March 27, 2024
Healthcare
March 25, 2024
Why Isn’t Dental Health Considered Primary Care?
(Knowable Magazine) – Historically, dentistry and medicine have operated as parallel fields: Dentists take care of the mouth, physicians the rest of the body. That is starting to change as many initiatives across the United States and other countries work … Read More
March 25, 2024
Hospitals Are Adding Billions in ‘Facility’ Fees for Routine Care
(Wall Street Journal) – Hospitals are adding billions of dollars in facility fees to medical bills for routine care in outpatient centers they own. Once an annoyance, the fees are now pervasive, and in some places they are becoming nearly … Read More
March 22, 2024
Medicare Plans Can Now Cover Wegovy for Patients at Risk of Heart Disease
(NPR) – For the first time, Medicare will allow coverage of one of the new blockbuster weight-loss drugs for enrollees in Part D plans. The plans may now cover Wegovy when prescribed to prevent heart attacks and strokes, according to … Read More
March 20, 2024
A Bat Infestation, Postponed Surgeries and Unpaid Bills: A Hospital Chain in Crisis
(Wall Street Journal) – Steward Health Care System, which operates the hospital, brought in a pest-control company, which discovered another 3,000 or so Brazilian free-tailed and evening bats in the building. “That’s been a known issue,” said retired nurse Vonnay … Read More
March 20, 2024
A Lifesaving Therapy for Children with a Rare Disease Is Now the World’s Most Expensive Drug, Raising Questions About Access
(CNN) – A new gene therapy for the fatal genetic disorder metachromatic leukodystrophy, or MLD, will carry a wholesale price of $4.25 million, its manufacturer announced Wednesday, making it the world’s most expensive medicine. Lenmeldy was approved by the US … Read More
March 20, 2024
UnitedHealth Faces Growing Legal Headaches from Cyberattack
(Axios) – UnitedHealth Group is facing growing class-action lawsuits from health care providers over financial losses they say they’ve suffered from a massive cyberattack that’s crippled payments across the industry for weeks. Why it matters: It adds to the potential … Read More
March 20, 2024
A New Edition of Christian Bioethics Is Now Available
March 15, 2024
‘What’s My Life Worth?’ The Big Business of Denying Medical Care [Video]
(New York Times) – Should your insurance company be allowed to stop you from getting a treatment — even if your doctor says it’s necessary? Doctors are often required to get insurance permission before providing medical care. This process is … Read More
March 15, 2024
Her Insurer Stopped Approving Her Medicine That Worked. Will a New State Law Help?
(NPR) – Doctors have long complained about how the prior authorization process gets in the way of delivering care to patients. Insurance companies say the point is to make sure doctors prescribe the most cost effective treatments. States are responding … Read More
March 15, 2024
A New Edition of Journal of Medical Humanities Is Now Available
March 14, 2024
A New Edition of The New England Journal of Medicine Is Now Available
March 13, 2024
In Hospitals, Affordable Housing Gets the Long-Term Investor It Needs
(New York Times) – H3C is just one of many examples showing that health care systems are increasingly starting to see benefits in building affordable and safe housing, from the improved health of local communities to how much managed care … Read More
March 11, 2024
Insurer Delays and Denials Hamper Patients Seeking At-Home Breathing Machines
(Associated Press) – Doctors around the country say UnitedHealthcare and other insurers have made it harder to get coverage for certain home ventilators that patients like Armant need as their lungs fail. They say patients often must struggle first with … Read More
March 11, 2024
Health Care Providers Losing Up to $1B a Day from Cyberattack
(Axios) – Disruptions from the Change Healthcare cyberattack are costing health providers as much as $1 billion a day and creating enough of a drag to depress first-quarter earnings, analysts and industry officials say. Why it matters: Even though Change’s … Read More
March 8, 2024
Your Doctor Replied to Your Email. That’ll Cost $25.
(Wall Street Journal) – More healthcare groups are charging fees to answer patients’ electronic messages, often the ones you exchange via their portal. Doctors say it’s only fair if they’re spending time on the messages and note that an email … Read More
March 5, 2024
Whistleblower Accuses Aledade, Largest US Independent Primary Care Network, of Medicare Fraud
(KFF Health News) – A Maryland firm that oversees the nation’s largest independent network of primary care medical practices is facing a whistleblower lawsuit alleging it cheated Medicare out of millions of dollars using billing software “rigged” to make patients … Read More
March 5, 2024
An Only-Child Boom Is Beginning. It Gets Complicated When Mom and Dad Age.
(Wall Street Journal) – “I have no brothers or sisters to take turns with me,” says Lori, 49. Lori is an only child. The family type is becoming more common, with about 22% of women at the end of their … Read More
March 5, 2024
Patients Lose Access to Weight-Loss Drugs as Employers Stop Coverage
(Wall Street Journal) – Employers that embraced paying for weight-loss drugs are now reckoning with the high costs, forcing growing numbers to dial back or cut off their reimbursement because they can’t afford it. The companies are putting in place … Read More
March 4, 2024
Paid Family Caregivers in Indiana Face Steep Cutbacks
(New York Times) – Indiana’s social services agency has announced plans to end the caregiver program, citing a nearly $1 billion shortfall in the state Medicaid budget. By July 1, parents and guardians caring for children and spouses caring for … Read More
February 29, 2024
A New Mom Died After Giving Birth at a Boston Hospital. Was Corporate Greed to Blame?
(CBS News) – The hospital where Rashid gave birth, St. Elizabeth’s, is one of dozens of hospitals across the U.S. acquired in the past 15 years by a company called Steward Health Care. With hundreds of millions of dollars in … Read More
February 29, 2024
How Fertility Coverage Mandates Could Clash with IVF Restrictions
(CBS News) – Proposed “personhood” laws getting a closer look after Alabama’s IVF ruling could vastly complicate reproductive care in some states that require insurance coverage of fertility treatments and drugs, by setting up potentially clashing mandates on what to … Read More
February 26, 2024
Severe Complications for Pregnant Veterans Nearly Doubled in the Last Decade, a GAO Report Finds
(ProPublica) – The report found that among people getting health care benefits through the Department of Veterans Affairs, the rate of severe complications nearly doubled during that time, from about 93 per 10,000 hospitalizations in 2011 to just over 184 … Read More
February 22, 2024
There’s No Easy Way to Stop Taking Ozempic
(Wall Street Journal) – What happens if you have to go off weight-loss drugs? It’s a growing concern for the millions of Americans taking medications including Wegovy, Zepbound or Ozempic. Employer-health plans are tightening requirements or dropping coverage. And manufacturers’ … Read More
February 22, 2024
A Hospital Is Suing to Move a Quadriplegic 18-Year-Old to a Nursing Home. She Says No
(NPR) – Ratcliff, a quadriplegic who uses a ventilator, has lived at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist since she was 13. She wants to leave, too. But not to the nursing home the hospital found for her in another state. … Read More
