The cheaper over-the-counter aids are for adults with mild to moderate hearing loss — a market of tens of millions of people, many of whom have until now been priced out because prescription device… | Continue reading
New government rules force health insurers to publicly disclose what they pay for just about every service. That information could help consumers and employers know whether they’re getting a fair d… | Continue reading
The U.S. health system now produces debt on a mass scale, a new investigation shows. Patients face gut-wrenching sacrifices. | Continue reading
Colorado lawmakers approved a measure that will make it easier for people to fix their power wheelchairs when they wear out or break down, but arcane regulations and manufacturers create high hurdl… | Continue reading
In a clear sign of a public health failure, the life expectancy of an American dropped for the second year in a row. In other news: opioids, food safety, mental health and a better way to measure B… | Continue reading
After an accident in an all-terrain vehicle crushed a doctor’s left arm, he was whisked by air ambulance to the closest trauma center for specialized care. Soon he was fighting over the $56,603 bil… | Continue reading
The FDA has approved dozens of new cancer medications in recent years, but few offer the benefits that patients seek. | Continue reading
A KHN investigation found covid vaccine registration and information websites at the federal, state and local levels are flouting disability rights laws and limiting the ability of people who are b… | Continue reading
Advocates of cheap and widely available vaccines thought the pandemic might change business as usual. They were wrong. | Continue reading
The experience of clinical trial volunteers may inform people about what to expect when vaccinated. | Continue reading
California’s death count for the first five months of the pandemic was 13% higher than average for the same period during the prior three years. Subtract the deaths officially attributed to COVID-1… | Continue reading
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says airplanes are not vectors for the spread of COVID-19 and that flying is “something that is safe for people to do.” Is the evidence really so clear? | Continue reading
The Democratic Party platform aligns with Joe Biden’s campaign promises, but almost 400 delegates to the convention wanted the promise of “Medicare for All” included. Legalizing m… | Continue reading
After the FDA issues a public warning about the test, one of its senior officials says point-of-care coronavirus tests can miss 20% of cases and still be considered useful. Public health experts ar… | Continue reading
Native Americans have been particularly hard hit by COVID-19, yet tribal leaders say that federal and state governments are blocking their efforts to gather data on how the virus is spreading aroun… | Continue reading
As more and more people drift back into their workplaces, they face a very small space that can create a large logjam: the elevator. | Continue reading
Some communities considered community antibody testing as a way out of lockdown. But they’ve pulled back as they realized antibody testing is the Wild West in an oversight vacuum. | Continue reading
Accident deaths are typically the biggest source of donor organs nationwide. But when the coronavirus forced Californians indoors, accidents declined. | Continue reading
Politicians pledged to stop providers from charging for video appointments or telephone calls, but some patients are being charged $70 or $80 per virtual visit. | Continue reading
Molecular diagnostics are at the frontier of science, but insurance and billing questions create a minefield for patients. | Continue reading
Most of the attention in the COVID-19 pandemic has been on how the virus affects the lungs. But evidence shows that up to 1 in 5 infected patients have signs of heart damage and many are dying due … | Continue reading
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gave huge cities roughly the same number of test kits as some rural spots, which crippled efforts by health officials to contain the virus. | Continue reading
A Kaiser Health News analysis shows that counties with ICUs average one ICU bed for every 1,300 older residents, those most at risk for needing hospitalization. | Continue reading
In response to an HIV outbreak of historic proportions, Indiana’s legislature passed a bill permitting drug users in areas with disease outbreaks to trade used needles for clean ones. Sarah Varney … | Continue reading
Scores of organs — mostly kidneys — are trashed each year and many more become critically delayed while being shipped on commercial airliners, a new investigation finds. | Continue reading
As happens when the tech industry gets involved, hype surrounds the claims that artificial intelligence will help patients and even replace some doctors. | Continue reading
It’s been about a year since the hospital in Fort Scott, Kan., closed. The lessons for this community about meeting its residents’ health needs could provide insights for the rest of the country.… | Continue reading
The federal government funneled billions in subsidies to software vendors and some overstated or deceived the government about what their products could do, according to whistleblowers. | Continue reading
As alarms proliferate, hospitals are working to sort through the cacophony that can overwhelm staff and cause them to overlook real signs of harm. | Continue reading
Millions of injuries and malfunctions once funneled into a hidden Food and Drug Administration database are now available. | Continue reading
In the wake of a Kaiser Health News investigation, doctors want the University of Virginia’s health system to stop suing its patients over unpaid bills. | Continue reading
Although many consumers pay nothing out of pocket for flu shots, insurers foot the bill. And those prices vary dramatically. | Continue reading
In what experts call an “epidemic of immobility,” older hospital patients remain stuck in bed, their movements tracked by loud and ineffective bed alarms, losing muscle mass that’… | Continue reading
An Oregon epidemiologist is using data to find patterns in suicides, then offering prevention training at the motels where people keep taking their lives, the animal shelter where they give away th… | Continue reading
Over six years, the state institution filed 36,000 lawsuits against patients seeking a total of more than $106 million in unpaid bills, a KHN analysis finds. | Continue reading
Groupon and other deal sites are the latest marketing tactic in medicine, offering bargain prices but potentially unnecessary, duplicative services. | Continue reading
Patients are often told to be smart consumers and shop around for health care before they use it. What happens when people actually take that advice? | Continue reading
As the Indian government reluctantly loosens its prescription opioid laws after decades of lobbying by palliative care advocates desperate to ease their patients’ pain, the nation’s sprawling, cash… | Continue reading
An encounter with a cat led to rabies shots and provided yet another illustration of how confusing, contrary and expensive the American health care system is. | Continue reading
The patient is from Mississippi. The surgeon is from Wisconsin. They meet in a Mexican resort for knee replacement surgery. Because the care costs so much less than in the U.S, the patient’s health… | Continue reading
A case of questionable logic. | Continue reading
More than 400,000 U.S. workers have retired in foreign countries and their ranks are rising. But Medicare doesn’t cover most expenses overseas, so these expats will need to confront the cost of fin… | Continue reading
An enhanced government effort to catch insurers that overcharge Medicare faces resistance from the insurance industry. | Continue reading
The Food and Drug Administration released two decades of previously hidden data containing millions of injuries or malfunctions by medical devices. Here’s what we’ve learned so far. | Continue reading
In March, a chemical cousin of the anesthetic and club drug ketamine was approved for the treatment of patients with intractable depression. But critics say studies presented to the FDA provided at… | Continue reading
The use of ECMO, the most aggressive form of life support in modern medicine, has skyrocketed — but along with miraculous rescues, it can leave patients in limbo, kept alive with machines but with … | Continue reading
The problem affects private drug policies and Medicare Advantage plans that provide both medical and drug coverage and substitute for traditional government-run Medicare. It could leave plan member… | Continue reading