KHN

Patients seem to like remote visits, and health care providers now depend on them. But outages, freezing and other glitches cost time and money, and compromise quality of care.

Missouri is the last state to create a monitoring program to help spot the misuse of prescription drugs. But some public health experts warn that the nation’s programs are forcing people addicted to opioids to seek deadlier street options.

At a pop-up vaccine clinic in a McDonald’s parking lot in the city of San Bernardino, fewer than two dozen people agreed to get a shot, offering a snapshot of the faltering vaccination effort.

Doctors in Washington state used human body bags filled with ice and water to rapidly cool the sickest patients affected by record heat last month.

The major sports leagues are struggling to vaccinate enough of their players to protect the clubhouse and locker room, and few stars have stepped forward to pitch vaccination to teammates or fans. WNBA players are an exception, with a 99% vaccination rate and high-profile ads urging the public to get vaccinated.

Unvaccinated Westerners are flocking to movie theaters, malls and other indoor spaces to beat the smoke and heat. Health officials worry that may fuel covid outbreaks.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who is helping to negotiate the health care spending framework for the Democrats’ budget plan, said lawmakers may have to settle for very basic versions of programs deployed in the package. But the key, he added, is to get the “architecture of these changes, bold changes,” started and show people what is possible.

At the center of the nation’s delta variant outbreak, public health efforts are mired in a political turf war.

Black women and girls with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder often remain undiagnosed because their symptoms are mischaracterized by the blinders of sexism and racism. Getting treatment and finding the right medication can be even more difficult because they aren’t taken seriously or, worse, they’re racially profiled while getting their medicines.

State lawmakers aim to expand Medicaid enrollment by dedicating billions of dollars in coming years to simplifying paperwork, extending pregnancy coverage and opening the program to thousands of new enrollees, including older unauthorized immigrants and people who need nursing home care.

A vaccine clinic came to an international soccer tournament in Denver recently. It was an attempt to reach Latino Coloradans, whose vaccination rates trail those of non-Hispanic whites.

Only severely injured patients are supposed to be billed for “trauma team alert” fees that can exceed $50,000.

Novavax is a vaccine company that, despite $2 billion in new federal and international funding, still hasn’t come through with a licensed covid vaccine. It hopes it can still help to fight the global covid scourge, but will it deliver?

After being mostly closed to the public and the press for more than a year, California’s state Capitol is open again — masks, temperature checks, covid outbreaks and all.

The July 9 directive addresses the importation of prescription drugs and broader efforts to reduce the high cost of medicines.

Two intractable failings of the U.S. health care system — addiction treatment and medical costs — come to a head in the ER, where patients desperate for addiction treatment arrive, only to find the facility may not be equipped to deal with substance use or, if they are, treatment is prohibitively expensive.

Democrats in Congress reached a tentative agreement to press ahead on a partisan bill that would dramatically expand health benefits for people on Medicare, those who buy their own insurance and individuals who have been shut out of coverage in states that didn’t expand Medicaid. Meanwhile, controversy continues to rage over whether vaccinated Americans will need a booster to protect against covid-19 variants, and who will pay for a new drug to treat Alzheimer’s disease. Rachel Cohrs of Stat and Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also, Rovner interviews KHN’s Rae Ellen Bichell, who reported and wrote the latest KHN-NPR “Bill of the Month” episode about a mother and daughter who fought an enormous emergency room bill.

The plan from high-wire negotiations would affect five key areas of health, but there will be further tense negotiations among Democratic lawmakers about specifics of the $3.5 trillion in funding. And all Senate Democrats will need to be behind the plan, because Republicans oppose it.