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In 2017, when President Donald Trump tried to repeal Obamacare and roll back Medicaid coverage, Republican governors helped turn Congress against it. Now, as Trump tries again to scale back Medicaid, Republican governors — whose constituents stand to lose federal funding and health coverage — have gone quiet on the health consequences.
Some of the nation’s most well-known beaches are managed by the National Park Service, which saw about 1,000 employees laid off in February by the quasi-agency Department of Government Efficiency, then led by Elon Musk. The void has become a serious public health and safety concern.
Understaffed nursing homes face a workforce crisis if President Donald Trump and Republicans further curtail immigration and cut Medicaid.
Health insurers issue millions of prior authorization denials every year, leaving many patients stuck in a convoluted appeals process, with little hope of meaningful policy change ahead. For doctors, these denials are frustrating and time-consuming. For patients, they can be devastating.
A new drug is helping families who’ve spent years padlocking fridges, chaining garbage cans, and hiding food as their children with Prader-Willi syndrome deal with unrelenting hunger. But additional progress — and a broader understanding of obesity — is now under threat as the government dismantles the pipeline for promising new research.
Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to block a state law that requires nursing homes to have 96 hours of backup power in the case of emergencies, potentially giving the industry a break from spending over $1 billion on facility upgrades. Patient advocates say rolling back the nursing home industry requirements for preparedness could jeopardize the safety of residents.
Ballad Health, a state-sanctioned hospital monopoly in Tennessee and Virginia, can now be deemed a “clear and convincing” benefit to the public with performance that would earn a “D” on most grading scales, according to Tennessee state documents.
The Trump administration has paused implementation of a rule limiting miners’ exposure to airborne silica dust days after a federal court agreed to put it on hold to hear an industry challenge. The protections are meant to head off a surge in cases of black lung disease. Meanwhile, any enforcement of new standards might be meager due to workforce cuts.
Michael Kestner, CEO of Pain MD, was convicted of 13 fraud felonies after his company gave patients hundreds of thousands of questionable injections at clinics in Tennessee, Virginia, and North Carolina.
Republicans, on the hunt for spending cuts, are eyeing a special kind of Medicaid tax that nearly every state uses to boost funding for hospitals, nursing homes, and other providers.
Roughly 20 states now have laws permitting families to place cameras in the rooms of loved ones. Facility operators are often opposed.
Undue Medical Debt is retiring unpaid medical bills for 20 million people. The debt trading company that owned them is leaving the market.
The fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson prompted both grief and public outrage about the ways insurers deny treatment. Republicans and Democrats agree prior authorization needs fixing, but patients are growing impatient.
Almost 40 years ago, Joseph Borzelleca published a study on red dye No. 3, a petroleum-based food coloring. The FDA cited his work to ban the additive in January. But Borzelleca says it’s safe.
California businesses saw employees’ monthly family insurance premiums rise nearly $1,000 over a 15-year period, more than double the pace of inflation. And employees’ share grew as companies shifted more of the cost to workers.
Amid doctor shortages, several states have stopped requiring foreign-trained providers to repeat residencies before they’re fully licensed. Critics say patients could be harmed because of the loosened training requirements.
Pain MD, which once ran as many as 20 clinics across three states, gave chronic-pain patients about 700,000 total injections near their spines, according to court documents. Last year, federal prosecutors proved at trial that the shots were medically unnecessary and part of an extensive fraud scheme.
Patients and providers say health insurers’ preapproval requirements lead to delays and denials of needed medical treatments. Insurers argue that prior authorization keeps costs down.
Several states require schools to assemble teams of law enforcement and education officials to identify students who could become mass shooters and intervene before it’s too late. But some experts say the efforts often face a lack of guidance and significant pressure, putting them at risk of maligning innocent students.
Can a $5 million compulsive-gambling fund help Missouri avoid the mistakes of other states that have legalized sports betting?
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