After baby Dorian Bennett arrived two months early and spent more than 50 days in the neonatal ICU, his parents received a bill of more than $550,000 — despite having insurance. The Florida hospital had a not-so-helpful suggestion: monthly payments of more than $45,000 for a year.
The letters function as liens that “protect” spine surgery clinics while patients could be left with inflated medical bills and unexpected health risks.
The Republican senator says President Joe Biden’s “inflation crisis” caused Medicare to raise monthly premiums, which will add hundreds of dollars to beneficiaries’ costs. But Medicare experts say inflation was not to blame and most beneficiaries will shoulder a much smaller increase than what Rick Scott claims.
Theater companies and musical ensembles are restarting live performances after a crippling pandemic pause. In some conservative states, artists find creative ways to get around state laws that go against public health recommendations.
About 21% of patients diagnosed with covid during a hospital stay died, according to data analyzed for KHN. In-hospital rates of spread varied widely and patients had no way of checking them.
Dr. Kingsley R. Chin and SpineFrontier were the subject of a recent KHN “Spinal Tap” investigation.
As covid case numbers rise nationwide, Georgia and some other states have restricted the case count data they share publicly.
Governors in Southern states, amid a surge of delta-variant infections, are rushing to provide an experimental antibody cocktail therapy, even as they oppose measures like mask mandates and vaccine passports that health officials say can prevent infection in the first place.
As the delta variant continues to spread around the U.S., the Biden administration is taking steps to authorize covid vaccine boosters, require nursing home workers to be vaccinated and protect school officials who want to require masks despite state laws banning those mandates. Meanwhile, the U.S. House is returning from its summer break early to start work on its giant budget bill, which includes a long list of health policy changes. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times and Kimberly Leonard of Business Insider join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more.
Scientists have found little evidence that the kind of masks worn by students negatively affect oxygen or carbon dioxide levels.
