After Months In Limbo For Children’s Health Insurance, Huge Relief Over Deal
By Selena Simmons-Duffin, NPR
January 25, 2018
KFF Health News Original
The Children’s Health Insurance Program drew bipartisan support for two decades. After brinkmanship over the federal budget, an agreement to end the shutdown has assured CHIP funding for six years.
Tending To Patients As Her New Home Burns
By April Dembosky, KQED
October 16, 2017
KFF Health News Original
ICU nurse Julayne Smithson had only a few minutes to grab some things from her recently purchased home a block from the Santa Rosa hospital. Then she rushed back to help evacuate patients and has scarcely stopped working since.
Adultos saltean vacunas y no se benefician de la nueva contra el herpes zóster
By Michelle Andrews
March 20, 2018
KFF Health News Original
A diferencia del calendario de vacunas infantil, que los padres respetan en más de un 90%, los adultos se saltean vacunas, que previenen una amplia gama de enfermedades.
Defending Against This Season’s Deadly Flu: 5 Things To Know Now
By Barbara Feder Ostrov
January 9, 2018
KFF Health News Original
A particularly nasty flu is widespread in 46 states. Nationally, at least 106 people have died from the infectious disease.
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos Launches $2B Fund To Help The Homeless, Build Preschools For Low-Income Families
September 14, 2018
Morning Briefing
The world’s richest man has been coming under pressure to help with the growing homeless problems. He tweeted about his philanthropic plans writing he wants “to be helping people in the here and now—short term—at the intersection of urgent need and lasting impact.”
So Much Care It Hurts: Unneeded Scans, Therapy, Surgery Only Add To Patients’ Ills
By Liz Szabo
October 23, 2017
KFF Health News Original
Overtreatment of breast cancer and other diseases is pervasive, burdening patients and the health care system with enormous costs and needless suffering.
Facebook Live: Things To Know About Trump’s Directive On Health Insurance
October 12, 2017
KFF Health News Original
In this Facebook Live, KHN’s Julie Appleby answers questions about President Donald Trump’s executive order regarding insurance.
Bill Of The Month: For Toenail Fungus, A $1,500 Prescription
By Shefali Luthra
March 16, 2018
KFF Health News Original
How a prescription wiped out one woman’s health reimbursement account, raising questions about prescription drug price tags and about how health care professionals deal (or don’t) with medical costs.
Massachusetts Grabs Spotlight By Proposing New Twist On Medicaid Drug Coverage
By Shefali Luthra
November 21, 2017
KFF Health News Original
In an effort to reduce drug costs and increase efficiency, Massachusetts is seeking federal approval to implement a new approach to how the state’s Medicaid program covers prescription medications.
Lax Oversight Leaves Surgery Center Regulators And Patients In The Dark
By Christina Jewett and Mark Alesia, USA Today Network
August 9, 2018
KFF Health News Original
A Kaiser Health News and USA Today Network investigation finds that a hodgepodge of state rules governing outpatient centers allow some deaths and serious injuries to go unexamined. And no rule stops a doctor exiled by a hospital for misconduct from opening a surgery center down the street.
Eyes Fixed On California As Governor Ponders Inking Drug Price Transparency Bill
By April Dembosky, KQED
October 6, 2017
KFF Health News Original
“If it gets signed by this governor, it’s going to send shock waves throughout the country,” one legislator says. Pharma has spent $16.8 million lobbying against this bill and other drug laws in California.
Podcast: ‘What The Health?’ Meanwhile, In Other Health News…
November 21, 2017
KFF Health News Original
In this episode of “What the Health?” Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Joanne Kenen of Politico, Alice Ollstein of Talking Points Memo and Sarah Jane Tribble of Kaiser Health News discuss some of the under-covered health stories of the past several weeks, including drug price issues, the opioid epidemic and women’s reproductive health.
Video: Health After A Hurricane
October 11, 2017
KFF Health News Original
In this Kaiser Health News video conversation, senior correspondent Julie Appleby and Georges Benjamin, the executive director of the American Public Health Association, hold a wide-ranging discussion about the continuing public and environmental health issues resulting from Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, as well as other natural disasters such as the wildfires ravaging California.
States Strive To Curb Costs For A Crucial — But Exorbitant — Hemophilia Treatment
By Barbara Feder Ostrov
Photos by Heidi de Marco
March 6, 2018
KFF Health News Original
Saving the lives of people with the bleeding disorder can require high doses of expensive blood-clotting factor. Taxpayers foot much of the bill as manufacturers profit enormously.
Celgene Expected To Rake In $15B This Year With Strength Of Its Blockbuster Cancer Drug
July 27, 2018
Morning Briefing
But the company is on the look-out for its next blockbuster as Revlimid will face market competition in coming years. Meanwhile, advocate groups ask for insurance commissioners will investigate the growing use of copay accumulators.
Cities, Counties and Schools Sidestep FDA Canadian Drug Crackdown, Saving Millions
By Phil Galewitz
December 8, 2017
KFF Health News Original
Medicines are up to 80 percent cheaper north of the border and overseas, so U.S. localities are greasing a pharmaceutical pipeline that the feds warn is illegal and possibly unsafe.
Azar Warns Pharma That Administration Will Be ‘Turning On The Pressure’ As He Defends President’s Drug Plan
May 15, 2018
Morning Briefing
HHS Secretary Alex Azar blasted a long-standing Democratic idea for Medicare to negotiate drug prices, saying it would deny access to medicines “through rationing or setting prices,” which he called a “move toward socialized medicine.” However, Azar did promise to upend Medicare Part B’s payment structure.
Frail Patients Losing Access To Dental House Calls
By Ana B. Ibarra
Photos by Heidi de Marco
January 2, 2018
KFF Health News Original
Dental hygienists who treat frail and elderly residents in nursing homes and other facilities are dropping out of California’s publicly funded dental program for the poor because of recent changes that cut their pay and create more administrative hurdles.
Appeals Court Delivers Latest Blow To Hospitals By Rejecting Challenge To 340B Changes
July 18, 2018
Morning Briefing
The program helps hospitals cover charity costs related to prescriptions drugs. Last July, the Trump administration proposed slashing its higher reimbursement for the drugs by about 27 percent. A judge ruled that the hospitals had challenged the changes prematurely as none of them had taken effect yet, and the court of appeals on Tuesday affirmed the decision.