Latest Morning Briefing Stories
Nursing Home Surprise: Advantage Plans May Shorten Stays to Less Time Than Medicare Covers
Private Medicare Advantage health plans are increasingly ending coverage for skilled nursing or rehab services before medical providers think patients are healthy enough to go home, doctors and patient advocates say.
Severe Sleep Apnea Diagnosis Panics Reporter Until He Finds a Simple, No-Cost Solution
An industry has grown up around sleep apnea, stirring concerns about overdiagnosis and overtreatment.
Britain’s Hard Lessons From Handing Elder Care Over to Private Equity
Four Seasons Health Care collapsed after years of private equity investors rolling in one after another to buy its business, sell its real estate, and at times wrest multimillion-dollar profits from it through complex debt schemes. The deal-making failed to account for the true cost of senior care.
Death Is Anything but a Dying Business as Private Equity Cashes In
Investors are banking on increased demand in death care services as 73 million baby boomers near the end of their lives.
Genetic Tests Create Treatment Opportunities and Confusion for Breast Cancer Patients
Doctors are divided on whether blanket testing of breast cancer patients is warranted, since scientists and physicians are sometimes unsure about how to interpret the results.
Covid Still Kills, but the Demographics of Its Victims Are Shifting
Californians were far less likely to die from covid in the first seven months of 2022 than during the first two years of the pandemic. Still, the virus remained among the state’s leading causes of death in July, outpacing diabetes, accidental death, and a host of debilitating diseases. We break down who’s at risk.
Clearing Pollution Helps Clear the Fog of Aging — And May Cut the Risk of Dementia
Two studies published this year provide evidence that older adults’ cognitive health may benefit if air quality is improved.
While Inflation Takes a Toll on Seniors, Billions of Dollars in Benefits Go Unused
With prices of necessities rising dramatically, many older Americans are having trouble making ends meet. They often don’t know that help is available from a variety of programs, and some sources of financial assistance are underused.
‘An Arm and a Leg’: The New Cap on Medicare Drug Costs
In this episode, Julie Rovner, chief Washington correspondent for KHN, guides listeners through decades of dealings between Congress and Big Pharma.
‘It’s Becoming Too Expensive to Live’: Anxious Older Adults Try to Cope With Limited Budgets
Three women explain how life’s surprises can catapult their efforts to carefully manage limited budgets and lead to financial distress.
‘Science Friday’ and KHN: Examining Medicine’s Definition of Death Informs the Abortion Debate
Why is it so hard to agree when life begins? As state abortion laws define it, science, politics, and religion are clashing. KHN’s Sarah Varney shared her reporting with the “Science Friday” radio program.
Unraveling the Interplay of Omicron, Reinfections, and Long Covid
The omicron variant has proved adept at finding hosts, often by reinfecting people who recovered from earlier bouts of covid. But whether omicron triggers long covid as often and severe as previous variants is a matter of heated study.
Her Brother Landed in a Nursing Home. She Was Sued Over His Bill.
Lucille Brooks, 74, Pittsford, New York Approximate Medical Debt: $8,000 Medical Issue: None. She was billed for her brother’s care. What Happened: Lucille Brooks was stunned to discover a nursing home in Monroe County, New York, was suing her. She had never been a patient there. Nor had her husband. “I thought this was crazy,” […]
Para las familias médicamente vulnerables, la presión de la inflación es inevitable
Para millones de familias que viven con enfermedades crónicas, trastornos cardíacos, diabetes y cáncer, u otras condiciones debilitantes, la inflación está demostrando ser un doloroso flagelo que podría perjudicar su salud.
For Medically Vulnerable Families, Inflation’s Squeeze Is Inescapable
Inflation hasn’t hit Americans like this in decades. And families living with chronic diseases have little choice but to pay more for the medicine, supplies, and food they need to stay healthy.
Watch: How Nursing Homes Put Friends and Families on the Hook for Residents’ Debts
In pursuit of unpaid bills, nursing homes across Rochester, New York, have been suing relatives and friends of their residents. This CBS News report, done in partnership with a KHN-NPR investigation, takes a look at the practice and tells the stories of some of the people affected.
No, the Senate-Passed Reconciliation Bill Won’t Strip $300 Billion From Medicare
Under the Medicare drug negotiations provisions in the reconciliation bill, the federal government would see its outlays reduced by about $300 billion. That reduction wouldn’t result from cuts in benefits. Instead, Medicare would be empowered to leverage its market power to pay lower prices for certain drugs.
Cognitive Rehab May Help Older Adults Clear Covid-Related Brain Fog
People whose brains have been injured by concussions, traumatic accidents, strokes, or neurodegenerative conditions such as Parkinson’s disease can benefit from targeted therapy. Experts also employ therapies for long-covid patients with memory and language problems.
Hospices Have Become Big Business for Private Equity Firms, Raising Concerns About End-of-Life Care
Private equity firms are seeing opportunities for profit in hospice care, once the domain of nonprofit organizations. The investment companies are transforming the industry — and might be jeopardizing patient care — in the process.
Nursing Homes Are Suing the Friends and Family of Residents to Collect Debts
Debt lawsuits — long a byproduct of America’s medical debt crisis — can ensnare not only patients but also those who help sick and older people be admitted to nursing homes, a KHN-NPR investigation finds.
