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.
High-Tech’s Business Model Hasn’t Worked for the Cue Covid Test
By Eric Taub
May 20, 2022
KFF Health News Original
Cue got attention with a Super Bowl ad for a stylish high-tech covid-testing machine to use at home. But the product is expensive, which has limited the San Diego company’s market.
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.
Medicare Premiums Will Go Up 6% Next Year, CMS Announces
October 13, 2023
Morning Briefing
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced a 6% hike in premiums for Medicare Part A and B in 2024. Meanwhile, open enrollment for next year’s plans starts this weekend.
Sanofi Is The Latest To Sue HHS Over 340B Drug Discount Model Changes
December 18, 2024
Morning Briefing
The claim was filed Monday, alleging the federal government lacks the authority to stop the company from implementing the proposed rebate model. Other news is on staffing shortages; health claim denial rates; and more.
EU Countries Scolded, Urged To Share Mpox Stockpiles With Africa Now
August 23, 2024
Morning Briefing
A WHO official said if countries are “not willing to share, then we are not going to be able to stop the next pandemic.” France has already pledged 100,000 vaccines. Also, an infection in Thailand was confirmed as clade 1b — the new deadly mpox strain.
‘True Cost of Aging’ Index Shows Many Seniors Can’t Afford Basic Necessities
By Judith Graham
July 25, 2022
KFF Health News Original
The Elder Index, developed by researchers at the University of Massachusetts-Boston, shows that nearly 5 million older women living alone, 2 million older men living alone, and more than 2 million older couples have incomes that make them economically insecure.
Mental Health Crisis Teams Aren’t Just for Cities Anymore
By Tony Leys Arielle Zionts
October 3, 2022
KFF Health News Original
In many cities, social workers and counselors are responding to mental health emergencies that used to be solely handled by police. That approach is spreading to rural areas even though mental health professionals are scarcer and travel distances are longer.
KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Francis Collins on Supporting NIH and Finding Common Ground
January 2, 2025
Podcast
Francis Collins led the National Institutes of Health for 12 years, under three presidents. During the Biden administration, he added White House science adviser to his long list of roles. Now he runs his own lab on the NIH campus, and his latest book, “The Road to Wisdom: On Truth, Science, Faith, and Trust,” came out in September. In this special holiday episode of KFF Health News’ “What the Health?” Collins joins host and chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner to discuss health misinformation, the Trump administration’s plans for the NIH, and bringing together a fractured society.
Appeals Court Revives Sutter Health $411 Million Antitrust Class Action
June 5, 2024
Morning Briefing
The California health provider is accused of anticompetitive behavior that increased insurance costs and now must face a new trial. Also in the news: possible reforms for the 340B drug discount program, insurers address the affordable housing crisis, and more.
Change to Gilead Assistance Program Threatens PrEP Access, HIV Advocates Say
By Carmen Heredia Rodriguez
June 10, 2021
KFF Health News Original
Safety-net clinics especially are bracing for how the drugmaker’s policy shift could reduce their budgets and hamstring their ability to provide care to an at-risk population.
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.
Silence in Sikeston: Hush, Fix Your Face
By Cara Anthony
September 17, 2024
Podcast
In Episode 2 of the “Silence in Sikeston” podcast, host Cara Anthony speaks with Sikeston, Missouri, resident Larry McClellon, who grew up being told not to talk about the 1942 lynching of Cleo Wright. He is determined to break the cycle of silence in his community. Anthony also unearths a secret in her own family and grapples with the possible effects of intergenerational trauma.
When Mental Illness Leads to Dropped Charges, Patients Often Go Without Stabilizing Care
By Katheryn Houghton
August 4, 2022
KFF Health News Original
When criminal suspects are deemed too mentally ill to go through the court process and their charges are dropped, they can be left without stabilizing treatment — and sometimes end up being charged with additional crimes.
After $1B Donation, Johns Hopkins Medical School Is Now Free For Most
July 9, 2024
Morning Briefing
Billionaire Mike Bloomberg, who earned a degree in engineering from Johns Hopkins in 1964, offered the gift in an attempt to ease the nation’s “serious” shortage of doctors. Free tuition begins this fall for any med student whose family earns less than $300,000 a year.
Texas Abortion Law Gets Speedy High-Court Hearing Monday
By Julie Rovner
October 29, 2021
KFF Health News Original
The Supreme Court justices, who accepted the case only 10 days before the arguments will be made, may skirt the issue of abortion and concentrate instead on the legality of the law’s unusual tack to let private citizens enforce it.
Rural Americans Have Difficulty Accessing a Promising Cancer Treatment
By Debby Waldman
August 25, 2022
KFF Health News Original
Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy has eliminated tumors in some late-stage cancer patients, but the cost and complexity of care mean rural Americans have trouble accessing the treatment.
$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?
As Red States Push Strident Abortion Bans, Other Restrictions Suddenly Look Less Extreme
By Julie Rovner
March 30, 2022
KFF Health News Original
The Supreme Court’s conservative majority has yet to make clear its stand on Roe v. Wade. But state lawmakers aren’t waiting to consider a variety of extreme measures: bills that would ban abortions in cases of ectopic pregnancies, allow rapists’ families to object to terminating a victim’s pregnancy, or prohibit the procedure in the case of fetal disability. Do these proposals make the less extreme restrictions seem more mainstream?
HRSA Policy Change Could Mean Some Outpatient Clinics Lose 340B Discounts
October 27, 2023
Morning Briefing
The Health Resources and Services Administration reversed a policy change which could hit some hospital outpatient clinics’ eligibility for the 340B drug discount program. The change was made in 2020 to expedite the certification process, and hospitals had expected it to remain permanent.
