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What a difference a year makes in Colorado’s case for a public option plan

Before the pandemic, Colorado looked set to become the second state to pass what's known as a "public option" health insurance plan, which would have forced hospitals that lawmakers said were raking in obscene profits to accept lower payments. But when covid-19 struck, legislators hit pause.

29 Apr 2021

In poisoned Montana town, Warren Buffett-owned railroad accuses clinic of Medicare fraud

Patricia Denny and her husband, Jeff, had hoped to one day get an RV and travel the country. Instead, Jeff has been forced into retirement at age 54 by a lung disease caused by the asbestos that's polluted the small town of Libby, Montana, for decades.

29 Apr 2021

Time to say goodbye to some insurers’ waivers for Covid treatment fees

Just as other industries are rolling back some consumer-friendly changes made early in the pandemic — think empty middle seats on airplanes — so, too, are health insurers.

26 Apr 2021

Virtual care spreads in Missouri health system, home to ‘hospital without beds’

When Tom Becker was diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat in March 2020, the 60-year-old EMS helicopter pilot from Washington, Missouri, worried he would never fly again.

23 Apr 2021

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Picking up the pace of undoing Trump policies

The Biden administration is speeding up the pace of efforts to undo Trump administration health policies.

22 Apr 2021

After accident, patient crashes into $700,000 bill for spine surgery

Mark Gottlieb's life changed in an instant when another driver crashed into his car, damaging four vertebrae in his upper spine and smashing six teeth.

22 Apr 2021

Study finds modest growth in home care workforce compared with the increasing demand

Recent growth in the number of healthcare workers providing home care for Medicare patients is "small and inadequate" compared with the increasing demand in an aging America, a new study suggests.

20 Apr 2021

Gender parity in orthopaedic surgery requires substantive changes to improve the current curve

At the current rate of change, it will take more than 200 years for the proportion of women in orthopaedic surgery to reach parity with the overall medical profession.

20 Apr 2021

Humana health plan overcharged Medicare by nearly $200 million, federal audit finds

A Humana Inc. health plan for seniors in Florida improperly collected nearly $200 million in 2015 by overstating how sick some patients were, according to a new federal audit, which seeks to claw back the money.

20 Apr 2021

Federal policy to improve outcomes in sepsis patients was mostly ineffective

The first large-scale, multi-hospital evaluation of an "all or none" federal policy intended to improve outcomes in sepsis patients finds that the guidelines are a wash - on average they neither helped nor hurt despite significant investments in their implementation, according to an analysis by University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine clinician-scientists of nearly a dozen hospitals in one academic health system.

20 Apr 2021

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Pause and effect on Covid vaccines

The effort to vaccinate Americans against covid-19 took a hit this week. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration jointly called for a pause in use of the vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson while experts try to figure out whether it is responsible for a small number of serious blood clots, mostly in women of childbearing age.

17 Apr 2021

Elderly patients of female physicians are more likely to be vaccinated against the flu

New UCLA research suggests that elderly patients of female physicians are more likely than those of male physicians in the same outpatient practice to be vaccinated against the flu.

16 Apr 2021

The FDA seeks a new way to review old drugs without causing prices to soar

Chuck Peterson of Omaha, Nebraska, recently experienced a swollen, painful knuckle caused by arthritis. He got a prescription for colchicine.

15 Apr 2021

Measurable antibody response to mRNA COVID-19 vaccine in elderly care home residents

A new preprint research paper posted to the medRxiv* server explores the antibody response to COVID-19 vaccines in elderly residents of nursing homes in the USA. As of March 2021, there have been over 1.4 million infections from SARS-CoV-2 and over 175,000 deaths related to the pandemic among nursing home residents in the country.

13 Apr 2021

Biden seeks $400 billion to buttress long-term care. A look at what’s at stake.

There's widespread agreement that it's important to help older adults and people with disabilities remain independent as long as possible. But are we prepared to do what's necessary, as a nation, to make this possible?

12 Apr 2021

Sleep apnea treatment linked to lower risk of Alzheimer's and other dementias

A new study finds older adults who received positive airway pressure therapy prescribed for obstructive sleep apnea may be less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease and other kinds of dementia.

9 Apr 2021

FAIR Health adds new tools to support consumers as they navigate the healthcare system

The national, independent nonprofit FAIR Health is unveiling three new enhancements to its platform of online resources to support consumers as they navigate the healthcare system.

9 Apr 2021

Spinal fusion procedures have unacceptably low hospital “rankability"

Routinely collected data on patients undergoing spinal fusion surgery do not provide a valid basis for assessing and comparing hospital performance on patient safety outcomes, reports a study in Spine. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.

9 Apr 2021

Study: Disparities persist in prescribing comfort care for ischemic stroke patients

Receiving palliative or hospice care services was found to improve quality of life for hospitalized ischemic stroke patients, however, disparities persist in which patients are prescribed or have access to these holistic comfort care options, according to new research published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association, an open access journal of the American Heart Association.

7 Apr 2021

Pandemic had motivated older adults to discuss care planning, shows survey

As the toll of COVID-19 continues to climb, newly released poll data suggest an opportunity to use the pandemic as a prompt for discussing and documenting older adults' wishes for their care, if they get seriously ill or injured for any reason.

7 Apr 2021

Medicare News and Research

What a difference a year makes in Colorado’s case for a public option plan

In poisoned Montana town, Warren Buffett-owned railroad accuses clinic of Medicare fraud

Time to say goodbye to some insurers’ waivers for Covid treatment fees

Virtual care spreads in Missouri health system, home to ‘hospital without beds’

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Picking up the pace of undoing Trump policies

After accident, patient crashes into $700,000 bill for spine surgery

Study finds modest growth in home care workforce compared with the increasing demand

Gender parity in orthopaedic surgery requires substantive changes to improve the current curve

Humana health plan overcharged Medicare by nearly $200 million, federal audit finds

Federal policy to improve outcomes in sepsis patients was mostly ineffective

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Pause and effect on Covid vaccines

Elderly patients of female physicians are more likely to be vaccinated against the flu

The FDA seeks a new way to review old drugs without causing prices to soar

Measurable antibody response to mRNA COVID-19 vaccine in elderly care home residents

Biden seeks $400 billion to buttress long-term care. A look at what’s at stake.

Sleep apnea treatment linked to lower risk of Alzheimer's and other dementias

FAIR Health adds new tools to support consumers as they navigate the healthcare system

Spinal fusion procedures have unacceptably low hospital “rankability"

Study: Disparities persist in prescribing comfort care for ischemic stroke patients

Pandemic had motivated older adults to discuss care planning, shows survey

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