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KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Bill with billions in health program cuts passes House

With only a single vote to spare, the House passed a controversial budget bill that includes billions of dollars in tax cuts for the wealthy, along with billions of dollars of cuts to Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, and the food stamp program — most of which will affect those at the lower end of the income scale.

23 May 2025

Call centers replaced many doctors’ receptionists. Now, AI is coming for call centers.

At one call center in the Philippines, workers help Americans with diabetes or neurological conditions troubleshoot devices that monitor their health.

22 May 2025

New cases of dementia decline while prevalence continues to increase due to population aging

New cases of dementia in the United States declined from 2015 to 2021, but the number of people living with the condition continued to rise due to population aging, with nearly 2.9 million traditional Medicare beneficiaries (around 12%) living with a dementia diagnosis in 2021, finds a study published by The BMJ today.

21 May 2025

Trump won’t force Medicaid to cover GLP-1S for obesity. A few states are doing it anyway.

When Page Campbell's doctor recommended she try an injectable prescription drug called Wegovy to lose weight before scheduling bariatric surgery, she readily agreed.

21 May 2025

3 things to watch on mental health in Trump’s early budget proposals

Since President Donald Trump released his 2026 budget blueprint in early May, calling for $163 billion in federal spending cuts, much of the attention has focused on his slashing of foreign aid and boosting of border security.

21 May 2025

Trump exaggerates speed and certainty of prescription drug price reductions

President Donald Trump expressed high hopes for an executive order to reduce drug prices.

20 May 2025

Housing, nutrition in peril as Trump pulls back Medicaid social services

During his first administration, President Donald Trump's top health officials gave North Carolina permission to use Medicaid money for social services not traditionally covered by health insurance.

19 May 2025

High cost of immunotherapy linked to financial hardship among cancer survivors

A study published today in the Journal of Cancer Survivorship found that cancer survivors receiving high-cost immunotherapy treatments were more likely to face financial hardship, leading to increased instances of being unable to afford care and taking fewer medications due to cost.

18 May 2025

Disparities in access to novel infusion treatment for Alzheimer's disease revealed

Adoption of lecanemab, a novel infusion treatment for Alzheimer's disease (AD), has been disproportionately higher among patients who are male, white, from urban areas, and have higher socioeconomic status, new research suggests.

15 May 2025

US hospitals see rising complications in patients with takotsubo cardiomyopathy

A large US study found that takotsubo cardiomyopathy is associated with high in-hospital mortality and serious cardiovascular complications, with no improvements in outcomes over five years. Mortality is more than double in men compared to women, and risk factors include age, race, and hospital characteristics.

15 May 2025

Pain clinic CEO faced 20 years for making patients ‘human pin cushions.’ He got 18 months.

Federal prosecutors sought a maximum prison sentence of nearly 20 years for the CEO of Pain MD, a company found to have given hundreds of thousands of questionable injections to patients, many reliant on opioids.

15 May 2025

Loss of drug subsidies linked to higher mortality among low-income Medicare beneficiaries

While it may seem intuitive that people would die without life-saving medications, Penn and Harvard researchers have connected losing a federally funded prescription drug assistance program and an increase in mortality.

14 May 2025

Readers scrutinize federal cuts and medical debt

The recent KFF Health News article "Beyond Ivy League, RFK Jr.'s NIH Slashed Science Funding Across States That Backed Trump" (April 17) struck a nerve.

13 May 2025

Hearing aids may help older adults combat social isolation

Providing hearing aids and advice on their use may preserve social connections that often wane as we age, a new study shows.

12 May 2025

Medicaid payments barely keep hospital mental health units afloat. Federal cuts could sink them.

This town's hospital is a holdout on behalf of people going through mental health crises. The facility's leaders have pledged not to shutter their inpatient psychiatric unit, as dozens of other U.S. hospitals have.

12 May 2025

An Arm and a Leg: A health policy veteran puts 2025 in perspective

News has been coming out of Washington, D.C., since the start of the second Donald Trump administration like water out of a fire hose. It can feel impossible to stay on top of all the changes.

12 May 2025

Sen. Ron Wyden seeks answers on RFK Jr.’s purge of FOIA staff

The Department of Health and Human Services' mass dismissals of workers who release government records "raise grave transparency, accountability, and privacy concerns," Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden said Thursday.

8 May 2025

Seeking spending cuts, GOP lawmakers target a tax hospitals love to pay

On the eastern plains of Colorado, in a county of less than 6,000 people, Lincoln Health runs the only hospital within a 75-minute drive. The facility struggles financially, given its small size and the area's tiny population.

8 May 2025

NIH and CMS launch partnership to build real world health data platform

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) today announced a landmark partnership to enable NIH to build a real-world data platform enabling advanced research across claims data, electronic medical records, and consumer wearables.

7 May 2025

NCCN hosts Oncology Policy Summit to bridge primary and cancer care

The National Comprehensive Cancer Network hosted an Oncology Policy Summit in Washington, D.C., today, focused on improving care coordination between primary care and oncology providers.

6 May 2025

Medicare News and Research

KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Bill with billions in health program cuts passes House

Call centers replaced many doctors’ receptionists. Now, AI is coming for call centers.

New cases of dementia decline while prevalence continues to increase due to population aging

Trump won’t force Medicaid to cover GLP-1S for obesity. A few states are doing it anyway.

3 things to watch on mental health in Trump’s early budget proposals

Trump exaggerates speed and certainty of prescription drug price reductions

Housing, nutrition in peril as Trump pulls back Medicaid social services

High cost of immunotherapy linked to financial hardship among cancer survivors

Disparities in access to novel infusion treatment for Alzheimer's disease revealed

US hospitals see rising complications in patients with takotsubo cardiomyopathy

Pain clinic CEO faced 20 years for making patients ‘human pin cushions.’ He got 18 months.

Loss of drug subsidies linked to higher mortality among low-income Medicare beneficiaries

Readers scrutinize federal cuts and medical debt

Hearing aids may help older adults combat social isolation

Medicaid payments barely keep hospital mental health units afloat. Federal cuts could sink them.

An Arm and a Leg: A health policy veteran puts 2025 in perspective

Sen. Ron Wyden seeks answers on RFK Jr.’s purge of FOIA staff

Seeking spending cuts, GOP lawmakers target a tax hospitals love to pay

NIH and CMS launch partnership to build real world health data platform

NCCN hosts Oncology Policy Summit to bridge primary and cancer care

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