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Early in the pandemic, insurers expected the costs of treating COVID-19 would vastly increase medical spending. Instead, non-COVID care has plummeted and insurers have pocketed the result. Still, few industry observers are predicting broad-based premium cuts in 2021, though some health plans have proposed lowering their rates.
The practice of narrative medicine helps health care professionals hear the life stories behind a patient’s immediate complaints. Some doctors are finding that these skills also provide an alcove of needed reflection amid the pandemonium of COVID-19.
Democrats want to bind employers to follow a safety plan, while Republicans seek to shield employers and doctors from lawsuits.
As efforts ramp up to collect blood plasma from the first survivors of COVID-19, families of critically ill patients are jockeying to obtain the still-unproven antibody treatment.
Jeff Baumbach, 57, was a seasoned nurse of 28 years when the novel coronavirus began to circulate in California. He’d worked in the ER, the ICU and on a cardiac floor. Hepatitis and tuberculosis had been around over the years but never posed a major concern.
KHN readers detail their frustrations and successes as they hunt for a scarce covid-19 vaccine.
California is entering the most critical period in its battle against COVID-19, and may need thousands of hospital beds and ventilators to accommodate a surge of critically ill patients. Hospitals are taking extreme measures, such as using 3D printers to make ventilator parts and turning cafeterias into wards.
Americans who had coronavirus symptoms in March and April are getting big hospital bills — because they were not sick enough to get then-scarce COVID tests. Some insurers say they are trying to correct these bills, but patients may have to put up a fight.
When four KHN reporters were possibly exposed to COVID-19, they tried to take preventive steps. But even for health care journalists, getting tested for the virus ― and figuring out what to do next — is an uphill task.
It’s hard to overstate how uneven access to critical coronavirus test kits remains in the nation’s largest state. Even as some Southern California counties are opening drive-thru sites to make testing available to any resident who wants it, a rural northern county is testing raw sewage to determine whether the coronavirus has infiltrated its communities.
Hospitals and nursing homes say they are acting to protect students and patients, but nursing educators worry the pipeline of new nurses could be slowed at a time when they may be needed most. Some doctors in training have also seen their clinical rotations canceled.
If you or your company have useful supplies and want to donate them, here are some answers to questions you might be asking.
Even as COVID-19 has ravaged nursing homes around the country, California has managed to keep the virus at bay at its eight state-run homes for frail and older veterans. What exactly went right?
For years, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, one of California’s largest nonprofit hospitals, has been spending less on charity care than other nonprofit hospitals in the state. Now it is expanding eligibility for free and discounted medical care.
Kaiser Permanente just avoided a nationwide strike by thousands of workers, but now faces a new strike threat Monday. The labor battles are exposing the health care giant to scrutiny from lawmakers, health care advocates and others who accuse it of no longer living up to its nonprofit ideals.
Anthem Blue Cross has received a disproportionate share of violations and fines from California’s largest health insurance regulator, mostly related to its mishandling of patient grievances.
A lawsuit against Group Health surfaces as the White House promotes Medicare Advantage for seniors.
Newsletter editor Brianna Labuskes wades through hundreds of health care policy stories each week, so you don’t have to.
Scores of organs — mostly kidneys — are trashed each year and many more become critically delayed while being shipped on commercial airliners, a new investigation finds.
Kaiser Health News gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories.
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