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Latest KFF Health News Stories

A Third of Schools Don’t Have a Nurse. Here’s Why That’s a Problem.

KFF Health News Original

School nurses treat children daily for a wide range of illnesses and injuries, and sometimes serve as a young patient’s only health provider. They also function as a point person for critical public health interventions. Yet many states don’t require them, and school districts struggle to hire them.

Medicare Enrollees Can Switch Coverage Now. Here’s What’s New and What to Consider.

KFF Health News Original

Fall is the time when enrollees in the federal program for older people and people with certain disabilities can make changes to their health and drug plans. The decision can be complicated, but here are some key points to keep in mind.

Doctors Abandon a Diagnosis Used to Justify Police Custody Deaths. It Might Live On, Anyway.

KFF Health News Original

The American College of Emergency Physicians agreed to withdraw its 2009 white paper on excited delirium, removing the only official medical pillar of support left for the theory that has played a key role in absolving police of culpability for in-custody deaths.

Rare ‘Flesh-Eating’ Bacterium Spreads North as Oceans Warm

KFF Health News Original

A rise in cases of Vibrio vulnificus and its spread northward have heightened concern about the bacterium, which can cause human tissue to rot and skin to decay. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is trying to make more doctors aware of the dangerous pathogen.

California prohíbe el controversial diagnóstico de “delirio excitado”

KFF Health News Original

El gobernador demócrata Gavin Newsom firmó un proyecto de ley el 8 de octubre para prohibir que los forenses, doctores, y examinadores médicos incluyeran el síndrome de “delirio excitado” en certificados de defunción o informes de autopsias.

KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Health Funding in Question in a Speaker-Less Congress

Podcast

A bitterly divided Congress managed to keep the federal government running for several more weeks, while House Republicans struggle — again — to choose a leader. Meanwhile, many people removed from state Medicaid rolls are not finding their way to Affordable Care Act insurance, and a major investigation by The Washington Post attributes the decline in U.S. life expectancy to more than covid-19 and opioids. Lauren Weber of The Washington Post, Victoria Knight of Axios, and Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet join KFF Health News chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews physician-author-playwright Samuel Shem about “Our Hospital,” his new novel about the health workforce in the age of covid.

PrEP, a Key HIV Prevention Tool, Isn’t Reaching Black Women

KFF Health News Original

New HIV infections occur disproportionately among Black women, but exclusionary marketing, fewer treatment options, and provider wariness have limited uptake of preexposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, drugs, which reduce the risk of contracting the virus.

California Bans Controversial ‘Excited Delirium’ Diagnosis

KFF Health News Original

California is the first state to ban the controversial diagnosis known as “excited delirium,” which has been used increasingly to justify excessive force by law enforcement. A human rights advocate described the law, signed this week by Gov. Gavin Newsom, as a “watershed moment” in criminal justice.

An Arm and a Leg: John Green vs. Johnson & Johnson (Part 1)

Podcast

Pharmaceutical patents can drive up the costs of lifesaving medications. Hear what author and YouTube star John Green is doing to make tuberculosis drugs more accessible to the people who need them most.

‘I’m So Burned Out’: Fighting to See a Specialist Amplified Pain for Riverside County Woman

KFF Health News Original

Teresa Johnson has been in extreme pain for more than a year after what she believes was a severe allergic reaction to iodine. Her Medi-Cal plan approved her referral to a specialist, but it took her numerous phone calls, multiple complaints, and several months to book an appointment.