The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
Electronic health records can help reduce medical errors, but when not used well they can strain the doctor-patient relationship. Dr. Wei Wei Lee, an internist with the University of Chicago Medicine, has developed strategies to make sure tech is a tool, not a barrier.
Are physicians asking patients the right questions in order to provide good care? Laser-focused on biomedical symptoms, some doctors miss the psychosocial factors that can be a barrier to good health. In Episode 7 of the podcast, we hear about a creative study that uncovers how some medical errors happen.
Efforts to control drug prices seemed on a glide path earlier this year after gaining traction at the White House and in Congress. But prospects today look less certain and highly controversial.
Eighteen years ago, most first responders were not thinking about their future health when they spent hours searching “The Pile” for the remains of terror victims. Today, their illnesses are a slow-moving epidemiological nightmare that has been as difficult for scientists to study as it has been easy for politicians to overlook.
Tennessee company’s Medicare billings for urine tests were examined by Kaiser Health News in 2017.
Children are far less likely to drown than they were in the 1980s, in California and across the nation. Experts say state and local laws that require more fencing and security features around family swimming pools have made a difference and should be expanded nationwide.
More than 400,000 U.S. workers have retired in foreign countries and their ranks are rising. But Medicare doesn’t cover most expenses overseas, so these expats will need to confront the cost of finding alternative insurance.
Amid an overall crackdown on private insurers’ Medicare billing practices, a new government audit and a whistleblower suit allege St. Louis-based Essence Group Holdings Corp.’s Medicare Advantage plans overcharged taxpayers.
An innovative hospital run by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in North Carolina showcases an alternative model of health care that could have lessons for other tribal communities and beyond.
The proposal is far from minimal and includes several provisions that Congress has failed repeatedly to enact, including some that were part of the original Affordable Care Act debate.
The Americans for Tax Reform commercial takes too broad a brush against an initiative under consideration by the administration that would be part of the president’s promise to curb high drug prices.
Newsletter editor Brianna Labuskes wades through hundreds of health care policy stories each week, so you don’t have to.
Dr. Mark Rubinstein, known for his research into youth vaping, has left UCSF to become executive medical officer at Juul Labs, the nation’s leading producer of e-cigarettes. Juul says the hire will help them reduce teen vaping. Critics see Big Tobacco tactics.
Some physicians say connecting the consequences of climate change — heat waves, more pollen and longer allergy seasons — to health helps them better care for patients.
Pressure is growing on employers to better address the mental health needs of workers. Some big companies have begun to offer options such as peer support groups, and California has adopted a new law that calls on employers to act.
Presidential candidate Joe Biden unveiled a health plan intended to provide a more moderate alternative to his competitors’ “Medicare for All” plans. It would build on the Affordable Care Act but would go much further. Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Joanne Kenen of Politico and Kimberly Leonard of the Washington Examiner join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss this, plus Planned Parenthood’s very bad week, the U.S. House vote to repeal the health law’s “Cadillac tax” on generous health plans, and the reduction in deaths from opioids.
Kaiser Health News gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories.
Although there’s no official clinical diagnosis, the psychiatric and psychological communities have names for the phenomenon of worrying about the Earth’s fate: “climate distress,” “climate grief,” “climate anxiety” or “eco-anxiety.” The concept also is gradually making its way into the public consciousness in television shows and movies.
A wide variety of medications used to treat allergies, insomnia, leaky bladders, diarrhea, dizziness, motion sickness, asthma, Parkinson’s disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and psychiatric disorders can interfere with cognition in older patients.
A House committee approved its version of legislation to solve the problem of surprise medical bills. But the measure includes a key provision that’s got less support in the Senate.
