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Cognitive rehab may help older adults clear covid-related brain fog

Eight months after falling ill with covid-19, the 73-year-old woman couldn't remember what her husband had told her a few hours before. She would forget to remove laundry from the dryer at the end of the cycle. She would turn on the tap at a sink and walk away.

5 Aug 2022

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Kansas makes a statement

Voters in Kansas told the rest of the country this week that they don't want their state to ban abortion. In a nearly 60%-40% split, voters turned back an effort by anti-abortion activists to amend the state constitution to remove its right to abortion, which would have allowed the legislature to ban the procedure.

4 Aug 2022

Providers charge more in the Medicare Advantage market by being in network, study finds

Large dialysis chains charge Medicare Advantage plans 27% more for dialysis services compared with what they charge the traditional, fee-for-service Medicare program, according to a new USC analysis.

3 Aug 2022

Lyme disease remains a growing public health concern in the United States, says FAIR Health study

Lyme disease has experienced notable growth in the United States over the past 15 years and, as a result, has become an illness of increasing national concern. From 2007 to 2021, private insurance claim lines with Lyme disease diagnoses rose 357 percent in rural areas and 65 percent in urban areas. These and other findings on this tick-borne, bacterial illness were captured in an infographic just released by FAIR Health. The national, independent organization used its database of over 36 billion privately billed healthcare claims to conduct its 15-year analysis of Lyme disease; this analysis builds upon a previous FAIR Health infographic that studied 10 years of Lyme disease data.

2 Aug 2022

Black patients with severe heart failure have a lower chance of getting LVAD care

Black people and women with severe heart failure who might be good candidates for surgery to implant a heart-assisting device have a lower chance of actually getting that operation than white patients, or male patients, a new study finds.

1 Aug 2022

ALZ-NET: First data collection and sharing network for new FDA-approved Alzheimer's treatments

ALZ-NET is the first network developed specifically for new FDA-approved Alzheimer's treatments, collecting real-world evidence on drug effectiveness and side effects over a long period of time.

1 Aug 2022

Persistent loss of smell due to COVID-19 may better predict long-term cognitive, functional impairment

New insights into factors that may predict, increase or protect against the impact of COVID-19 and the pandemic on memory and thinking skills were revealed by multiple studies reported today at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference 2022 in San Diego and virtually.

31 Jul 2022

Special issue supports a national program to improve access to PrEP for preventing the spread of HIV

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have contributed to a special issue of the Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics, including studies and commentary that support a national program to improve access to PrEP, a medication that prevents the spread of HIV.

29 Jul 2022

Hospices have become big business for private equity firms, raising concerns about end-of-life care

Hospice care, once provided primarily by nonprofit agencies, has seen a remarkable shift over the past decade, with more than two-thirds of hospices nationwide now operating as for-profit entities.

29 Jul 2022

Weill Cornell Medicine-led consortium secures $14 million grant to study emerging technologies for aging adults

A Weill Cornell Medicine-led consortium has been awarded a five-year, $14.7 million renewal grant from the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health for a research Center focused on employing emerging and existing technologies to help promote the well-being, quality of life and independence of diverse populations of older adults and provide support for older adults with cognitive impairments.

28 Jul 2022

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Manchin makes a deal

The Democrats' on-again, off-again budget bill is apparently on again, and it's bigger than expected. In a surprise move, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced an agreement with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) to expand the scope of the limited health bill that was headed to the Senate floor to also include climate change and some tax increases for corporations and certain wealthy Americans.

28 Jul 2022

Even well-intended laws can’t protect us from inaccurate provider directories

If you have medical insurance, chances are you've been utterly exasperated at some point while trying to find an available doctor or mental health practitioner in your health plan's network.

26 Jul 2022

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Drug price bill is a go in the Senate

President Joe Biden is the latest top Washington official to test positive for covid-19, following Vice President Kamala Harris, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. But work continues, particularly on a Senate bill that could, for the first time, allow Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices and cap seniors' out-of-pocket medication costs.

21 Jul 2022

Study details geographical variation in health spending across the U.S.

A new study by researchers at Yale, Stanford, and Dartmouth provides the first nationwide, small-area analysis of the variation in spending by the three main funders of health care in the United States: Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurers.

20 Jul 2022

No-bid Medicaid contract for Kaiser Permanente is now California law, but key details are missing

California lawmakers have approved a controversial no-bid statewide Medi-Cal contract for HMO giant Kaiser Permanente over the objection of county governments and competing health plans.

19 Jul 2022

Listen: Why medical debt touches every corner of America

KHN's Noam N. Levey talks with Sasha-Ann Simons of WBEZ about America’s sprawling medical debt crisis.

15 Jul 2022

As Big Pharma loses interest in new antibiotics, infections are only growing stronger

Forget covid-19, monkeypox, and other viruses for the moment and consider another threat troubling infectious disease specialists: common urinary tract infections, or UTIs, that lead to emergency room visits and even hospitalizations because of the failure of oral antibiotics.

15 Jul 2022

New tool uses existing EHR data to identify avoidable hospital transfers of nursing home residents

The Avoidable Transfer Scale, an innovative tool that uses data commonly included in a nursing home resident's electronic health record to identify and characterize potentially avoidable hospitalizations, highlights issues that can be handled in the nursing home itself.

15 Jul 2022

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Life after ‘Roe’ is … confusing

The Supreme Court's decision overturning the federal constitutional right to abortion has left confusion in its wake.

14 Jul 2022

Phase I clinical trial of new blocking antibody therapy shows promising results for the treatment of advanced medulloblastoma

Effective and safe treatments are needed for medulloblastoma - the most common type of cancerous brain tumor in children - especially for patients whose cancer has spread to the spinal cord.

14 Jul 2022

Medicare News and Research

Cognitive rehab may help older adults clear covid-related brain fog

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Kansas makes a statement

Providers charge more in the Medicare Advantage market by being in network, study finds

Lyme disease remains a growing public health concern in the United States, says FAIR Health study

Black patients with severe heart failure have a lower chance of getting LVAD care

ALZ-NET: First data collection and sharing network for new FDA-approved Alzheimer's treatments

Persistent loss of smell due to COVID-19 may better predict long-term cognitive, functional impairment

Special issue supports a national program to improve access to PrEP for preventing the spread of HIV

Hospices have become big business for private equity firms, raising concerns about end-of-life care

Weill Cornell Medicine-led consortium secures $14 million grant to study emerging technologies for aging adults

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Manchin makes a deal

Even well-intended laws can’t protect us from inaccurate provider directories

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Drug price bill is a go in the Senate

Study details geographical variation in health spending across the U.S.

No-bid Medicaid contract for Kaiser Permanente is now California law, but key details are missing

Listen: Why medical debt touches every corner of America

As Big Pharma loses interest in new antibiotics, infections are only growing stronger

New tool uses existing EHR data to identify avoidable hospital transfers of nursing home residents

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Life after ‘Roe’ is … confusing

Phase I clinical trial of new blocking antibody therapy shows promising results for the treatment of advanced medulloblastoma

Advancing Neuroscience Research Through Collaboration and Patient-Centered Innovation

The impact of vibration on microscopy

How Omics Technologies Are Transforming Biological Research and Drug Discovery

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