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Varenicline found to help teens and young adults quit vaping

A new study by investigators from Mass General Brigham showed that teens and young adults who took varenicline-an FDA-approved, twice-daily smoking cessation pill for adults-are more than three times as likely to successfully quit vaping compared to those who received only behavioral counseling. Results are published in JAMA.

23 Apr 2025

Hospitals’ lobbying frustrates Montana lawmakers who sought to boost oversight

As Republican legislative leaders in Montana girded for this year's battle over whether to extend Medicaid expansion in the state, they took aim at one of the program's biggest backers: hospitals.

23 Apr 2025

Medi-Cal under threat: Who’s covered and what could be cut?

Medi-Cal, California's complex, $174.6 billion Medicaid program, provides health insurance for nearly 15 million residents with low incomes and disabilities.

23 Apr 2025

Machine learning unlocks millions of safer CRISPR enzymes for gene editing

Genome editing has advanced at a rapid pace with promising results for treating genetic conditions-but there is always room for improvement.

22 Apr 2025

The ranks of Obamacare ‘fixers’ axed in Trump’s reduction of health agency workforce

They're the fixers, the ones who step in when Affordable Care Act enrollees have a problem with their coverage, like a newborn incorrectly left off a policy or discovering that a rogue broker had signed them up or switched their plan without consent.

22 Apr 2025

Insurance instability more common among low-income adults with diabetes

An Oregon Health & Science University-led study reveals that low-income adults with diabetes are more likely to go in and out of health insurance, and that insurance instability is even worse for those with complex needs.

18 Apr 2025

Monell study offers renewed hope for people living with Bardet-Biedl Syndrome

A Monell Chemical Senses Center study published this week in the Journal of Clinical Investigation offers renewed hope for individuals living with Bardet-Biedl Syndrome (BBS), a rare genetic disorder characterized by early-onset obesity, compulsive eating, and cognitive impairments.

18 Apr 2025

Watch: Why insurance companies are denying coverage for prosthetic limbs

PBS News Weekend's Ali Rogin spoke with KFF Health News contributor Michelle Andrews about what some people with missing limbs consider a disparity in health insurance coverage: Though a knee replacement likely would be covered, a prosthetic knee isn't always.

18 Apr 2025

Legal challenge puts ACA’s preventive health services in jeopardy

A study by the Stanford Prevention Policy Modeling Lab (PPML) finds that almost 30% of privately insured individuals in the United States, or nearly 40 million people, use at least one of the free preventive health services guaranteed under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

17 Apr 2025

In rural Massachusetts, patients and physicians weigh trade-offs of concierge medicine

Michele Andrews had been seeing her internist in Northampton, Massachusetts, a small city two hours west of Boston, for about 10 years. She was happy with the care, though she started to notice it was becoming harder to get an appointment.

16 Apr 2025

New findings highlight a shifting landscape for weight loss and glucose managing medications

When it comes to managing weight loss and type 2 diabetes with medications, research shows that it's out with the old and in with the new.

15 Apr 2025

Trump HHS eliminates office that sets poverty levels tied to benefits for 80 million people

President Donald Trump's firings at the Department of Health and Human Services included the entire office that sets federal poverty guidelines, which determine whether tens of millions of Americans are eligible for health programs such as Medicaid, food assistance, child care, and other services, former staff said.

11 Apr 2025

Tax time triggers fraud alarms for some Obamacare enrollees

Because of past fraud by rogue brokers, some Affordable Care Act policyholders may get an unexpected tax bill this season.

10 Apr 2025

New STITCHR tool offers a promising step forward for gene therapy

Investigators from Mass General Brigham and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center have developed STITCHR, a new gene editing tool that can insert therapeutic genes into specific locations without causing unwanted mutations.

9 Apr 2025

Daytime eating could mitigate health risks of night shift work

A study led by researchers at Mass General Brigham suggests that, when it comes to cardiovascular health, food timing could be a bigger risk factor than sleep timing.

8 Apr 2025

Experts warn of rising HIV deaths with planned aid cuts

Global deaths from HIV/AIDS and new infections could soar to levels unseen since the start of the century if planned funding cuts to foreign aid are sustained, undermining years of progress, experts warn.

8 Apr 2025

Early life adversities linked to reduced brain connectivity and cognitive performance

Mass General Brigham investigators have linked difficult early life experiences with reduced quality and quantity of the white matter communication highways throughout the adolescent brain.

7 Apr 2025

The House Speaker’s eyeing big cuts to Medicaid. In his Louisiana district, It’s a lifeline.

When Desoto Regional Health System took out $36 million in loans last year to renovate a rural hospital that opened in 1952, officials were banking on its main funding source remaining stable: Medicaid, the joint federal-state health program for low-income people and the disabled.

7 Apr 2025

Blockbuster deal will wipe out $30 billion in medical debt. Even backers say it’s not enough.

Underscoring the massive scale of America's medical debt problem, a New York-based nonprofit has struck a deal to pay off old medical bills for an estimated 20 million people.

7 Apr 2025

Study: Rural cancer patients cross state lines for specialized care

In a federally funded study, researchers from Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah (the U) found that 7% of Medicare patients cross state borders for cancer care, and rates were nearly double for those who lived in rural areas.

4 Apr 2025