Category: Kaiser Health News

A Late-Life Surprise: Taking Care Of Frail, Aging Parents

More and more older adults, age 60 and older, care for their elderly parents and face physical, emotional and financial stress.

A Black Eye For Blue Shield: Consumers Lash Out Over Coverage Lapses

The state’s third-largest insurer faces anger from customers in the individual market who unexpectedly lost their insurance despite paying premiums faithfully. In its recently filed lawsuit, the company blamed a contractor for “egregious” billing problems.

Religious Conservatives’ Ties To Trump Officials Pay Off In AIDS Policies, Funding

Shepherd Smith, a strong supporter of abstinence-only sex education for AIDS, has been close to the new director of the CDC for decades. This connection is just one example of the “new in crowd” surrounding the Trump administration, where politics and religion mix.

Battle Lines Drawn As Abortion-Rights Activists Leave Their Mark Outside Clinics

Armed with poster board and catchy advertising slogans, abortion-rights activists in California and elsewhere are taking to sidewalks, buses and mobile phone apps to fight a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling in favor of crisis pregnancy centers.

The Man Who Sold America On Vitamin D — And Profited In The Process

The doctor most responsible for turning the sunshine supplement into a billion-dollar juggernaut has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the vitamin D industry, according to government records and interviews.

Babies Dependent On Opioids Need Touch, Not Tech

One doctor in Kansas works to make sure every hospital in the state can provide the soft start, ideally with their mothers, that babies with neonatal abstinence syndrome need.

Hospitals Battle For Control Over Fast-Growing Heart-Valve Procedure

Medicare limits payments for valve replacement via a catheter to hospitals with large numbers of heart procedures. But smaller facilities are crying foul.

Purdue Pharma’s Sales Pitch Downplayed Risks Of Opioid Addiction

Through a widely circulated brochure and a videotape of testimonials, the maker of OxyContin stressed patients’ right to opioid treatment for pain.

Podcast: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’ See You In Court!

In this episode of KHN’s “What the Health?” Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Alice Ollstein of Talking Points Memo, Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times and Kimberly Leonard of the Washington Examiner talk about a spate of lawsuits involving the Affordable Care Act, as well as the latest in state and federal efforts regarding the Medicaid program for the poor.

Shortage Of Insurance Fraud Cops Sparks Campaign Debate

About a quarter of fraud investigator positions at the state Department of Insurance are open, and Steve Poizner has made the vacancies a focus of his campaign for insurance commissioner. His opponent, Ricardo Lara, says chasing criminals isn’t the only solution to rising health care costs.