KHN

California offers a lens on the challenges officials face in persuading parents to embrace covid shots for young children. While the state has a strong showing in overall vaccination rates, just 59% of kids 12 to 17 — eligible for a shot since May — are fully vaccinated.

A huge thank you to our readers who participated in our third annual KHN Halloween Haiku Contest. Based on a review by our expert panel of judges, we unmask the winner and serve a sampling of finalists.

Certain patients who couldn’t get in to see a doctor earlier in the pandemic, or were avoiding the covid risks inside hospitals, have become too sick to stay away. Many ERs now struggle to cope with an onslaught of demand.

President Joe Biden unveiled a compromise “Build Back Better” framework shortly before taking off for key meetings in Europe, but it’s unclear whether the framework can win the votes of all Democrats in the House and Senate, and it leaves out some of the party’s health priorities, notably significant provisions to lower prescription drug prices. Meanwhile, younger children may soon be eligible for covid vaccines. Joanne Kenen of Politico and Johns Hopkins, Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet and Rachana Pradhan of KHN join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more.

The federal government’s hospital penalty program finishes its first decade by lowering payments to nearly half the nation’s hospitals for readmitting too many Medicare patients within a month. Penalties, though often small, are credited with helping reduce the number of patients returning for another Medicare stay within 30 days.

The Supreme Court justices, who accepted the case only 10 days before the arguments will be made, may skirt the issue of abortion and concentrate instead on the legality of the law’s unusual tack to let private citizens enforce it.

With an eye to shutting down Medicare drug price negotiations, drug companies and their lobbying groups gave roughly $1.6 million in the first six months of 2021, with Democrats edging closer than they have in a decade to Republicans’ total haul.

The ads for supplemental Medicare Advantage plans describe vision and dental benefits, even grocery discounts and food deliveries. But look at the fine print.

“Obstetrical emergency departments” are a new feature in some hospitals that can inflate medical bills for even the easiest, healthiest births. Just ask the parents of Baby Gus.

As lawmakers weigh new spending provisions to cover dental, hearing and vision services for Medicare beneficiaries, a group supporting Medicare Advantage plans is airing commercials that raise concerns about the funding for those private plans.

Following the devastating impact of covid-19 on nursing homes, state lawmakers want to be sure that government and private payments primarily go to improve care and staffing.

The pandemic has so seriously strained already tight state psychiatric hospitals in Georgia, Virginia, Texas and elsewhere that these facilities for the poorest and most vulnerable people with mental illness struggle to admit new patients.

Some doctors, sick of mainstream health care’s red tape, are finding refuge in practices that combine concierge medicine with charity care.

The state’s unique health system controls what hospitals can charge for services.

The Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux tribes are working with academics and policy experts on possible solutions. Their challenge is how to attract the needed mental health personnel to the remote reservation.

The covid vaccination rate for first responders in the state is more than 95%. But it’s lower in more rural areas, where ambulance crews can’t function if even just a few people quit.

Local health officials who quit or were forced out during the pandemic have been replaced by people who must face an increasingly polarized public with fewer powers than their predecessors.

Expectations are high for the city’s first-ever gun violence prevention director to curb the surging murder rate with interventions outside of traditional law enforcement.

Negotiations on the health parts of President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda are getting serious but have yet to produce a deal every Democrat can support. Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration remains without a nominated leader but manages to take the first steps toward approving over-the-counter hearing aids. Joanne Kenen of Politico and Johns Hopkins, Tami Luhby of CNN and Rachel Cohrs of Stat join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Plus, for extra credit, the panelists recommend their favorite health policy stories of the week they think you should read too.

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