Latest KFF Health News Stories
“Duele en el alma”: la lucha de los trabajadores en residencias de adultos mayores
La epidemia de COVID-19 ha resaltado las profundas debilidades de la industria que atiende a las personas mayores y más frágiles de la nación en centros de cuidado y residencias.
‘An Arm And A Leg’: Am I Protected If I Need COVID-19 Care?
“An Arm and a Leg” is back sharing stories about the ways COVID-19 intersects with the cost of health care. To tackle a listener’s question about health coverage, Dan Weissmann spoke with one of the country’s top insurance nerds.
How Climate Change Is Putting Doctors In The Hot Seat
Health care providers are seeing the effects of climate change in hospitals across the U.S. ― and urging their peers to take action.
Must-Reads Of The Week From Brianna Labuskes
Newsletter editor Brianna Labuskes wades through hundreds of health care policy stories each week, so you don’t have to.
California Shies Away From Calls To Eliminate Restrictions On Nurse Practitioners
Many states are dramatically loosening regulations on nurse practitioners as the coronavirus pandemic increases demand for health care workers. But not California.
As Ventilators Become Crucial In Saving Lives, Repair Roadblocks Remain
With hospitals struggling to get more ventilators, they must ensure every ventilator they have is ready for service. But manufacturers limit who can repair them.
The COVID-19 Bailout That’s Left Every Hospital Unhappy In Its Own Way
Despite intense lobbying for a piece of the $100 billion bailout pot, big New York hospitals and rural systems alike say they aren’t getting a fair share.
KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: How Will We Reopen The Economy?
The politics of COVID-19 are pretty polarized, but health experts across the ideological spectrum agree: The U.S. will need more robust testing before it’s safe to relax social-distancing requirements. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump, Congress and the nation’s governors continue to spar over who should be responsible for what. Kimberly Leonard of Business Insider, Tami Luhby of CNN and Anna Edney of Bloomberg News join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss this and more. Also, for extra credit, the panelists suggest their favorite health policy stories of the week they think you should read, too.
Coronavirus Nurses Ask An Ebola Veteran: Is It OK To Be Afraid?
Martha Phillips traveled to Sierra Leone during the Ebola epidemic in 2014 to serve as a nurse. Now, she’s working on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic, advising her colleagues on how to stay safe.
On The Eve Of Retirement, VA Nurse Succumbs To COVID-19
Nurse Divina “Debbie” Accad had cared for veterans for over 25 years and was set to retire in April. But after contracting the novel coronavirus, she spent her final 11 days on a ventilator — and didn’t survive past March.
Nurse’s Faith Led Her To Care For Prisoners At A New Jersey Jail
Daisy Doronila had a different perspective than most who worked at the Hudson County Correctional Facility, a New Jersey lockup 11 miles from Manhattan. It was a place where the veteran nurse could put her Catholic faith into action, showing kindness to marginalized people.
COVID-19 Brings Overhaul Of Military Health Care To A Halt
The military is called to action to battle the pandemic, even as the numbers of people infected among its ranks and veterans climb amid a shortage of doctors and nurses.
Nurse At Nevada VA Dies After Caring For Infected Colleague
Nurse Vianna Thompson, 52, spent two night shifts caring for a fellow Veterans Affairs health care worker who was dying from COVID-19. Two weeks later, she too was lying in a hospital intensive care unit, with a co-worker holding her hand as she died.
A Desperate Scramble As COVID-19 Families Vie For Access To Plasma Therapy
As efforts ramp up to collect blood plasma from the first survivors of COVID-19, families of critically ill patients are jockeying to obtain the still-unproven antibody treatment.
Dr. J. Ronald Verrier Was Busy Saving Lives Before The Pandemic
Dr. J. Ronald Verrier, a surgeon at St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx, spent the final weeks of his audacious, unfinished life tending to a torrent of patients inflicted with COVID-19. He died April 8 at Mount Sinai South Nassau Hospital in Oceanside, New York, at age 59, after falling ill from the novel coronavirus.
California Nurse Thrived In ER and ICU, But Couldn’t Survive COVID-19
Jeff Baumbach, 57, was a seasoned nurse of 28 years when the novel coronavirus began to circulate in California. He’d worked in the ER, the ICU and on a cardiac floor. Hepatitis and tuberculosis had been around over the years but never posed a major concern.
True Toll Of COVID-19 On U.S. Health Care Workers Unknown
Infection-report forms rarely indicate who is a health worker or whether they survived. States and hospitals tend to keep quiet, citing patient privacy.
Furor Erupts: Billions Going To Hospitals Based On Medicare Billings, Not COVID-19
In the first round of emergency relief, some states will get more than $300,000 per COVID-19 patient, while hard-hit New York gets just $12,000 per patient.
To ‘Keep The Lights On,’ Doctors And Hospitals Ask For Advance Medicare Payments
As part of the federal response to the coronavirus crisis, Medicare is offering to give hospitals and doctors accelerated payments.
‘It’s Like Walking Into Chernobyl,’ One Doctor Says Of Her Emergency Room
Lack of protective gear and fears about all the unknown aspects of COVID-19 are parts of the mosaic of stress facing doctors and nurses on the front lines of the pandemic.
