Health Industry

Latest KFF Health News Stories

As Nonprofit Hospitals Reap Big Tax Breaks, States Scrutinize Their Required Charity Spending

KFF Health News Original

Nonprofit hospitals avoid paying taxes if they provide community benefits such as charity care. More states are examining that trade-off, scrutinizing the extent of hospitals’ spending on their communities.

Mental Health Respite Facilities Are Filling Care Gaps in Over a Dozen States

KFF Health News Original

As three years of pandemic stress accelerated an ongoing nationwide mental health crisis, peer respite programs diverted patients from overburdened emergency rooms, psychiatric institutions, and behavioral therapists. Now, more “respites” are opening.

Patients Squeezed in Fight Over Who Gets to Bill for Pricey Infusion Drugs

KFF Health News Original

To drive down costs, insurers are bypassing hospital system pharmacies and delivering high-priced infusion drugs, including some used in chemotherapy, via third-party pharmacies. Smarting from losing out on billing for those drugs, hospitals and clinics are trying to convince states to limit this practice, known as “white bagging.”

Need to Get Plan B or an HIV Test Online? Facebook May Know About It

KFF Health News Original

Twelve of the largest drugstores in the U.S. sent shoppers’ sensitive health information to Facebook or other platforms, according to an investigation by The Markup and KFF Health News.

La atención primaria está cambiando: el acceso y la calidad están en juego

KFF Health News Original

Una relación sólida y duradera con un médico de atención primaria —que conozca el historial del paciente y pueda vigilar nuevos problemas— se ha considerado durante mucho tiempo la base de un sistema sanitario de calidad.

New Charleston Museum Nods to Historical Roots of US Health Disparities

KFF Health News Original

The $120 million International African American Museum that opened this week in Charleston, South Carolina, allows visitors to step back in history at Gadsden’s Wharf, where tens of thousands of enslaved Africans arrived in America, the genesis of generations of health disparities.

Más adolescentes adictos a cigarrillos electrónicos con altas dosis de nicotina

KFF Health News Original

El vapeo se ha disparado hasta convertirse en una industria de $8.2 mil millones, y los fabricantes están inundando el mercado con miles de productos que pueden ser mucho más adictivos.

Advocates Call for 911 Changes. Police Have Mixed Feelings.

KFF Health News Original

Though most California counties are experimenting with dispatching health professionals rather than law enforcement to respond to people experiencing mental health crises, powerful police unions fear defunding.

What’s It Really Like to Be HHS Secretary? Three Who’ve Done It Spill the Beans

KFF Health News Original

Three secretaries of Health and Human Services, who served under Presidents Joe Biden, Donald Trump, and Barack Obama, gathered this week for a rare, candid conversation hosted by the Aspen Ideas Festival and KFF Health News’ “What the Health?” about the experience of being the nation’s top health official.

Farmacéuticas abandonan los genéricos baratos y ahora los pacientes de cáncer en EE.UU. no pueden conseguir medicamentos

KFF Health News Original

El cisplatino y el carboplatino son algunos de los medicamentos que escasean, así como otros 12 contra el cáncer, pastillas para el trastorno por déficit de atención con hiperactividad, anticoagulantes y antibióticos.

Drugmakers Are Abandoning Cheap Generics, and Now US Cancer Patients Can’t Get Meds

KFF Health News Original

A quality-control crisis at an Indian pharmaceutical factory has left doctors and their patients with impossible choices as cheap, effective, generic cancer drugs go out of stock.

Familias huyen de los estados que niegan atención de salud a las personas trans

KFF Health News Original

Más de una cuarta parte de los adultos trans encuestados por KFF y The Washington Post a fines del año pasado dijeron que se mudaron a otro vecindario, ciudad o estado en busca de un ambiente más tolerante.

Medical Exiles: Families Flee States Amid Crackdown on Transgender Care

KFF Health News Original

As more states restrict gender-affirming care for transgender people, some are relocating to more welcoming destinations, such as California, Illinois, Maryland, and Nevada, where they don’t have to worry about being locked out of medical care.

Journalists Cover Air Quality, Tick Risks, and … Brazilian Butt Lifts?

KFF Health News Original

KFF Health News 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.