As Threat of Valley Fever Grows Beyond the Southwest, Push Is On for Vaccine
By Jim Robbins
September 4, 2020
KFF Health News Original
Efforts are underway to bring to market a vaccine for valley fever, a fungal infection with COVID-like symptoms that occurs in the deserts of the Southwest. The illness is getting more attention as cases rise and a warming climate threatens to spread it through the West.
Timeline: History Of Blocking Regulation Of Electronic Health Records
November 22, 2019
KFF Health News Original
Over the past decade, government efforts to create a national system to track and analyze deaths, injuries and other adverse incidents linked to electronic health records repeatedly have failed amid opposition from the technology industry and its supporters in Congress.
House Panel Advances $120B HHS Budget Bill; Senate Spending Deals On Uncertain Ground
July 16, 2021
Morning Briefing
Annual funding for the Department of Health and Human Services would get a 24% boost in the package approved by the House Appropriations Committee Thursday. On the Senate side, congressional reporters track the status of intertwined infrastructure and “human infrastructure” spending measures.
Six Drugmakers Warned To Reinstate 340B Discounts Or Face Steep Fines
May 18, 2021
Morning Briefing
The Health Resources and Services Administration sent letters to AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Sanofi and United Therapeutics. They could face a $5,000 penalty for every violation.
Some Rejoice Over New California Health Insurance Subsidies. Others Get Shut Out.
By Ana B. Ibarra
December 12, 2019
KFF Health News Original
There’s something new in this year’s Covered California open-enrollment period: Consumers are learning whether they will qualify for new state-funded financial aid. The results are mixed, with some scoring hundreds of dollars per month and others nothing.
‘An Arm And A Leg’: What We’ve Learned And What’s Ahead For The Show
By Dan Weissmann
February 14, 2020
KFF Health News Original
For this bonus episode of “An Arm and a Leg,” Dan Weissmann gives up the host’s chair and answers questions from reporter and colleague Sally Herships.
KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: How Will We Reopen The Economy?
April 16, 2020
KFF Health News Original
The politics of COVID-19 are pretty polarized, but health experts across the ideological spectrum agree: The U.S. will need more robust testing before it’s safe to relax social-distancing requirements. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump, Congress and the nation’s governors continue to spar over who should be responsible for what. Kimberly Leonard of Business Insider, Tami Luhby of CNN and Anna Edney of Bloomberg News join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss this and more. Also, for extra credit, the panelists suggest their favorite health policy stories of the week they think you should read, too.
A Coronavirus Vaccine: Where Does It Stand?
By Louis Jacobson, PolitiFact
July 16, 2020
KFF Health News Original
Under ordinary circumstances, these phases of vaccine development can take years to complete. But now, during the age of coronavirus, the timeline is being shortened. Here’s an inventory of where things stand.
Alaska’s Health Services Still Recovering From Cyberattack
June 3, 2021
Morning Briefing
In other news, Arizona’s plans to use a poison labelled Zyklon B by the Nazis for executions draw condemnation; smokable medical marijuana is backed by Louisiana lawmakers; and a Dallas high school valedictorian spoke out over Texas’ new anti-abortion laws.
OxyContin Settlement Grows To $4.28B
March 16, 2021
Morning Briefing
The restructuring plan with Purdue Pharma includes another $1.5 billion and also ensures that the money will largely be spent to help curb the nation’s opioid crisis, rather than going into states’ general coffers, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Underfunded And Understaffed Public Health Workforce To Get $7.4B Injection
May 14, 2021
Morning Briefing
The White House announced that the funds come from the recent relief bill and will be used to hire additional public health workers and modernize the existing departments.
Massachusetts Recruits 1,000 ‘Contact Tracers’ To Battle COVID-19
By Martha Bebinger, WBUR
April 14, 2020
KFF Health News Original
“I know we will succeed somewhat and we will fail somewhat,” says one of the plan’s chief architects. “We won’t be able to find every single person — but we will hopefully prevent a lot of deaths.”
KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: Blowing The Whistle On Trump Team’s COVID Policies
May 7, 2020
KFF Health News Original
Frustration from inside the Trump administration over the management of the COVID-19 pandemic is starting to become public, as whistleblowers ― some anonymous, some named — tell how the effort is being undermined by favoritism, incompetence and a disdain for science. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court heard a case that could threaten the Affordable Care Act’s birth control benefit. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Anna Edney of Bloomberg News and Rachana Pradhan of Kaiser Health News join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss this and more. Also, for “extra credit,” the panelists recommend their favorite stories of the week they think you should read, too.
Huge Windfall: Pfizer Will Rake In $26B For Covid Vaccine Sales In 2021
May 5, 2021
Morning Briefing
That would make it the biggest-selling pharmaceutical product in the world. The company, which splits its covid vaccine earnings 50-50 with BioNTech, expects demand to continue for years.
KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: The Affordable Care Act Turns 10
March 19, 2020
KFF Health News Original
Next week is the 10th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act. Millions of Americans have benefited from the law, yet its future is in the hands of both the Supreme Court and voters in November. For this special episode of “What the Health?” host Julie Rovner interviews Kathleen Sebelius, who was Obama’s secretary of Health and Human Services when the law was passed. Then Rovner, Joanne Kenen of Politico and Mary Agnes Carey of Kaiser Health News discuss its history, impact and prospects for the future.
Dialysis Patients Panic As Financial ‘Life Raft’ Becomes Unmoored
By Ana B. Ibarra
November 14, 2019
KFF Health News Original
An organization that helps nearly 4,000 California dialysis patients pay for their insurance is threatening to cut off aid in January because of a new law that is expected to reduce dialysis industry profits. Patients fear they won’t be able to afford their life-saving treatment.
Obamacare Co-Ops Down From 23 to Final ‘3 Little Miracles’
By Phil Galewitz
September 9, 2020
KFF Health News Original
Once there were 23 of these nonprofit plans across 26 states; in January there will be only three, serving Maine, Wisconsin, Montana, Idaho and Wyoming.
Agrícolas, bomberos y azafatas buscan estar entre los primeros en recibir la vacuna
By Rachel Bluth and Phil Galewitz
December 14, 2020
KFF Health News Original
Trabajadores de salud de primera línea, y residentes y personal de hogares de adultos mayores, recibirán las dosis de la vacuna contra COVID primero, pero… ¿quiénes le seguirán?
KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: Democrats Roll Dice On SCOTUS And The ACA
January 9, 2020
KFF Health News Original
A group of Democratic state attorneys general are betting the Supreme Court will take up the case and overturn a federal appeals court ruling in time for the 2020 elections. In other high-court news, most Republicans in Congress are asking the justices to use a Louisiana law to overturn the landmark abortion-rights ruling, Roe v. Wade. Joanne Kenen of Politico, Stephanie Armour of The Wall Street Journal and Paige Winfield Cunningham of The Washington Post join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss this and more. Rovner also interviews NPR’s Richard Harris, who wrote the latest KHN-NPR “Bill of the Month” feature.
California: adultos jóvenes indocumentados podrán tener Medicaid… ¿se inscribirán?
By Ana B. Ibarra
November 21, 2019
KFF Health News Original
Algunos jóvenes ya están diciendo que no se inscribirán para tener cobertura pública porque temen que las políticas federales de inmigración puedan luego penalizarlos.