Latest KFF Health News Stories
Vaccines Go Mobile to Keep Seniors From Slipping Through the Cracks
A strike team of nurses and others is vaccinating Contra Costa County’s hardest-hit populations right where they live.
Can Pfizer and Moderna End the Pandemic by Sharing Their Vaccine Designs? It’s Not that Simple
Industry experts say it’s highly unlikely that dozens of pharmaceutical companies that aren’t already producing covid vaccines stand ready to do so.
‘An Arm and a Leg’: Viral TikTok Video Serves Up Recipe to ‘Crush’ Medical Debt
A video on the social media platform TikTok explains how consumers can “crush” their hospital bills using charity care policies. This won’t work for all medical bills, but it might be a good place to start.
S.D. Governor Gives State High Marks in Handling the Pandemic. Are They Deserved?
While South Dakota is excelling in vaccine distribution and in keeping its economy intact, some health measures show the state is also dealing with one of the highest per capita covid death rates in the country.
Health Policy Valentines to Warm the Heart
Tweeters lit up our timeline in recent days with Health Policy Valentines about a variety of health topics. Here are some of our favorites.
Journalists Broach Topics From Vaccines and Super Bowl to True Love
KHN and California Healthline staff made the rounds on national and local media this week to discuss their stories. Here’s a collection of their appearances.
Lack of Covid Data on People With Intellectual Disabilities ‘Comes With a Body Count’
People with intellectual and developmental disabilities are more likely to have medical conditions that make covid especially dangerous. But a lack of federal tracking means no one knows how many people in disability group housing have fallen ill or died from the virus.
As Drug Prices Keep Rising, State Lawmakers Propose Tough New Bills to Curb Them
The measures would impose taxes on increases in the price of drugs that don’t reflect improved clinical value and set the rates paid by state-run and commercial health plans to a benchmark based on prices in Canada.
Counterfeit N95 Scam Widens as Senator Demands FTC Investigation
Authorities seized 1.7 million fake masks in New York and U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell called for a national probe.
KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: All About Budget Reconciliation
Even while the Senate is busy with Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, the House has gotten down to work on a covid relief bill using the budget reconciliation process. Meanwhile, the watchword for covid this week among the public is confusion — over masks, vaccines and just about everything else science-related. Joanne Kenen of Politico, Paige Winfield Cunningham of The Washington Post and Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, the panelists recommend their favorite “health policy valentines” along with their favorite health policy stories they think you should read, too.
Vaccine Equity Is ‘North Star,’ Feds Say, and Clinics Are Key to Fair Distribution
Community health clinics are key to getting more Black and Hispanic Americans vaccinated, federal officials say. In Nashville, a vaccination push at federally funded clinics is underway.
Flurry of Bills Aim to Set Limits on Transgender Kids – And Their Doctors
Lawmakers across the U.S. are pushing bills to restrict transgender kids from participating in sports and ban doctors from treating them.
Tech Companies Mobilize to Schedule Vaccine Appointments, But Often Fall Short
Techies and startups have thrown together vaccine appointment websites to address the chaotic rollout of covid shots. But software can’t replace vaccines, and for many people the sites are just another piece of the vaccination “Hunger Games.”
Health Workers and Hospitals Grapple With Millions of Counterfeit N95 Masks
Masks imitating the real thing are flooding U.S. ports, and authorities can hardly keep pace.
Pandemia genera abuso de alcohol, y récord de internaciones por enfermedad hepática
Especialistas en enfermedades hepáticas y psiquiatras creen que el aislamiento, el desempleo y la desesperación provocados por covid, están detrás de esta explosión de casos.
As Pandemic Surged, Contact Tracing Struggled; Biden Looks to Boost It
Reaching people who may have been in contact with covid patients has helped cut the number of infections, but these tracing efforts become less effective as the number of cases grows.
Farmworker Camps to Urban Tent Cities: Tailoring Vaccine Info to Where It’s Most Needed
Concerns arising in western North Carolina provide a window into the challenges facing health workers across the country as they seek to persuade vulnerable populations to be inoculated against covid.
Pandemic-Fueled Alcohol Abuse Creates Wave of Hospitalizations for Liver Disease
Hospitals across the country are seeing rising admissions for alcoholic liver disease, which encompasses hepatitis, cirrhosis and other conditions.
Gene Screenings Hold Disease Clues, but Unexplained Anomalies Often Raise Fears
Multiple-gene panel tests are frequently offered to patients at risk for diseases such as cancer that can assess more than 80 genes. But in screening a wide variety of genes, doctors might see a variant that hasn’t yet been deciphered and be unable to explain its significance, leaving patients with concerns and no answers.
Vaccine Hesitancy vs. Vaccine Refusal: Nursing Home Staffers Say There’s a Difference
It’s becoming increasingly clear that decision-making about the covid vaccine is complicated and multifaceted, which means persuading people to say yes will be, too.