Doing More Harm Than Good? Epidemic of Screening Burdens Nation’s Older Patients
Patients are often aggressively screened for cancer, even if they won’t live long enough to benefit.
KFF Health News’ coverage related to aging and improving care of older adults is supported in part by The John A. Hartford Foundation.
741 - 760 of 892 Results
-
-
Medicare Fails To Recover Hundreds Of Millions Of Dollars In Lab Overcharges
Genetic testing firms declare bankruptcy and wipe out debt to the federal government.
By Fred Schulte -
Good Friends Might Be Your Best Brain Booster As You Age
SuperAgers, men and women over age 80 with extraordinary memories, share a commitment to sustaining friendships.
-
Experts Tell Congress How To Cut Drug Prices. We Give You Some Odds.
Some of the nation’s most influential scientists recommend eight steps to lower drug prices. KHN takes the political temperature and tells you the chances of Congress acting on them.
-
An Overlooked Epidemic: Older Americans Taking Too Many Unneeded Drugs
Researchers estimate that 25 percent of people ages 65 to 69 take at least five prescription drugs to treat chronic conditions. But some doctors are trying to teach others about “deprescribing” or systematically discontinuing medicines that are inappropriate, duplicative or unnecessary.
-
Retirement’s Revolving Door: Why Some Workers Can’t Call It Quits
Baby boomers are deciding to return to the workplace because they miss the challenges, the accomplishments — and, most important, the people.
-
Health Risks To Farmworkers Increase As Workforce Ages
Harvesting U.S. crops has been left to an aging population of farmworkers whose health has suffered from decades of hard labor. Older workers have a greater chance of getting injured and of developing chronic illnesses.
By Sarah Varney -
Straight From The Patient’s Mouth: Videos Can Clearly State Your End-Of-Life Wishes
Video advance directives enable people to speak directly to their families and physicians about their wishes for end-of-life care.
-
Doctors Make Big Money Testing Urine For Drugs, Then Ignore Abnormal Results
Medicare and insurers struggle to oversee a booming business in testing urine samples. In some cases, pain doctors’ lack of follow-through can turn fatal.
By Fred Schulte -
This Thanksgiving, Carve Out Time To Talk About End-Of-Life Wishes
A vital tradition is gaining steam as more families use the holiday gathering to discuss and document advance-care plans.
-
How Older Patients Can Dodge Pitfalls Entrenched In Health Care System
What being old and sick in America can mean — and ways to navigate the often treacherous journey through the system.
-
For Active Seniors, Cohousing Offers A Cozier Alternative To Downsizing
Far from a commune or coop, these planned villages are no less about cooperation and community.
-
Hospice Workers Who Care For The Dying Don’t Plan Ahead Themselves
Fewer than half of health care workers at a nonprofit Florida hospice had completed advance directives for end-of-life care.
-
Liquid Gold: Pain Doctors Soak Up Profits By Screening Urine For Drugs
With the nation's opioid crisis, urine testing has become a booming business and is especially lucrative for doctors who operate their own labs, a Kaiser Health News investigation finds. And dozens of practitioners have earned "the lion’s share" of their Medicare income exclusively from urine drug screens.
By Fred Schulte and Elizabeth Lucas -
New ‘Instructions’ Could Let Dementia Patients Refuse Spoon-Feeding
Patients with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias can say in advance if and when they want caregivers to stop offering food and fluids by hand.
-
Learning To Advance The Positives Of Aging
Stereotypes often undermine older adults, eroding their confidence, elevating their stress and harming their health.
-
Timeline: Insulin Market Under Scrutiny
A flurry of federal and state probes have targeted insulin manufacturers and pharmacy benefit managers — middlemen in the prescription drug-pricing pipeline. Here, we connect the legal dots.
-
Flurry Of Federal And State Probes Target Insulin Drugmakers And Pharma Middlemen
Over the past two years, a powerful federal prosecutor and several state attorneys general have launched investigations related to diabetes drugs.
-
‘No One Is Coming’: Hospice Patients Abandoned At Death’s Door
U.S. hospice agencies promise to be available around-the-clock to help patients dying in their homes. But a Kaiser Health News investigation shows that in an alarming number of cases, that promise is broken.
By JoNel Aleccia and Melissa Bailey -
Treatment Overkill
So Much Care It Hurts: Unneeded Scans, Therapy, Surgery Only Add To Patients’ Ills
Overtreatment of breast cancer and other diseases is pervasive, burdening patients and the health care system with enormous costs and needless suffering.
By Liz Szabo