New data from the California agency that manages health benefits for 1.5 million public employees, retirees and their families shows that doctors are writing far fewer opioid prescriptions, reflecting a national trend of physicians cutting back on the addictive drugs.
For the seventh year in a row, Missouri will retain its lonely title as the only state without a statewide prescription drug monitoring program. Fears about privacy violations and gun control scuttled the bill yet again, leaving a pastiche of half-step measures in place to fill the void in the fight against prescription drug abuse.
Incidents of serious workplace violence are four times more common in health care than in private industry, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Deep questions underlie what is happening in Fort Scott, Kan.: Do small communities like this one need a traditional hospital at all? And, if not, what health care do they need?
Crowded emergency rooms are likely to blame. In 2017, the median ER wait time for patients before admission as inpatients to California hospitals was 336 minutes — or more than 5½ hours.
Officials in Washington and other states are cracking down on companies that avoid health insurance regulations by masquerading as faith-based care.
Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Anna Edney of Bloomberg News and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss the new abortion bans passed in Alabama and Georgia; bipartisan congressional efforts to end “surprise” out-of-network medical bills; and a new public option health insurance plan soon to be available in Washington state.
For the first time, the federal government is measuring the quality of rehab services in nursing homes for the millions of older adults who need post-hospitalization care.
The administration’s position on a pending lawsuit to get the Affordable Care Act is one of the reasons experts said there’s cause for skepticism.
Kathy Brandt and Kim Acquaviva are both leaders in the world of hospice and palliative care. When Brandt learned she was dying of ovarian cancer, the couple decided it could be a teachable moment.
