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‘It hurts our soul’: Nursing home workers struggle with thankless position

In the months before county health officials ordered the evacuation of COVID-19-plagued Magnolia Rehabilitation & Nursing Center, the facility's employees complained of bounced checks.

21 Apr 2020

Before ‘tidal wave’ of illness, nursing home thought it had COVID-19 contained

More than 20 patients have died. Dozens more are still hospitalized. And residents who had already been sent back to a nursing home in Gallatin, Tennessee, have turned up with new cases of COVID-19.

20 Apr 2020

COVID-19: AGS reinforces the need for medical supplies, telehealth in older adult care

In a new series of letters sent yesterday to Congressional leaders, Vice President Pence, and White House Coronavirus Task Force Coordinator Deborah Birx, MD, experts at the American Geriatrics Society continued to reinforce the need for medical supplies, telehealth, expertise in older adult care, and a range of other priorities as the federal government plans the next phase of America's response to COVID-19.

18 Apr 2020

In fine print, HHS appears to ban all surprise billing during the pandemic

Federal officials offering emergency funding to hospitals, clinics and doctors' practices have included this stipulation: They cannot foist surprise medical bills on COVID-19 patients.

17 Apr 2020

Obama: GOP’s stance on preexisting conditions off-base, especially during pandemic

Endorsing his former vice president, Joe Biden, to win the White House, former President Barack Obama sought to contrast the 2020 platforms of Democrats and Republicans on a critical plank: their stance on the Affordable Care Act. It's a difference, he argued, that has assumed newfound urgency.

17 Apr 2020

The COVID-19 bailout that’s left every hospital unhappy in its own way

In the throes of the novel coronavirus outbreak in early April, Kenneth Raske, president of the powerful Greater New York Hospital Association, took his case for needing billions in federal relief funding to another New Yorker, well placed in the White House.

17 Apr 2020

Caring for geriatric patients during COVID-19 pandemic requires vigilance

As the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic advances so does the uncertainty and evolution of the pandemic as it relates to nursing homes and long-term care facilities

16 Apr 2020

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: How will we reopen the economy?

President Donald Trump wants to reopen the country soon. But public health experts from across the ideological spectrum insist that won't be safe until the country can dramatically ramp up testing and contact tracing stemming from those infected.

16 Apr 2020

Study shows variability in Medicare coverage for transgender hormone therapies

A new study has shown substantial variability in access to guideline-recommended hormone therapies for older transgender individuals insured through Medicare.

13 Apr 2020

Surgeons report on rural preparedness response plan for dealing with COVID-19

Major metropolitan areas such as New York, Seattle, and Detroit have dominated news of the COVID-19 outbreak, but rural hospitals and health care systems must also prepare for a surge of coronavirus patients.

12 Apr 2020

Furor erupts: Billions going to hospitals based on Medicare billings, not COVID-19

Probably few hospital systems need the emergency federal grants announced this week to handle the coronavirus crisis as badly as Florida's Jackson Health does.

11 Apr 2020

To ‘keep the lights on,’ doctors and hospitals ask for advance Medicare payments

Darrin Menard, a family physician in Lafayette, Louisiana, has spent the past month easing patients' anxieties about the coronavirus that has killed 10 people in his parish so far.

10 Apr 2020

‘Baby, I can’t breathe’: America’s first ER doctor to die in heat of COVID-19 battle

At about 5 a.m. on March 19, a New York City ER physician named Frank Gabrin texted a friend about his concerns over the lack of medical supplies at hospitals.

9 Apr 2020

What’s missing in the coronavirus response

In the age of coronavirus, Americans are being told to stay home and wear masks outside. The federal government has made way for hospitals to treat patients in repurposed hotels and dormitories. Private companies are working to push out new diagnostic tests.

9 Apr 2020

COVID-19 crisis threatens beleaguered assisted living industry

David Aguirre jumped in his truck and drove toward the hospital in the predawn darkness the minute he got the news: His 91-year-old mom was being rushed from her Texas assisted living facility to the emergency room.

9 Apr 2020

Pandemic delays federal probe into Medicare Advantage health plans

Federal health officials, citing a need to focus on the COVID-19 pandemic, have temporarily halted some efforts to recover hundreds of millions of dollars in overpayments made to Medicare Advantage health plans.

8 Apr 2020

Researchers identify way to measure frailty using patients' medical claims

A team of researchers, led by Kenton Johnston, Ph.D. of Saint Louis University's College for Public Health and Social Justice, identified a way to measure frailty using patients' medical claims that more accurately predict costs-of-care, especially for clinicians with disproportionate shares of frail patients.

7 Apr 2020

Dispatch from a country doctor: Seeing patients differently in the time of coronavirus

Patients would often stop by River Bend Family Medicine just to gab with staff at the front desk or bring baked goods to Dr. Matt Hahn.

7 Apr 2020

Nursing homes have thousands of ventilators that hospitals desperately need

As the number of COVID-19 patients climbs and health officials hunt for ventilators to treat them, nursing homes across the United States have a cache - about 8,200 of the lifesaving machines, according to data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

7 Apr 2020

Pandemic-stricken cities have empty hospitals, but reopening them is difficult

As city leaders across the country scramble to find space for the expected surge of COVID-19 patients, some are looking at a seemingly obvious choice: former hospital buildings, sitting empty, right downtown.

2 Apr 2020