Nearly a decade ago, Dr. Jeffrey Brenner and his Camden Coalition appeared to have an answer to remake American health care: Treat the sickest and most expensive patients. But a rigorous study in the New England Journal of Medicine shows the approach doesn’t save money. “We built a brilliant intervention to navigate people to nowhere,” Brenner tells the “Tradeoffs” podcast.
These numbers are stark.
Dr. Anton Nigusse Bland, a veteran of public health psychiatry, was appointed by San Francisco’s mayor earlier this year to a newly created job: director of mental health reform. His main task is to improve mental health and addiction treatment for people experiencing homelessness.
People at companies with large numbers of people earning $25,000 or less faced bigger deductibles for single coverage and were asked to pony up a larger share of their income in premiums than those at other firms.
The proportion of money that California hospitals spent on free and discounted care for low-income people dropped by more than half from 2013 to 2017 — even for nonprofit hospitals. Hospitals say there’s less demand for charity care because more people now have health insurance, but consumer advocates counter that people still need help.
A small health center in Goshen, Ind., near the border with Michigan, puts “listening to patients’ stories” first. “The rest is housekeeping.”
A growing number of pregnant women are among the migrants seeking asylum in the United States. Many must wait in Mexico until their cases are heard, spending weeks or months in migrant shelters with limited access to health care.
An innovative hospital run by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in North Carolina showcases an alternative model of health care that could have lessons for other tribal communities and beyond.
Newsletter editor Brianna Labuskes wades through hundreds of health care policy stories each week, so you don’t have to.
Newsletter editor Brianna Labuskes wades through hundreds of health care policy stories each week, so you don’t have to.
