A baby spent more than a month in a Chicago NICU. A big bill revealed she was treated by out-of-network doctors from the children’s hospital next door. Her parents were charged despite a state law protecting patients from such out-of-network billing — and sent to collections when they didn’t pay up.
Just outside St. Louis, a cemetery for children sits on a hill. A wooden, weather-worn sign welcomes mourners to “Baby Land.” The gravediggers who made the special spot work quietly in the shadows.
In Part II of this special two-part episode, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Call, and Sarah Varney of KHN join KHN chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner to discuss how the abortion debate has evolved since the Supreme Court overturned the nationwide right to abortion in 2022, and what might be the flashpoints for 2023. Also, for extra credit, the panelists recommend their most memorable reproductive health stories from the last year.
A single booster seems to prevent death and hospitalization in most people, but protection from the current vaccines wanes within months. FDA experts say they need to know more from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to decide the best long-term strategy.
KHN has released never-before-seen details of federal audits as the government weighs action against dozens of Medicare Advantage plans.
Supporters of a proposed law say it would fill a health provider gap in rural areas, while doctors worry it will give pharmacists power outside the scope of their education.
After the Department of Health Care Services canceled Medi-Cal contract awards under pressure from major insurers, some consumer advocates question the administration’s willpower to improve care in the safety-net program.
In Part I of this special two-part episode, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Call, and Sarah Varney of KHN join KHN chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner to discuss how the abortion debate has evolved since the Supreme Court overturned the nationwide right to abortion in 2022, and what might be the flashpoints for 2023. Also in this episode, Rovner interviews Elizabeth Nash of the Guttmacher Institute, about changing reproductive policies in the states.
Experts say the Florida governor’s conclusion could not be drawn from the study he cited, adding that the research focused on health care workers, who are likelier to be exposed to covid and more likely to be vaccinated. Those findings should not be applied to the general public.
The proportion of Californians dying at home, rather than in a hospital or nursing home, accelerated during the pandemic, a trend that has outlasted the rigid lockdowns linked to the initial shift.
