Health Care Costs
Para las farmacéuticas, la pelea entre Trump y Harris es entre dos enemigos de la industria
En medio de una amarga y divisiva contienda, el ex presidente Donald Trump y la vicepresidenta Kamala Harris solo parecen coincidir en una cosa: es tarea del gobierno reducir los altos precios de los medicamentos en el país. En 2022, Harris emitió el voto de desempate en el Senado para aprobar una ley que permite […]
Patient Underwent One Surgery but Was Billed for Two. Even After Being Sued, She Refused To Pay.
Jamie Holmes says a surgery center tried to make her pay for two operations after she underwent only one. She refused to buckle, even after a collection agency sued her last winter. Holmes, who lives in northwestern Washington state, had surgery in 2019 to have her fallopian tubes tied, a permanent birth-control procedure that her […]
New Lines of Attack Form Against the Affordable Care Act
The Affordable Care Act is back under attack. Not as in the repeal-and-replace debates of yore, but in a fresher take from Republican lawmakers who say key parts of the ACA cost taxpayers too much and provide incentive for fraud. Several House Republican leaders have called on two watchdog agencies to investigate, while Sen. Chuck […]
Watch: How Patients Get Charged Hospital Prices for Doctor’s Office Care
For five years, Caren Blanzy received the same treatment at the same medical office in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The regular injections gave her relief from involuntary muscle contractions caused by a neurological disorder, she said. Her insurance picked up the tab. Then, the health system that owns her doctor’s office changed how it billed for […]
Watch: Where the Presidential and VP Candidates Stand on Health Policy
With the pairs battling for the White House set, we took a look at how the candidates compare on issues including abortion, Obamacare, medical debt, and in vitro fertilization.
Medi-Cal’s Dental Care Gap: Getting a Tooth Pulled Is Easy — Much Harder To Get an Implant
SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — When Bobby Moske went to a community clinic a few years ago with a toothache, he couldn’t find a dentist in Marin County willing to take Medicaid to do a root canal. Marin Community Clinics referred the 75-year-old to a dentist about 20 miles away in San Francisco, but his tooth […]
How Little Denmark Got Homegrown Giant Novo Nordisk To Lower Ozempic Prices
On May 13, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) published an open letter to Novo Nordisk on the front page of a leading Danish newspaper, urging the hometown company to live up to its altruistic standards by lowering U.S. prices for its blockbuster diabetes and weight loss drugs. What Sanders didn’t realize was that Denmark, a country […]
The Politics Holding Back Medicaid Expansion in Some Southern States
For Roderick Givens, a radiation oncologist, the expansion of Medicaid isn’t just a policy issue. He practices medicine in a rural area in the Mississippi Delta and he sees daily how Medicaid coverage could help his uninsured patients. “I can’t tell you the number of patients who I see who come in with advanced disease, […]
Urgent Care or ER? With ‘One-Stop Shop,’ Hospitals Offer Both Under Same Roof
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Facing an ultracompetitive market in one of the nation’s fastest-growing cities, UF Health is trying a new way to attract patients: a combination emergency room and urgent care center. In the past year and a half, UF Health and a private equity-backed company, Intuitive Health, have opened three centers that offer both […]
What’s Behind New Combined Urgent Care-ER Facilities
It’s Saturday afternoon, and your 4-year-old is bleeding from a gash on his face after a playtime mishap. Should you go to the emergency room or the urgent care clinic? VHC Health in Arlington, Va., plans to soon join a small but growing number of hospitals moving to resolve this dilemma by offering both types […]