Companies Pan for Marketing Gold in Vaccines
For a decade, Jennifer Crow has taken care of her elderly parents, who have multiple sclerosis. After her father had a stroke in December, the family got serious in its conversations with a retirement community — and learned that one service it offered was covid-19 vaccination. “They mentioned it like it was an amenity, like […]
To Vaccinate Veterans, Health Care Workers Must Cross Mountains, Plains and Tundra
A Learjet 31 took off before daybreak from Helena Regional Airport in Montana, carrying six Veterans Affairs medical providers and 250 doses of historic cargo cradled in a plug-in cooler designed to minimize breakage. Even in a state where 80-mph speed limits are normal, ground transportation across long distances is risky for the Moderna mRNA-1273 […]
Medicare Cuts Payment to 774 Hospitals Over Patient Complications
The federal government has penalized 774 hospitals for having the highest rates of patient infections or other potentially avoidable medical complications. Those hospitals, which include some of the nation’s marquee medical centers, will lose 1% of their Medicare payments over 12 months. The penalties, based on patients who stayed in the hospitals anytime between mid-2017 […]
Spurred by Pandemic, Little Shell Tribe Fast-Tracks Its Health Service Debut
Linda Watson draped a sweater with the words “Little Shell Chippewa Tribe” over her as she received the newly recognized tribal nation’s first dose of covid-19 vaccine. “I wanted to show my pride in being a Little Shell member,” Watson, 72, said. “The Little Shell are doing very good things for the people.” Watson has […]
KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Open Enrollment, One More Time
Can’t see the audio player? Click here to listen on PRX. An estimated 9 million Americans eligible for free or reduced premium health insurance under the Affordable Care Act have a second chance to sign up for 2021 coverage, since the Biden administration reopened enrollment on healthcare.gov and states that run their own marketplaces followed suit. […]
Montana’s Health Policy MVP Takes Her Playbook on the Road
Marilyn Bartlett might be the closest thing health policy has to a folk hero. A certified public accountant who barely tops 5 feet, Bartlett bears zero resemblance to Paul Bunyan. But she did take an ax to Montana’s hospital prices in 2016, stopping the state’s employee health plan from bleeding money. “Marilyn is not a […]
California Aims to Address the ‘Urgent’ Needs of Older Residents. But Will Its Plan Work?
Even as the pandemic derailed some of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s biggest health care proposals, such as lowering prescription drug costs, it crystallized another: the pressing need to address California’s rapidly aging population. Already nine months into their work when Newsom issued the nation’s first statewide stay-at-home order last March, members of a state task force […]
Prominent Scientists Call on CDC to Better Protect Workers From Covid
A prominent group of academics is pressing the Biden administration to move faster and take stronger action to protect high-risk workers from airborne exposure to the coronavirus, urging enforceable standards to help safeguard risky workplaces including health care, food processing and prisons. The researchers say that even though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention […]
Rural Hospital Remains Entrenched in Covid ‘War’ Even Amid Vaccine Rollout
Editor’s note: KHN wrote about St. James Parish Hospital in April, when it was experiencing its first surge of covid-19 patients. Ten months later, we checked in to see how the hospital and its staff were faring. The “heroes work here” sign in front of St. James Parish Hospital has been long gone, along with […]
Bay Area Cities Go to War Over Gas Stoves in Homes and Restaurants
San Francisco restaurant owners, already simmering over covid-19 restrictions, are ready to boil over because of a city ban on natural gas stoves in new buildings that takes effect in June. The ban, which also affects other gas appliances, is part of a statewide campaign aimed at reducing climate change-feeding carbon emissions as well as […]