Delta Cutting ‘Like a Buzzsaw’ Through Oregon-California Border Counties
If you live in one of the rural communities tucked into the forested hillsides along the Oregon-California border and need serious medical care, you’ll probably wind up at Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center. It serves about nine counties on either side of the border. It is one of three hospitals Asante owns in the region. […]
‘My Time to Live’: Through Novel Program, Kidney Patients Get Palliative Care, Dialysis ’Til the End
After a decade of living with chronic kidney disease, Vonita McGee knows her body is wearing out. At 63, McGee undergoes dialysis sessions three times each week at a Northwest Kidney Centers site near her Burien, Washington, home to rid her blood of waste and water. She has endured the placement of more than a […]
Concert Venues Are Banking on Proof of Vaccines or Negative Tests to Woo Back Fans
MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. — Fans of the band Wilco could have reasonably interpreted frontman Jeff Tweedy singing “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart” at an Aug. 13 concert at St. Louis Music Park as the universe explaining the past year or so. For example, 30-year-old fan Lazarus Pittman had planned to see Wilco and […]
Jaw Surgery Takes a $27,119 Bite out of One Man’s Budget
For years, Ely Bair dealt with migraine headaches, jaw pain and high blood pressure, until a dentist recommended surgery to realign his jaw to get to the root of his health problems. The fix would involve two surgeries over a couple of years and wearing braces on his teeth before and in between the procedures. […]
Medicaid Vaccination Rates Founder as States Struggle to Immunize Their Poorest Residents
Medicaid enrollees are getting vaccinated against covid-19 at far lower rates than the general population as states search for the best strategies to improve access to the shots and persuade those who remain hesitant. Efforts by state Medicaid agencies and the private health plans that most states pay to cover their low-income residents has been […]
States Pull Back on Covid Data Even Amid Delta Surge
Two state government websites in Georgia recently stopped posting updates on covid-19 cases in prisons and long-term care facilities, just as the dangerous delta variant was taking hold. Data has been disappearing recently in other states as well. Florida, for example, now reports covid cases, deaths and hospitalizations once a week, instead of daily, as […]
Beneficiarios de Medicaid se vacunan mucho menos contra covid
Los beneficiarios de Medicaid se están vacunando contra covid-19 a tasas mucho más bajas que la población general, mientras los estados buscan las mejores estrategias para mejorar el acceso a las vacunas, y persuadir a quienes siguen indecisos. Los esfuerzos de las agencias estatales de Medicaid y los planes de salud privados que la mayoría […]
Apple, Bose and Others Pump Up the Volume on Hearing Aid Options, Filling Void Left by FDA
Spurred by decades of complaints about the high cost of hearing aids, Congress passed a law in 2017 to allow over-the-counter sales, with hopes it would boost competition and lower prices. Four years later, federal regulators have yet to issue rules to implement the law. But changes in the industry are offering consumers relief. In […]
New Montana Law Sows Confusion, Defiance Over School Quarantines
As classes get underway this week and next, Montana school and county health officials are grappling with how a new state law that bans vaccine discrimination should apply to quarantine orders for students and staffers exposed to covid-19. It’s the latest fallout from the law that says businesses and governmental entities can’t treat people differently […]
What Missouri Learned the Hard Way About Rapid Covid Testing in Schools
Early in the tumultuous 2020-21 school year, Missouri officials made a big gamble: set aside roughly 1 million rapid covid tests for the state’s K-12 schools in hopes of quickly identifying sick students or staff members. The Trump administration had spent $760 million to procure 150 million rapid-response antigen tests from Abbott Laboratories, including 1.75 […]