FDA Issues New Approvals For Leukemia, Ovarian Cancer Medicines
August 18, 2017
Morning Briefing
The Food and Drug Administration approves a new Pfizer drug to treat a rare, fast-progressing form of leukemia. The agency also expands the use Lynparza, sold by AstraZeneca and Merck & Co, to treat recurrent ovarian cancer. In other pharmaceutical news, changes to 340B program are delayed and a biopharma executive encounters challenges when trying to fund his own project.
Recién cubiertos por el Medi-Cal, niños indocumentados también buscan atención dental
By Ana B. Ibarra
September 16, 2016
KFF Health News Original
Algunas clínicas dentales están expandiendo sus horarios para cubrir la demanda, pero, ¿puede un sistema ya saturado satisfacer las necesidades de niños que no han visto a un dentista en años?
Review Of H-1B Visa Practices Imperils Efforts To Attract Foreign Doctors To Underserved Areas
May 24, 2017
Morning Briefing
The Trump administration has suspended the 15-day expedited process to obtain an H-1B visa. Those visas are often used by hospitals and medical groups to hire foreign-born workers in specialty fields.
Abortion Opponents Don’t See Health Bill Defeat As Knock-Out Blow For Their Cause
August 3, 2017
Morning Briefing
“I think what is important to note is that the pro-life elements were not the cause of failure for the bill,” said Mallory Quigley, spokeswoman for the antiabortion Susan B. Anthony List. “This was an area of unity for Republicans. So I do think that there are going to be more wins in the future.” Meanwhile, progressive groups want the Democratic Party to reject any pro-life candidates for 2018.
Organ Donation And The Opioid Epidemic: ‘An Unexpected Life-Saving Legacy’
By Martha Bebinger, WBUR
October 19, 2016
KFF Health News Original
So far this year, more than one in four donations in New England are from people who died after a drug overdose — a much higher rate than in the U.S. overall, though it’s not clear why.
Newly Covered By Medi-Cal, Undocumented Children Also Seek Dental Care
By Ana B. Ibarra
September 16, 2016
KFF Health News Original
Some dental clinics are expanding their hours to meet demand, but can an already stressed system satisfy the needs of children who haven’t seen a dentist in years?
Physicians, Teaching Hospitals Received More Than $8B From Drug And Device Makers In 2016
July 6, 2017
Morning Briefing
About half of the overall payments were for research and $2.7 billion were in payments not related to research.
Without ACA Guarantees, 52 Million Adults Could Have Trouble Buying Individual Plans
By Carmen Heredia Rodriguez
December 13, 2016
KFF Health News Original
More than a quarter of adults under the age of 65 have health problems that could lead to a denial of insurance if they were on the individual market and the health law’s protections were revoked under the overhaul planned by Republicans, according to research by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Is 20-Something Too Late For A Guy To Get The HPV Vaccine?
By Jake Harper, Side Effects Public Media
October 24, 2016
KFF Health News Original
A generation of young men missed out on the HPV vaccine. Now, 29-year-old journalist Jake Harper wonders if that’s putting him and other men at risk.
Tossing Unused Surgical Supplies Wastes Millions Of Dollars, Study Finds
By Ana B. Ibarra
September 12, 2016
KFF Health News Original
Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco estimate that hospitals could lose nearly $1,000 per surgery by throwing away opened but unused supplies, such as gloves and sponges.
$2B Included To Fight Opioid Epidemic Far Short Of The Funding Some Republicans Were Seeking
June 23, 2017
Morning Briefing
Republican senators in states that have been hit hard by the crisis were seeking $45 billion over 10 years.
Skeptics Question The Value Of Hydration Therapy For The Healthy
By Taunya English, WHYY
October 24, 2016
KFF Health News Original
Some spa-like clinics will inject an expensive mix of water and vitamins into your bloodstream, ostensibly to ward off illness and boost energy. But can’t drinking fluids offer the same benefit?
Taxpayers Foot 70 Percent Of California’s Health Care Tab, Study Finds
By Ana B. Ibarra
September 1, 2016
KFF Health News Original
The public spending on health care outpaces the nation.
CMS Identifies Hospitals Paid Nearly $1.5B In 2015 Medicare Billing Settlement
By Phil Galewitz
August 23, 2016
KFF Health News Original
A year after settling billing disputes with 2,022 hospitals for 68 cents on the dollar, the government has revealed who got paid and how much.
Price Tag For Universal Health Care In California Would Run $400B
May 23, 2017
Morning Briefing
A state Senate panel considering the measure says that money for existing public programs could cover half the cost of a single-payer system to cover all 39 million Californians. But the rest might have to come from new taxes — a serious political obstacle.
Sky-High Prices For Orphan Drugs Slam American Families And Insurers
By Sarah Jane Tribble Sydney Lupkin
Photos by Heidi de Marco
January 17, 2017
KFF Health News Original
Orphan drugs for rare diseases have helped or saved hundreds of thousands of patients like 2-year-old Luke Whitbeck, but families and insurers are picking up the astronomical cost.
Va. Says It Will Lose $1.4B In Senate’s Medicaid Plan; Iowa Nursing Homes Also Raise Alarms
June 27, 2017
Morning Briefing
Around the country, Medicaid stakeholders are speaking out about how a reduction in federal funding for Medicaid under the Senate plan would play out in the states.
NIH To Award $1B To Young Researchers After Dropping Plan To Cap Support To Some Labs
June 9, 2017
Morning Briefing
The controversial proposal to limit the size of federal grants to individual labs raised concerns among senior scientists, so National Institutes of Health offered this compromise. Also in the news: a House panel is expected to again take up its investigation of a lab problem two years ago.
California Lawmaker Pulls Plug On Drug Price Transparency Bill
By Ana B. Ibarra
August 17, 2016
KFF Health News Original
The legislation would have required drug companies to notify the state and insurers about expensive new treatments or price hikes.
Medicare Pays For A Kidney Transplant, But Not The Drugs To Keep It Viable
By Richard Harris, NPR News
December 22, 2016
KFF Health News Original
The federal government pays for kidney transplants. But the program only pays for essential anti-rejection drugs for three years. Many people can’t afford them and can end up losing the kidney.
