by granting days off for mental health needs.
Beneficiarios de Medicaid se vacunan mucho menos contra covid
By Phil Galewitz
August 27, 2021
KFF Health News Original
Si bien más de 202 millones de estadounidenses están vacunados al menos en parte contra covid, casi el 30% de las personas mayores de 12 años siguen sin vacunarse. Las encuestas muestran que los más pobres tienen menos probabilidades de recibir una vacuna.
Silence in Sikeston: Is There a Cure for Racism?
By Cara Anthony
October 8, 2024
Podcast
In the finale of “Silence in Sikeston,” Black residents organize a Juneteenth barbecue. The Department of Public Safety chief encourages officers to attend to build trust. But improving relations between Sikeston’s Black community and the police won’t be easy. Host Cara Anthony discusses the possibility of institutional change in Sikeston.
After Medical Bills Broke the Bank, This Family Headed to Mexico for Care
By Paula Andalo
April 27, 2022
KFF Health News Original
The Fierro family owed a Yuma, Arizona, hospital more than $7,000 for care given to mom and dad, so when a son dislocated his shoulder, they headed to Mexicali. The care was quick, good, and affordable.
Tuberculosis Cases In Toddlers Increased 26% In 2022
May 9, 2023
Morning Briefing
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report says there were 202 cases of TB in children ages 4 and younger last year, up from 160 cases in that age group in 2021. In other news, health officials are warning of a recent increase in mpox cases in Chicago.
