Hollowed-Out Public Health System Faces More Cuts Amid Virus
By Lauren Weber and Laura Ungar and Michelle R. Smith, The Associated Press and Hannah Recht and Anna Maria Barry-Jester
July 1, 2020
KFF Health News Original
The U.S. public health system has been starved for decades and lacks the resources necessary to confront the worst health crisis in a century. An investigation by The Associated Press and KHN has found that since 2010, spending for state public health departments has dropped by 16% per capita and for local health departments by 18%. At least 38,000 public health jobs have disappeared, leaving a skeletal workforce for what was once viewed as one of the world’s top public health systems. That has left the nation unprepared to deal with a virus that has sickened at least 2.6 million people and killed more than 126,000.
No Safety Switch: How Lax Oversight Of Electronic Health Records Puts Patients At Risk
By Fred Schulte and Erika Fry, Fortune
November 21, 2019
KFF Health News Original
Special interests and congressional inaction blocked efforts to track the safety of electronic medical records, leaving patients at risk.
CMS: Improper Medicare Payments Drop $15B Since 2016
November 18, 2020
Morning Briefing
CMS administrator Verma Selma said the decline was due in part to improvements in home health, including a $5.9 billion decrease in improper payments.
Despite Failed Promises, Stem Cell Advocates Again Want Taxpayers To Pony Up Billions
By Ana B. Ibarra
August 16, 2019
KFF Health News Original
California’s stem cell agency, created by a $3 billion bond measure 15 years ago, is almost out of money. Its supporters plan to ask voters for even more funding next year, even though no agency-funded treatments have been approved for widespread use.
Paralyzed Mice That Received Cytokine Treatment Walked Again In Just Weeks
January 25, 2021
Morning Briefing
“With a relatively small intervention, we stimulate[d] a very large number of nerves to regenerate, and that is ultimately the reason why the mice can walk again,” the lead scientist from Germany’s Ruhr University Bochum told Reuters. Other news is on covid treatments, the 340B rule, lupus nephritis and more.
Listen: India Gives Opioid Makers A Huge And Growing New Market
September 5, 2019
KFF Health News Original
KHN’s Sarah Varney discussed opioid painkillers in India with NPR’s Rachel Martin on “Morning Edition” Thursday.
Palliative Care Helped Family Face ‘The Awful, Awful Truth’
By Will Stone
May 5, 2020
KFF Health News Original
Elizabeth and Robert Mar would have celebrated 50 years of marriage in August. Instead, they died within a day of each other. Their two very different deaths illustrate how palliative care is changing to help patients and families cope with the coronavirus pandemic.
Groups Sue HHS Over Changes To Medicare 340B Drug Discount Program
December 14, 2020
Morning Briefing
They say the plan to tie drug payments to foreign prices would cause financial hardship for providers, reduce patient access and reduce pay rates from other payers, Modern Healthcare reports.
The Golden State’s Mixed Record On Lung Cancer
By Mark Kreidler
February 25, 2020
KFF Health News Original
California has one of the lowest rates of new lung cancer cases in the country, attributed largely to its aggressive anti-tobacco policies. But gaps in the state’s health care system mean that people who are diagnosed with the disease, or at a high risk of getting it, often fall through the cracks.
COVID Tests Are Free, Except When They’re Not
By Carmen Heredia Rodriguez
April 29, 2020
KFF Health News Original
Her doctor worried she had COVID-19 but couldn’t test her for it until she ruled out other things. That test cost a bundle.
To Speed Up Vaccines, Don’t Be Rigid On Priority Guidelines, Surgeon General Urges States
January 6, 2021
Morning Briefing
Surgeon General Jerome Adams provided the news media a cheat sheet: “Your headline today really should be, ‘Surgeon general tells states and governors to move quickly to other priority groups.’ If the demand isn’t there in 1a, go to 1b, and continue on down,” he told NBC.
Patients Want A ‘Good Death’ At Home, But Hospice Care Can Badly Strain Families
By Blake Farmer, Nashville Public Radio
January 23, 2020
KFF Health News Original
Fewer Americans are dying in a hospital, under the close supervision of doctors and nurses. That trend has been boosted by an expanded Medicare benefit that helps people live out their final days at home in hospice care. But as home hospice grows, so has the burden on families left to provide much of the care.
KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: We Answer Your Questions
August 15, 2019
KFF Health News Original
You asked about drug prices, the “Cadillac tax” on generous insurance plans and why Americans don’t know that most other countries also have combination public-private insurance systems. This week, Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico and Caitlin Owens of Axios join KHN’s Julie Rovner to answer those questions.
KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: How’s That Open Enrollment Going?
November 26, 2019
KFF Health News Original
Open enrollment for the Affordable Care Act’s marketplace plans is halfway over and, so far, the number of people signing up is down, but not dramatically. Meanwhile, Congress and President Donald Trump can’t seem to agree on what to do about teen vaping, drug prices or “surprise” medical bills. And Democrats lurch to the left on abortion. Paige Winfield Cunningham of The Washington Post, Kimberly Leonard of the Washington Examiner and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss this and more health news.
Proyecto en California combatiría acuerdos que atrasan salida al mercado de genéricos
By Ana B. Ibarra
August 1, 2019
KFF Health News Original
La FTC ha estimado que los acuerdos de pago por retraso le cuestan a los consumidores y contribuyentes estadounidenses $3.5 mil millones, en costos más altos de medicamentos cada año.
California Bill Would Fight Deals That Delay Generic Drugs
By Ana B. Ibarra
August 1, 2019
KFF Health News Original
As California Attorney General Xavier Becerra cracks down on pharmaceutical companies he said paid competitors to delay generic versions of their drugs, he’s also pushing for legislation that would give his department tools to catch more of them. It’s the first of its kind in the nation.
Built For Counterterrorism, This High-Tech Machine Is Now Used To Detect Fentanyl
By Martha Bebinger, WBUR
December 4, 2019
KFF Health News Original
Public health officials are adopting a law enforcement tool, the mass spectrometer, to instantly identify potentially deadly levels of opioids in local drug supplies.
Readers And Tweeters Ponder Racism, Public Health Threats And COVID’s Cost
June 23, 2020
KFF Health News Original
Kaiser Health News gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories.
OSHA Let Employers Decide Whether to Report Health Care Worker Deaths. Many Didn’t.
By Aneri Pattani and Robert Lewis and Christina Jewett
November 30, 2020
KFF Health News Original
Four workers died at a facility with one of the largest U.S. outbreaks, but the Occupational Safety and Health Administration never conducted an inspection. It’s a pattern that’s played out across the nation, a KHN investigation finds.
HHS Releases $20B More For Providers In Relief Funding
October 2, 2020
Morning Briefing
The agency said to apply soon because the money will go fast. News is on additional funding for HIV care, cyberattacks, unequal pay for female physicians and more.