Category: NPR

Determined to improve the way doctors connect with their patients, a new wave of innovators are using technology to match people of color with culturally competent professionals.

Service dogs have long helped veterans with vision or mobility problems. Now the PAWS Veterans Therapy Act will help connect specially trained dogs to some veterans with symptoms of traumatic stress.

State rules were temporarily loosened in 2020 to help patients get care outside a doctor’s office. But is telehealth by phone safe and effective? State legislatures and insurers must soon decide.

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra says health providers who have exploited a complicated system to charge exorbitant rates will have to bear their share of the cost — or close.

Hours after the Food and Drug Administration authorized booster doses of COVID-19 vaccine for all adults 18 years and older, a panel of experts endorsed their use with a few caveats.

With few options for health care in their rural community, a Tennessee couple’s experience with one outrageous bill could have led to a deadly delay when they needed help the most.

Congress passed a law last year to shield patients from surprise out-of-network medical charges. But many doctors in the House now say the way the law is to be implemented unfairly favors insurers.

The new strategy is called “postvention.” It means having a plan built on truth, compassion and counseling that quickly addresses the mental health needs of friends and classmates after a suicide.

The Texas law has no exceptions for survivors of rape or incest. Social workers say that’s hurting some survivors financially, psychologically and physically.

The U.S. patent system was designed to foster innovation and serve the public good. But it’s no longer working as intended. Lawyer Priti Krishtel explains the consequences and how to change that.