Category: NPR

A bill that the governor signed this month would let Florida make bulk purchases of prescription drugs from Canada. It’s now law but still faces big hurdles that could keep it from becoming reality.

A new Texas law says hospitals and insurers will have to work it out when they can’t agree on a price — instead of sending huge unexpected bills to patients.

Physician Louise Aronson treats patients who are in their 60s — as well as those who are older than 100. She writes about changing approaches to elder health care in the book, Elderhood.

Many users now mix opioids with stimulants such as meth and cocaine. Researchers say efforts to get doctors to reduce opioid prescriptions may have driven some users to buy meth on the street instead.

A service called neuromonitoring can cut the risk of nerve damage during delicate surgery. But some patients are receiving large bills they didn’t expect.

Attorneys who represent hundreds of local governments have a new proposal for how to deal with the opioid crisis. They unveiled the framework for nationwide settlement in federal court on Friday.

If finalized, such a deal could funnel tens of billions of dollars to American communities struggling with the addiction crisis, while restoring stability to one of the country’s biggest industries.

The median air ambulance bill is more than $36,000 and is seldom covered by health plans. So far, legislative hurdles and industry pressure have kept Congress from stepping in.

When Greg McNeil’s son Sam died of a heroin overdose in 2015, after first becoming addicted to prescription pain pills, the father reinvented himself as an opioid activist.

Presidential candidates oppose the Hyde Amendment, which bars federal funding for abortion services. But House Democrats kept it in a spending package that’s expected to pass Thursday.