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A primary care physician for every American, science panel urges

The federal government must aggressively bolster primary care and connect more Americans with a dedicated source of care, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine warn in a major report that sounds the alarm about an endangered foundation of the U.S. health system.

4 May 2021

Covered California says health insurance just got too cheap to ignore

If you are uninsured because health coverage seemed too expensive the last time you looked, it's time to look again.

4 May 2021

Democrats disagree about how to spend potential prescription drug windfall

One of the few surprises in President Joe Biden's social safety-net proposal, the American Families Plan, was something that didn't make it into the final version: any mention of reining in the price of prescription drugs.

4 May 2021

Detecting rare blood clots was a win, but US vaccine safety system still has gaps

The quick detection of an ultra-rare blood clotting reaction in some Covid-19 vaccine recipients showed the power of a federal warning system for vaccine safety issues, but experts worry that blind spots in the program could hamper detection of other unexpected side effects.

3 May 2021

CVS and Walgreens have wasted more vaccine doses than most states combined

Two national pharmacy chains that the federal government entrusted to inoculate people against Covid-19 account for the lion's share of wasted vaccine doses, according to government data obtained by KHN.

3 May 2021

Cleveland Clinic, Lifebanc and Transplant Connect launch a fully automated donor referral system

Cleveland Clinic, Lifebanc and Transplant Connect have designed and launched a fully automated donor referral system to streamline the process for hospital staff identifying and evaluating potential organ, tissue and eye donors.

30 Apr 2021

Medicare could save nearly $500 million per year by reducing use of low-value preventive care services

A UCLA-led study shows that physicians frequently order preventive medical services for adult Medicare beneficiaries that are considered unnecessary and of "low value" by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force - at a cost of $478 million per year.

29 Apr 2021

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

Medicare News and Research

A primary care physician for every American, science panel urges

Covered California says health insurance just got too cheap to ignore

Democrats disagree about how to spend potential prescription drug windfall

Detecting rare blood clots was a win, but US vaccine safety system still has gaps

CVS and Walgreens have wasted more vaccine doses than most states combined

Cleveland Clinic, Lifebanc and Transplant Connect launch a fully automated donor referral system

Medicare could save nearly $500 million per year by reducing use of low-value preventive care services

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

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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