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Shingles vaccination rate soars but leaves many behind

Worried about the high cost of the copayment for the shingles vaccine, Jacky Felder, a Medicare beneficiary, opted against getting immunized last year.

9 Jul 2020

Analysis: How a COVID-19 vaccine could cost Americans dearly

Yes, of course, Americans' health is priceless, and reining in a deadly virus that has trashed the economy would be invaluable.

8 Jul 2020

Study finds staggering inaccuracy in Medicare beneficiaries' race and ethnicity data

The information critical to a nationwide priority of reducing health care disparities among minorities is incomplete and inaccurate, according to a new Rutgers study.

7 Jul 2020

Purdue-affiliated medical device company raises over $1.5 million to scale up business

SpeechVive Inc. announced Tuesday (July 7) the completion of a convertible note that will provide the necessary resources to begin scaling the business.

7 Jul 2020

Researchers suggest a system to improve financial transparency in spine literature

Many studies published by major spinal surgery journals do not include full disclosure of researchers' financial conflicts of interest (COIs), reports a study in Spine.

2 Jul 2020

Telehealth plays an important role in preventing the spread of COVID-19

Rural hospitals are more likely than urban facilities to have access to telehealth, a once-underused service that now is playing a key role in treating coronavirus patients, according to research by two health administration professors in Florida Atlantic University's College of Business.

1 Jul 2020

Hollowed-out public health system faces more cuts amid virus

The U.S. public health system has been starved for decades and lacks the resources to confront the worst health crisis in a century.

1 Jul 2020

Hospital executive charged in $1.4B rural hospital billing scheme

A Miami entrepreneur who led a rural hospital empire was charged in an indictment unsealed Monday in what federal prosecutors called a $1.4 billion fraudulent lab-billing scheme.

30 Jun 2020

Long-term exposure to fine atmospheric particles can lead to increased mortality rates among the elderly

A new analysis of 16 years of publicly accessible health data on 68.5 million Medicare enrollees provides broad evidence that long-term exposure to fine particles in the air - even at levels below current EPA standards - leads to increased mortality rates among the elderly.

27 Jun 2020

Study provides more evidence of causal link between air pollution and premature death

Strengthening U.S. air quality standards for fine particulate pollution to be in compliance with current World Health Association (WHO) guidelines could save more than 140,000 lives over the course of a decade, according to a new study from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

26 Jun 2020

Race, rurality play huge role in Georgia areas hardest hit by COVID-19

While counties in populous metropolitan Atlanta had the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the initial weeks following Georgia's first reported case, it was rural Southwest Georgia counties, with a higher number of black residents and lower number of ICU beds, experiencing the highest rates of infection and death per capita, investigators report.

25 Jun 2020

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: The pandemic shifts; the politics, not so much

President Donald Trump caused a stir when he said at his rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, last weekend that he wanted less testing for COVID-19.

25 Jun 2020

Study examines statin use among nursing home residents nearing the end of life

Cardiovascular disease (also called heart disease) is one of the most common medical conditions older adults face. In nursing homes, almost half of all older adult residents have been diagnosed with problems affecting the heart and/or blood vessels.

24 Jun 2020

Study: Linking hospital and other databases can predict risk of opioid overdoses

A new study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that the odds of a fatal opioid overdose were 1.5 times higher for individuals with one to two visits to the emergency department for any medical issue than for people with no hospital visits.

24 Jun 2020

Pandemic forced insurers to pay for in-home treatments. Will they disappear?

After seven days as an inpatient for complications related to heart problems, Glenn Shanoski was initially hesitant when doctors suggested in early April that he could cut his hospital stay short and recover at home — with high-tech 24-hour monitoring and daily visits from medical teams.

23 Jun 2020

Easy to say ‘get tested.’ Harder to do. Here’s how.

Will Bondurant decided to get tested for COVID-19 after attending three racial justice demonstrations over a five-day period in San Francisco, where he lives.

22 Jun 2020

As problems grow with Abbott’s fast COVID test, FDA standards are under fire

In mid-May, the Food and Drug Administration issued a rare public warning about an Abbott Laboratories COVID-19 test that for weeks had received high praise from the White House because of its speed: Test results could be wrong.

22 Jun 2020

Staffing levels and quality linked to COVID-19 toll in nursing homes

A new study shows that residents of long-term care facilities with lower nurse staffing levels, poorer quality scores, and higher concentrations of disadvantaged residents suffer from higher rates of confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths.

18 Jun 2020

Wealthy hospital taps small craft breweries for financial aid to buy masks, gloves

As Inova Health System sought donations in March to buy personal protective equipment for its staff to treat COVID-19, Zach Mote, a police officer turned brewer, came to their aid.

16 Jun 2020

Many Americans face high out-of-pocket medical costs for COVID-19 hospitalizations

If past hospitalizations for pneumonia and other respiratory illnesses are any guide, many Americans could face high out-of-pocket medical costs for COVID-19 hospitalizations despite the fact that many insurers have waived their cost-sharing requirements, a study from researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health suggests.