Latest KFF Health News Stories
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.
With Federal Nod, Consumers Could Lose The Boost They Get From Drug ‘Coupons’
The proposal being weighed by federal officials would allow employers and insurers to decide that drug companies’ assistance doesn’t count toward their members’ deductible or out-of-pocket maximum spending limits. If plans opted for that approach, only payments made by patients themselves would be included in the calculation toward reaching those limits.
Big Brother Wants To Track Your Location And Health Data. And That’s Not All Bad.
Big data plays a critical role in the success of current public health efforts to control the spread of the coronavirus. Privacy advocates, though, are watching closely.
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.
N.Y. Leads The Nation In COVID-19 Tests, But Testing Still Doesn’t Meet Demand
New York City and hospital officials recommend testing only the sickest people and encouraging others to stay home to get well. But other officials say wider tests are needed to ensure that essential workers don’t spread the disease.
Jails And Prisons Spring Thousands To Prevent Coronavirus Outbreaks
As wardens across the country grapple with COVID-19 outbreaks, inmates are being released to prevent widespread contagion in overcrowded prisons.
‘I Wasn’t Eating’: Senior Twin Sisters Battle Pandemic Anxiety Together
Twins Edna Mayes and Ethel Sylvester, 92, are relying on each other through the pandemic, in which one of the hidden dangers is to their mental health.
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.
Massachusetts Recruits 1,000 ‘Contact Tracers’ To Battle COVID-19
“I know we will succeed somewhat and we will fail somewhat,” says one of the plan’s chief architects. “We won’t be able to find every single person — but we will hopefully prevent a lot of deaths.”
In Shutting Out Threat, Seniors In Continuing Care Communities Feel Shut In
For older adults in retirement communities ― a population especially vulnerable to COVID-19 — striking a balance between reducing the risk of contracting the coronavirus and maintaining the quality of life is a new frontier.
Pediatric Practices Struggle To Adapt And Survive Amid COVID-19
Across the U.S., pediatric practices that provide front-line care for the nation’s children are struggling to adjust to crashing revenues, terrified parents and a shortage of protective equipment — and all while being asked to care for young patients who could well be vectors for transmission without showing symptoms.
Watch: Coronavirus And Your Health Care
KHN’s Julie Rovner answers viewers’ questions on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal” about how the pandemic is affecting health policy as well as patients and their insurance.
