The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
A federal lawmaker has introduced a House bill that would close one of a laundry list of oversight gaps revealed in a recent KHN investigation of the system regulators use to ban fraudsters from billing government health programs, including Medicare and Medicaid.
The study analyzed Colorado kids’ responses to how quickly they could get their hands on a loaded gun without their parents’ knowledge. More than 1 in 10 said they could do so within 10 minutes.
Suicide is the second-leading cause of death among college students. Contrary to conventional wisdom, athletes aren’t immune from the risk factors. Players at Stanford University, the University of Wisconsin, and other colleges are learning how to protect their mental health and ask for help after their teammates killed themselves.
It’s about the money — on both sides — as arguments swirl about patient safety, rising prices, and paying back on-the-job training.
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.
The White House gathered the people who helped pass the Affordable Care Act 13 years ago — partly to congratulate themselves but also to emphasize that they still have much work to do to make health care affordable.
The ranks of community-based behavioral health providers in Montana have diminished amid rising costs, greater need, and stagnant Medicaid reimbursement rates. Now, as state lawmakers debate solutions, providers are hoping just to cover their costs.
The Vermont independent and former presidential candidate was all fire and brimstone at his first hearing on drug prices as head of the Senate HELP Committee. He also pursued a more modest goal of covid vaccine price reductions. It isn’t clear whether Sanders will succeed in even that, but he has put affordability front and center.
Medicare Advantage, the private plan alternative to traditional Medicare, is embroiled in a growing controversy over whether insurers are being overpaid and what it would mean to reduce those payments. Meanwhile, even as maternal mortality in the U.S. continues to rise, providers of care to pregnant women say they’re leaving states with abortion bans that prevent them from treating pregnancy complications. Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Jessie Hellmann of CQ Roll Call, and Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico join KHN’s chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more.
Researchers are identifying new ways to assess older adults’ social circumstances and identify risks that can compromise their health. “It’s a more complete picture of older adults’ circumstances than any one factor alone,” one expert said.
A year after private equity-backed Noble Health shuttered two rural Missouri hospitals, a slew of lawsuits and state and federal investigations grind forward. Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey recently confirmed an “ongoing” investigation as former employees continue to go unpaid and cope with unpaid medical claims.
Fresh produce prescription programs are getting a boost in Montana as a way of helping people with chronic conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure. The approach may be a model for other rural states to promote healthy eating in food deserts.
The May 11 expiration of the federal government’s pandemic emergency declaration will affect patient care across a broad range of settings, including telemedicine, hospitals, and nursing homes.
Gov. Gavin Newsom is making a bold push for Medicaid health plans to provide more housing support. He argues it’s cheaper to pay for rent than to allow homeless people to fall into crisis, which requires costly care in hospitals, nursing homes, and jails.
A recent report detailing problems with Florida’s patchwork mental health system had reached conclusions nearly identical to those of a similar report from more than 20 years ago. The echoes between the findings are unmistakable. And Florida isn’t the only state struggling with the criminalization of mental illness, a lack of coordination between providers, and insufficient access to treatment.
In-person mental health care is hard to arrange in rural nursing homes, so video chats with faraway professionals are filling the gap.
The federal government has lifted restrictions on one of the most effective opioid addiction treatment medications. The change sets up a “truth serum moment”: Will mainstream doctors and nurses now treat addiction as a common disease?
Mobile clinics that provided covid-19 testing and vaccines at the peak of the pandemic are now being used to provide a range of health services in hard-to-reach communities. A law passed late last year allows qualified health care centers to use federal grants to expand the fleets.
A U.S. District Court case is being widely followed because the judge’s decision could overturn the FDA’s approval of mifepristone two decades ago. With abortion rights polling well even in red states, anti-abortion activists are increasingly turning to the courts to achieve their aims.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, who blasted pharmaceutical companies for gouging Californians, is moving ahead with state-branded insulin. He’s also eyeing other generic drugs.
