Latest 蘑菇影院 Health News Stories
California Dabbles With Reining in Health Spending
California is now among the states trying to keep health-care costs down by setting spending caps 鈥 a task that pits public officials against a deeply entrenched and heavily lawyered set of players. It鈥檚 uncertain whether the state can get insurers, hospitals and medical groups to collaborate on containing costs even as they jockey for […]
End of Internet Subsidy Leaves Millions Facing Telehealth Disconnect
When the clock struck midnight on May 31, more than 23 million low-income households were dropped from a federal internet subsidy program that for years had helped them get connected. The Affordable Connectivity Program was created in 2021, in the midst of the covid-19 pandemic, to help people plug into jobs, schools and health care by reducing their internet […]
Weight-Loss Drugs Are So Popular They鈥檙e Headed for Medicare Negotiations
The steep prices 鈥 and popularity 鈥 of Ozempic and similar weight-loss and diabetes drugs could soon make them a priority for Medicare drug price negotiations. List prices for a month鈥檚 supply of the drugs range from $936 to $1,349, according to the Peterson-蘑菇影院 Health System Tracker. The Inflation Reduction Act President Biden signed in […]
Biden Wants Hospitals To Report Data on Gunshot Wounds
The Biden administration is enlisting America鈥檚 doctors to help combat gun violence. About 160 health-care executives and officials have been invited to the White House today and Friday to promote public health solutions to the epidemic. A top priority, I鈥檓 told: The White House wants hospital emergency departments to collect more data about gunshot injuries […]
Wyden Demands Penalties for Obamacare Enrollment Fraud
Lawmakers and state officials are turning up the heat on federal regulators to stop unscrupulous, commission-hungry insurance agents from enrolling thousands of people in Affordable Care Act plans, or switching their coverage, without their knowledge. Customers often don鈥檛 discover the changes until they鈥檙e denied medical coverage or get stuck with a bill for ACA tax […]
The South Can Be a Dangerous Place To Be Black and Pregnant
In much of the developed world, dying while pregnant or delivering a child is practically unknown. In Australia, for example, there were just 3 maternal deaths for every 100,000 live births in 2021. But that鈥檚 not the case in the American South. And especially not for Black women. In South Carolina, Black women were more […]
California Pays People With Addiction To Stay Clean 鈥 With Feds鈥 Blessing
Led by California, a few states are testing an experimental program that pays people to stop using hard drugs. The Golden State was the first to win approval from the Biden administration to cover the sobriety payments, with Medicaid wrapping it into an ambitious health-care initiative spearheaded by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom to provide the […]
I Was There When Bird Flu First Appeared. It鈥檚 Different Today.
The H5N1 flu virus and I go way back. In 1997, I watched as more than a million chickens were slaughtered in Hong Kong to combat the first major global outbreak of the disease. Eighteen people were sickened by the virus and six died, all of whom had close contact with the birds. They were […]
The Psychedelics-As-Medicine Movement Spreads to California
Ecstasy, 鈥渕agic mushrooms鈥 and other psychedelic drugs could soon be recognized as therapeutic in California 鈥 one of the latest states, and the biggest, to consider allowing their use as medicine. Legislation by state Sen. Scott Wiener (D) and Assembly member Marie Waldron (R) would allow the therapeutic use of psilocybin, mescaline, ecstasy and dimethyltryptamine […]
Why Medicaid鈥檚 鈥楿ndercount鈥 Problem Counts
Millions of people were surprised to find themselves booted from Medicaid over the past year after pandemic-era protections expired that had prevented states from terminating their coverage. Turns out, millions of them were also unaware they had been covered by the government program. Nearly 1 in 3 people enrolled in Medicaid in 2022 鈥 or […]
Abortion Bans Are Repelling the Nation鈥檚 Future Doctors
Ash Panakam is about to graduate from Harvard Medical School. She鈥檚 from Georgia and always assumed she would return to the South for her residency. But the Supreme Court鈥檚 2022 decision overturning the nationwide right to abortion changed everything. 鈥淯ltimately I shifted my selection pretty drastically,鈥 she said. 鈥淚 was struggling to find a residency […]
Biden鈥檚 Nursing Home Staffing Rule Surfaces Horror Stories
The Biden administration鈥檚 plan to set minimum staffing levels for nursing homes prompted comments from more than 46,500 people and organizations 鈥 including residents of homes and nurses with harrowing stories about conditions inside. Hundreds of comments like these cemented the resolve of officials at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services last month to […]
An NIH Genetics Study Targets a Long-Standing Challenge: Diversity
In his 2015 State of the Union address, President Barack Obama announced a precision medicine initiative that would later be known as the All of Us program. The research, now well underway at the National Institutes of Health, aims to analyze the DNA of at least 1 million people across the United States to build a diverse health database. The key word there is 鈥渄iverse.鈥 So […]
In Oregon, Medicaid Is Buying People Air Conditioners
Oregon has started providing air conditioners, air purifiers and power banks to help some of its Medicaid recipients cope with soaring heat, smoky skies and other dangers of climate change. It鈥檚 a first-in-the-nation experiment that expands a Biden administration strategy to take Medicaid beyond traditional medical care and into the realm of social services. 鈥淐limate change is […]
The Neglected U.S. Victims of Agent Orange
The Department of Veterans Affairs has long given Vietnam veterans disability compensation for illness connected to Agent Orange, widely used to defoliate Southeast Asian battlefields during the U.S. war. Less well known: The powerful herbicide combination was also routinely used to kill weeds at domestic military bases. Those exposed to the chemicals at the bases are still waiting for the same […]
Whatever Happened to Biden鈥檚 Public Option?
In the 2020 elections, then-candidate Joe Biden and many of his congressional colleagues loudly advocated for a federal 鈥減ublic option鈥 health insurance plan. It was framed, at the time, as part of his incoming administration鈥檚 response to the pandemic. 鈥淟ow-income Americans will be automatically enrolled in the public option at zero cost to them, though […]
Biden鈥檚 Election-Year Play to Further Expand Obamacare
The Biden administration wants to make it easier for Americans to get dental care. But don鈥檛 try booking an appointment just yet. A new regulation out this month allows states to include adult dental care as a benefit that health insurers must cover under the Affordable Care Act. Following record ACA enrollment this year, the proposal represents an […]
Medicare Stumbles Managing a Costly Problem 鈥 Chronic Illness
Nearly a decade ago, Medicare launched a program to help the two-thirds of beneficiaries with chronic conditions by paying their doctors an additional monthly fee to coordinate their care. The strategy has largely failed to live up to its potential; only about 4 percent of potentially eligible beneficiaries in the traditional Medicare program are enrolled, […]
Paris Hilton Speaks up for California鈥檚 鈥楾roubled鈥 Teens
Heiress Paris Hilton is on a mission to shine a light on the 鈥渢roubled teen industry,鈥 a largely unregulated multibillion-dollar industry that is gaining public scrutiny for alleged abuse of vulnerable youths. Hilton told state lawmakers in Sacramento on Monday she was subjected to abuse disguised as therapy decades ago when she was housed in […]
Why Opioid Settlement Money Is Paying County Employees鈥 Salaries
More than $4.3 billion in opioid settlement money has landed in the hands of city, county and state officials to date 鈥 with billions more on the way. But instead of using the cash to add desperately needed treatment, recovery and prevention services, some places are using it to replace existing funding. Local officials say […]
