Back Pain? Bum Knee? Be Prepared to Wait for a Physical Therapist
By Mark Kreidler
November 28, 2023
KFF Health News Original
Physical therapists left the field en masse during the covid-19 pandemic, even as demand from aging baby boomers skyrocketed. While universities try to boost their training programs to increase the number of graduates, patients seeking relief from often debilitating pain are left to wait.
How a Duty To Spend Wisely on Worker Benefits Could Loosen PBMs’ Grip on Drug Prices
By Arthur Allen
December 18, 2024
KFF Health News Original
As criticism of pharmacy benefit managers heats up, fear of lawsuits is driving some big employers to drop the “Big Three” PBMs — or force them to change.
Watch: Still Paying Off Bills From Twins’ Birth. The Kids Are 10 Now.
June 17, 2022
KFF Health News Original
Marcus and Allyson Ward explain to “CBS Mornings” how the premature birth of their twins left them with $80,000 in medical debt. A new KHN-NPR investigation reveals they are among 100 million people afflicted financially by the U.S. health system.
Social Security Tackles Overpayment ‘Injustices,’ but Problems Remain
By David Hilzenrath Jodie Fleischer, Cox Media Group
Updated November 18, 2024
Originally Published November 18, 2024
KFF Health News Original
With his term soon to expire, Social Security chief Martin O’Malley’s efforts to address the agency’s overpayments to beneficiaries remain incomplete.
California Fails to Adequately Help Blind and Deaf Prisoners, US Judge Rules
By Don Thompson
April 12, 2024
KFF Health News Original
Thirty years after prisoners with disabilities sued and 25 years after a federal court first ordered accommodations, a judge found that California prison and parole officials still are not doing enough to help deaf and blind prisoners — in part because they are not providing readily available technology such as video recordings and laptop computers.
Nursing Aides Plagued by PTSD After ‘Nightmare’ Covid Conditions, With Little Help
By Amy Maxmen
September 26, 2024
KFF Health News Original
A KFF Health News investigation reveals that employers and the government have offered nursing aides little assistance for PTSD and other ongoing maladies triggered by hazardous work during the pandemic.
What Long-Term Care Looks Like Around the World
By Jordan Rau
November 14, 2023
KFF Health News Original
Most countries spend more than the United States on care, but middle-class and affluent people still bear a substantial portion of the costs.
Patients Couldn’t Pay Their Utility Bills. One Hospital Turned to Solar Power for Help.
By Martha Bebinger, WBUR
December 12, 2024
KFF Health News Original
Doctors in Boston got tired of writing letters to utility companies asking for assistance for their medically vulnerable patients who need power and heat to stay healthy. So a hospital decided to share the power its solar panels generate with patients who needed help with their electricity and gas bills.
Millions of Aging Americans Are Facing Dementia by Themselves
By Judith Graham
October 15, 2024
KFF Health News Original
In a health care system that assumes older adults have family caregivers to help them, those facing dementia by themselves often fall through the cracks.
Black Americans Still Suffer Worse Health. Here’s Why There’s So Little Progress.
By Fred Clasen-Kelly Renuka Rayasam
October 28, 2024
KFF Health News Original
The United States has made almost no progress in closing racial health disparities despite promises, research shows. The government, some critics argue, is often the underlying culprit.
California May Regulate and Restrict Pharmaceutical Brokers
By Don Thompson
September 18, 2024
KFF Health News Original
California lawmakers are moving to rein in the pharmaceutical middlemen they say drive up costs and limit consumers’ choices. The bill sent to Gov. Gavin Newsom would require pharmacy benefit managers to be licensed in California and would ban some business practices. Newsom vetoed a previous effort three years ago.
A Boy’s Bicycling Death Haunts a Black Neighborhood. 35 Years Later, There’s Still No Sidewalk.
By Renuka Rayasam Fred Clasen-Kelly
October 8, 2024
KFF Health News Original
John Parker was in first grade when he was struck by a pickup truck driving on Durham’s Cheek Road, which lacks sidewalks to this day. Neighborhoods with no sidewalks, damaged walkways, and roads with high speed limits are concentrated in Black neighborhoods, research finds.
Even Political Rivals Agree That Medical Debt Is an Urgent Issue
By Noam N. Levey
October 7, 2024
KFF Health News Original
In red and blue states, state lawmakers from both parties are expanding protections for patients burdened by medical debt.
In This Oklahoma Town, Most Everyone Knows Someone Who’s Been Sued by the Hospital
By Mitchell Black Noam N. Levey
January 19, 2024
KFF Health News Original
Hospitals nationwide face growing scrutiny over how they secure payment from patients, but at one community hospital, the debt collection machine has been quietly humming along for decades.
Study Reveals Staggering Toll of Being Black in America: 1.6M Excess Deaths Over 22 Years
By Liz Szabo
May 16, 2023
KFF Health News Original
The profound and painful loss — 80 million years of life, compared with the white population — is a call to action to improve the health of Black Americans, especially infants, mothers, and seniors, researchers say.
Montana Creates Emergency ‘Drive-Thru’ Blood Pickup Service for Rural Ambulances
By Arielle Zionts
June 17, 2024
KFF Health News Original
The network is aimed at helping rural patients, who face higher rates of traumatic injuries and death but may not live near a hospital with a stockpile of blood.
Tennessee Gives This Hospital Monopoly an A Grade — Even When It Reports Failure
By Brett Kelman
May 29, 2024
KFF Health News Original
Ballad Health, a 20-hospital system in Tennessee and Virginia, benefits from the largest state-sanctioned hospital monopoly in the United States and is the only option for hospital care for a large swath of Appalachia.
The Year in Opioid Settlements: 5 Things You Need to Know
By Aneri Pattani
December 21, 2023
KFF Health News Original
In the past year, opioid settlement money has gone from an emerging funding stream for which people had lofty but uncertain aspirations to a coveted pot of billions being invested in remediation efforts. Here are some important and evolving factors to watch going forward.
Readers and Tweeters See Ways to Shore Up Primary Care
July 17, 2023
KFF Health News Original
KFF Health News gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories.
Rural Hospitals Are Caught in an Aging-Infrastructure Conundrum
By Markian Hawryluk
January 12, 2024
KFF Health News Original
Small, community hospitals face challenges in paying for the capital improvement projects they need to stay open.
