At Nursing Homes, Long Waits for Results Render Covid Tests ‘Useless’
As omicron surges, more nursing homes are facing a double whammy: Lab tests are taking too long, and fast antigen tests are in short supply.
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Colleges Struggle to Recruit Therapists for Students in Crisis
The need for mental health services on campus, which was already rising, has skyrocketed during the pandemic, with many students undergoing grave psychological crises. Colleges say they often lack the means to offer competitive salaries to therapists.
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‘American Diagnosis’ Episode 2: Reclaiming Native Food Traditions to Nourish Indigenous People
Native foodways of hunting, fishing, gathering, and farming have been under threat since the arrival of Europeans. In this episode, hear how Indigenous people are reclaiming their food traditions to improve community health.
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Faxes and Snail Mail: Will Pandemic-Era Flaws Unleash Improved Health Technology?
The covid-19 pandemic exposed how state and local governments’ severely outdated technology can hinder unemployment benefits, food stamps, Medicaid, vaccine registrations, and the flow of other critical information. Now, with hefty federal pandemic relief and unexpected tax windfalls, states may finally have the chance to revamp their information technology for health care and social services. But can they?
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In California Nursing Homes, Omicron Is Bad, but So Is the Isolation
Omicron infections are surging in residential care facilities, causing massive sickouts among staff members and an uptick in hospitalizations and deaths. The latest visitor restrictions and testing requirements are also compounding the isolation that residents have suffered for almost two years.
By Linda Marsa -
It’s Day 6 of Covid, and a Rapid Antigen Test Comes Back Positive. Stay Home, Say Virologists.
Say you’re on Day 6 — or 8 or 10 — of a symptomatic covid infection, and a rapid antigen test comes back positive. Could the test just be detecting bits and pieces of dead virus? If you’re a petri dish, sure. But if you’re a human, chances are you’re still infectious. Virologists weigh in.
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States Were Sharing Covid Test Kits. Then Omicron Hit.
The omicron variant upended a system in which states shared rapid covid tests with those that needed them more. Cooperation has turned into competition as states run out of supplies, limit which organizations get them, or hold on to expired kits as a last resort.
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Listen: Generous Deals, and a Few Unwanted Surprises, at Covered California
Southern California correspondent Bernard J. Wolfson answers questions about the health coverage deals available on California’s Affordable Care Act marketplace during Radio Bilingüe’s news program “Línea Abierta.”
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Medicare Patients Win the Right to Appeal Gap in Nursing Home Coverage
If federal officials accept a court’s decision, some patients will get a chance to seek refunds for their nursing home and other expenses.
By Susan Jaffe -
In Super-Vaxxed Vermont, Covid Strikes — But Packs Far Less Punch
With its highest-in-the-nation vaccination rates, Vermont offers a glimpse of what’s possible as the U.S. learns to live with coronavirus.
By Sarah Varney -
KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Record ACA Enrollment Puts Pressure on Congress
Temporary subsidies helped boost enrollment under the Affordable Care Act to a record 14.5 million, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. But unless Democrats in Congress extend those subsidies, many of those new enrollees will be in for a rude surprise just ahead of midterm elections. Meanwhile, the need to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer further crowds an already tight legislative schedule. Joanne Kenen of Politico and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet, and Anna Edney of Bloomberg News join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews Diana Greene Foster, author of “The Turnaway Study: Ten Years, a Thousand Women, and the Consequences of Having — Or Being Denied — An Abortion.”
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Georgia Bill Aims to Limit Profits of Medicaid Managed-Care Companies
Georgia lawmakers unveiled a mental health bill that would limit the profits of the managed-care companies that serve Medicaid patients. KHN previously reported that Georgia, unlike most states, does not set a medical loss ratio for the companies’ spending on medical care and quality improvements.
By Andy Miller and Rebecca Grapevine -
Resistance to a Boston Hospital’s Expansion Centers on Rising Prices
Mass General Brigham’s $2.3 billion expansion plan is raising state officials’ concerns that it will reduce competition and raise the price of care in Massachusetts. It also signals a national shift from a focus on hospital mergers and purchases of physician practices — which boost the cost of care — to individual hospitals’ expansions to gain a bigger share of the market.
By Harris Meyer -
Readers and Tweeters: Give Nurse Practitioners Their Due
KHN gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories.
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Watch: ER Charged $1,012 for Almost No Care
KHN Editor-in-Chief Elisabeth Rosenthal weighs in on the January installment of KHN-NPR's Bill of the Month, in which a family gets burned over a visit to the emergency room.
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CDC Tells Pharmacies to Give 4th Covid Shots to Immunocompromised Patients
The health agency and the White House acted in the wake of a KHN story about pharmacists refusing to give shots to patients with moderate to severe immune suppression.
By Liz Szabo -
After Miscarriages, Workers Have Few Guarantees for Time Off or Job-Based Help
About a quarter of all pregnancies end in miscarriage. Despite the large number of workers affected, no national laws protect them when they need time off to deal with the loss.
By Bryce Covert -
What the Federal ‘No Surprises Act’ Means in California
The new federal law will provide protection against surprise medical bills for between 6 million and 7 million Californians who are not covered under state law.
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I Write About America’s Absurd Health Care System. Then I Got Caught Up in It.
A KHN reporter had written for years about the people left behind by the absurdly complex and expensive U.S. health care system. Then he found himself navigating that maze as he tried to get his insulin prescription filled.
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With a Vaccine Mandate Looming, Nursing Homes Face More Staffing Problems
Missouri has the worst covid-19 vaccination rate for nursing home health care workers in the nation. There, the federal mandate for workers to get vaccinated — upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court — reveals the problems that operators have hiring staff, keeping them, and providing decent care.
By Eric Berger