Why Nurses Are Raging and Quitting After the RaDonda Vaught Verdict
By Brett Kelman and Hannah Norman
April 5, 2022
KFF Health News Original
The former Tennessee nurse faces prison time for a fatal error. Reaction from her peers was swift and fierce on social media and beyond ― and it isn’t over.
KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': The Kids Are Not OK
February 16, 2023
Podcast
A new survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds that teenagers, particularly girls, are reporting all-time high rates of violence and profound mental distress. Meanwhile, both sides in the abortion debate are anxiously waiting for a district court decision in Texas that could effectively revoke the FDA’s 22-year-old approval of the abortion pill mifepristone. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Call, and Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico join KHN’s chief Washington correspondent, Julie Rovner, to discuss these issues and more.
$38,398 for a Single Shot of a Very Old Cancer Drug
By Arthur Allen
October 26, 2022
KFF Health News Original
Lupron, a drug patented half a century ago, treats advanced prostate cancer. It’s sold to physicians for $260 in the U.K. and administered at no charge. Why are U.S. hospitals — which may pay nearly as little for the drug — charging so much more to administer it?
Readers and Tweeters Place Value on Community Services and Life-Sustaining Care
August 19, 2022
KFF Health News Original
KHN gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories.
KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Contemplating a Post-‘Roe’ World
February 24, 2022
KFF Health News Original
In anticipation of the Supreme Court rolling back abortion rights this year, both Democrats and Republicans are arguing among themselves over how best to proceed to either protect or restrict the procedure. Meanwhile, millions of Americans are at risk of losing their health insurance when the federal government declares an end to the current “public health emergency.” Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Shefali Luthra of The 19th, and Rachana Pradhan of KHN join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews KHN’s Jay Hancock, who wrote the latest KHN-NPR “Bill of the Month” episode about a couple whose insurance company deemed their twins’ stay in intensive care not an emergency.
Omicron and Other Coronavirus Variants: What You Need to Know
By Louis Jacobson, PolitiFact
November 30, 2021
KFF Health News Original
This new variant has set off alarm bells in the public health community, but much remains to be learned about it.
Why Medicare Doesn’t Pay for Rapid At-Home Covid Tests
By Michelle Andrews
January 24, 2022
KFF Health News Original
The laws governing Medicare don’t provide coverage for self-administered diagnostic tests, which is precisely what the rapid antigen tests are and why they are an important tool for containing the pandemic.
Big Pharma Went All In to Kill Drug Pricing Negotiations
By Arthur Allen
August 12, 2022
KFF Health News Original
For more than a century, the drug industry has issued dire warnings of plunging innovation whenever regulation reared its head. In general, the threat hasn’t materialized.
KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Part I: The State of the Abortion Debate 50 Years After ‘Roe’
By Terry Byrne
January 26, 2023
Podcast
In Part I of this special two-part episode, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Call, and Sarah Varney of KHN join KHN chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner to discuss how the abortion debate has evolved since the Supreme Court overturned the nationwide right to abortion in 2022, and what might be the flashpoints for 2023. Also in this episode, Rovner interviews Elizabeth Nash of the Guttmacher Institute, about changing reproductive policies in the states.
Did a Military Lab Spill Anthrax Into Public Waterways? New Book Reveals Details of a US Leak
By Alison Young
April 25, 2023
KFF Health News Original
“Pandora’s Gamble” describes how 2,000 to 3,000 gallons of wastewater potentially containing anthrax, Ebola, and other deadly pathogens spilled from an Army facility in Frederick, Maryland, in 2018.
Long Wait for Justice: People in Jail Face Delays for Mental Health Care Before They Can Stand Trial
By Andy Miller and Rebecca Grapevine
June 10, 2022
KFF Health News Original
People in jail who have serious mental illness and cannot stand trial because of their condition are waiting months, or even more than a year, to get into their state psychiatric hospitals.
Morning Briefing for Friday, October 27, 2023
October 27, 2023
Morning Briefing
Vaccine, HIV relief funds, “yellow flag” gun laws, health worker burnout, 340B discounts, covid, miscarriages, and more are in the news.
His-and-Hers Cataract Surgeries, But His Bill Was 20 Times as Much
By Angela Hart
Photos by Heidi de Marco
June 27, 2022
KFF Health News Original
Whether a simple operation is performed under the auspices of a hospital or at an independent surgery center can make a huge difference in cost.
Como se esperaba, conservadores de la Corte Suprema terminan con el derecho al aborto
By Julie Rovner
June 24, 2022
KFF Health News Original
El presidente Joe Biden dijo que estaba en total desacuerdo con el fallo. “Es un día triste para la corte y para el país”, dijo. “La salud y la vida de las mujeres en esta nación ahora están en riesgo”.
Despite Doctors’ Concerns, Pharmacists Get More Leeway to Offer Treatment With Testing
By Michelle Andrews
March 31, 2022
KFF Health News Original
In the battle against covid, pharmacies became a key place for consumers to seek vaccines and testing. Some states are expanding pharmacists’ work to include directly prescribing drugs for customers who seek some routine, point-of-care tests, such as those for flu or strep throat. But doctor groups oppose the move.
Anti-Vaccine Ideology Gains Ground as Lawmakers Seek to Erode Rules for Kids’ Shots
By Sandy West
April 21, 2022
KFF Health News Original
Legislators in Kansas are pushing bills to expand exemptions for school vaccines, allowing religious exemptions for all vaccine requirements in the state’s schools without families having to provide any proof of their beliefs. Similar bills are being introduced around the nation as the anti-vaccine movement gains traction among politicians.
Covid ‘Doesn’t Discriminate by Age’: Serious Cases on the Rise in Younger Adults
By Will Stone
May 4, 2021
KFF Health News Original
With older adults vaccinated, doctors say a growing share of their covid patients are in their 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s, as more contagious variants circulate among people who remain unvaccinated.
If You’re Taking Toddlers Abroad, Get MMR Jabs, CDC Advises
March 19, 2024
Morning Briefing
The vaccine advice comes amid rising U.S. and international cases of measles. But it’s also norovirus and flu season, and influenza B in particular is surging, USA Today reports.
Hospitals Push For Medicare Advantage Boost To Cover 340B Drugs
April 23, 2024
Morning Briefing
Hospitals are arguing that since a Supreme Court ruling has reversed cuts made to 340B rates in 2018, Medicare Advantage reimbursement must be adjusted accordingly. Separately, a study shows drug representatives who meet with doctors have no effect on cancer patients’ survival rates.
Have a Case of a Covid Variant? No One Is Going to Tell You
By Christina Jewett and JoNel Aleccia and Rachana Pradhan
February 25, 2021
KFF Health News Original
As experts race to get an approved test for covid variants, officials are severely restricted from sharing information about the cases. That makes it harder to protect others.