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The Host Julie Rovner KFF Health News @jrovner Read Julie's stories. Julie Rovner is chief Washington correspondent and host of KFF Health News’ weekly health policy news podcast, “What the Health?” A noted expert on health policy issues, Julie is the author of the critically praised reference book “Health Care Politics and Policy A to Z,” now in its third edition.
The Federal Trade Commission has long argued that competition makes the economy better. But some states have stopped the agency from blocking hospital mergers that create local or regional monopolies, and the results have been messy. Two dozen states have at some point passed controversial legislation waiving anti-monopoly laws, allowing rival hospitals to merge and replacing competition with prolonged state oversight.
When Karla Adkins looked in the rearview mirror of her car one morning nearly 10 years ago, she noticed the whites of her eyes had turned yellow. She was 36 at the time and working as a physician liaison for a hospital system on the South Carolina coast, where she helped build relationships among doctors. Privately, she had struggled with heavy drinking since her early 20s, long believing that alcohol helped calm her anxieties. She understood that the yellowing of her eyes was evidence of jaundice. Even so, the prospect of being diagnosed with alcohol-related liver disease wasn’t her first...
When she was in ninth grade, Fiona Lu fell into a depression. She had trouble adjusting to her new high school in Orange County, California, and felt so isolated and exhausted that she cried every morning. Lu wanted to get help, but her Medi-Cal plan wouldn’t cover therapy unless she had permission from a parent or guardian. Her mother — a single parent and an immigrant from China — worked long hours to provide for Fiona, her brother, and her grandmother. Finding time to explain to her mom what therapy was, and why she needed it, felt like too much of an obstacle.
Emergency room doctors say insurers are increasingly declining to cover costly air-ambulance rides for critically ill patients, claiming they aren’t medically necessary. And the National Association of EMS Physicians says the No Surprises Act, enacted in 2022, is partly to blame. The law protects patients from many out-of-network medical bills by requiring insurers and providers to haggle over fair payment. But insurers can sidestep the law if they determine care is “not medically necessary” — and insurers themselves get to decide what that means.
Christian Espinoza, director de operaciones de una red de clínicas de tratamiento del sur de California, comenzó recientemente a emplear un nuevo asistente poderoso: un algoritmo de inteligencia artificial (IA) que puede realizar exámenes de la vista con imágenes tomadas por una cámara retinal. Realiza diagnósticos rápidos, sin la presencia de un médico. Sus clínicas, Tarzana Treatment Centers, son de las primeras en adoptar un sistema de IA que promete expandir drásticamente la detección de retinopatía diabética, la principal causa de ceguera entre adultos en edad laboral y una amenaza para...
Susanne Gilliam, 67, was walking down her driveway to get the mail in January when she slipped and fell on a patch of black ice. Pain shot through her left knee and ankle. After summoning her husband on her phone, with difficulty she made it back to the house. And then began the run-around that so many people face when they interact with America’s uncoordinated health care system. Gilliam’s orthopedic surgeon, who managed previous difficulties with her left knee, saw her that afternoon but told her “I don’t do ankles.”
Christian Espinoza, director of a Southern California drug-treatment provider, recently began employing a powerful new assistant: an artificial intelligence algorithm that can perform eye exams with pictures taken by a retinal camera. It makes quick diagnoses, without a doctor present. His clinics, Tarzana Treatment Centers, are among the early adopters of an AI-based system that promises to dramatically expand screening for diabetic retinopathy, the leading cause of blindness among working-age adults and a threat to many of the estimated 38 million Americans with diabetes.
https://kffhealthnews.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Montana-Medicaid_WithIntro-1.mp3 George said the company didn’t have enough money to pay its employees. When he called state health and public assistance officials for help, he said, they told him they were swamped processing a high load of Medicaid cases, and that his residents would have to wait their turn. “I’ve mentioned to some of them, ‘Well what do we do if we’re not being paid for four or five months? Do we have to evict the resident?’” he asked. Instead, the company took out bank loans at 8% interest, George said.
March 21 This week on the KFF Health News Minute: Public health experts worry the anti-vaccine movement pits parental rights against public health, and a Michigan widower joins the fight for minimum staffing levels for hospital nurses. March 14 This week on the KFF Health News Minute: Medicaid expansion could help some rural hospitals stay open, and upcoming rules from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau would keep all medical debt off credit reports. March 6 This week on the KFF Health News Minute: Some providers are saving penicillin for pregnant patients amid a shortage of the drug,...
As the federal government negotiates with drugmakers to lower the price of 10 expensive drugs for Medicare patients, impatient legislators in some states are trying to go even further. Leading the pack is Colorado, where a new Prescription Drug Affordability Review Board is set to recommend an “upper payment limit” for drugs it deems unaffordable.
One January morning in 2021, Carol Rosen took a standard treatment for metastatic breast cancer. Three gruesome weeks later, she died in excruciating pain from the very drug meant to prolong her life. Rosen, a 70-year-old retired schoolteacher, passed her final days in anguish, enduring severe diarrhea and nausea and terrible sores in her mouth that kept her from eating, drinking, and, eventually, speaking. Skin peeled off her body. Her kidneys and liver failed. “Your body burns from the inside out,” said Rosen’s daughter, Lindsay Murray, of Andover, Massachusetts.
Lawyers from the conservative Christian group that won the case to overturn Roe v. Wade are returning to the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday in pursuit of an urgent priority: shutting down access to abortion pills for women across the country. The case challenges the FDA’s regulation of mifepristone, a prescription-only drug approved in 2000 with a stellar safety record that is used in 63% of all U.S. abortions.
OCALA, Fla. — Fire Capt. Jesse Blaire steered his SUV through the mobile home park until he spotted the little beige house with white trim and radioed to let dispatchers know he’d arrived. There, Shawnice Slaughter waited on the steps, wiping sleep from her eyes. “Good morning, Shawnice,” Blaire said. “How are you feeling today?” “I’ve been good, I’ve been good,” Slaughter said. “Much better.” Three days earlier, Blaire — a paramedic who leads the fire department’s emergency medical team — met Slaughter at a nearby hospital. She had overdosed on opioids. It took four vials of an overdose...
In the small Appalachian city of Bristol, Virginia, City Council member Neal Osborne left a meeting on the morning of Jan. 3 and rushed himself to the hospital. Osborne, 36, has Type 1 diabetes. His insulin pump had malfunctioned, and without a steady supply of this essential hormone, Osborne’s blood sugar skyrocketed and his body was shutting down.
Sara England was putting together Ghostbusters costumes for Halloween when she noticed her baby wasn’t doing well. Her 3-month-old son, Amari Vaca, had undergone open-heart surgery two months before, so she called his cardiologist, who recommended getting him checked out. England assigned Amari’s grandparents to trick-or-treat duty with his three older siblings and headed to the local emergency room. Once England and the baby arrived at Natividad Medical Center in Salinas, California, she said, doctors could see Amari was struggling to breathe and told her that he needed specialized care...
KFF Health News senior correspondent Aneri Pattani discussed her experiences reporting on addiction and offers advice to journalists starting on this beat for the American Society of Addiction Medicine’s “The Treat Addiction Save Lives Podcast” on March 18. She also discussed the spending questions surfacing as $1 billion flows into Massachusetts to fight opioids on WCVB NewsCenter 5’s “5 Investigates” on March 6.
OAKLAND, California – El Medi-Cal llegó a Antonio Abundis cuando el conserje más lo necesitaba. Poco después que Abundis pasara de tener cobertura limitada a una cobertura completa en 2022, bajo la expansión del Medi-Cal de California para adultos mayores sin papeles, fue diagnosticado con leucemia, un tipo de cáncer que afecta las células de la sangre. El padre de tres hijos, de voz suave, tomó la noticia con calma cuando su médico le dijo que sus análisis de sangre sugerían que su cáncer no estaba en una etapa avanzada. Sus siguientes pasos fueron hacerse más pruebas y tener un plan de...
Este año, Jason Barton no quería ir al desfile del Super Bowl. La noche anterior le dijo a un compañero de trabajo que estaba preocupado por que ocurriera un tiroteo masivo. Pero era San Valentín, su esposa es fanática de los Kansas City Chiefs y él no podía permitirse pagar las entradas a los partidos, que habían aumentado muchísimo tras la victoria del equipo en el campeonato de 2020. Así que Barton condujo 50 millas desde Osawatomie, Kansas, hasta el centro de Kansas City, Missouri, con su esposa Bridget, Gabriella, su hija de 13 años, y una amiga del colegio de la niña. Cuando por fin...
OAKLAND, Calif. — Medi-Cal health coverage kicked in for Antonio Abundis just when the custodian needed it most. Shortly after Abundis transitioned from limited to full-scope coverage in 2022 under California’s expansion of Medi-Cal to older residents without legal immigration status, he was diagnosed with leukemia, a cancer affecting the blood cells. The soft-spoken father of three took the news in stride as his doctor said his blood test suggested his cancer wasn’t advanced. His next steps were to get more tests and formulate a treatment plan with a cancer team at Epic Care in Emeryville....

 

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