Category: Doctors

American Medical Students Less Likely To Choose To Become Primary Care Doctors

Only 41.5% of internal medicine positions were filled by U.S.-trained fourth-year students getting traditional medical degrees, the lowest share on record. Similar trends were seen this year in family medicine and pediatrics.

Opioid Operators: How Surgeons Ply Patients With Painkillers

Even as awareness of the opioid crisis grew, prescribing habits of surgeons changed very little from 2011 to 2016, found a data analysis by Kaiser Health News and Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Our team looked at surgeons whose Medicare patients filled a prescription for opioids within a week of having one of seven […]

Opioid Operators: How Surgeons Ply Patients With Painkillers

Even as awareness of the opioid crisis grew, prescribing habits of surgeons changed very little from 2011 to 2016, found a data analysis by Kaiser Health News and Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Our team looked at surgeons whose Medicare patients filled a prescription for opioids within a week of having one of seven […]

Never Say ‘Die’: Why So Many Doctors Won’t Break Bad News

It’s never easy to tell a patient about a terminal illness, but a longtime doctor whose own diagnosis was botched says physicians must do better.

Hospitals Accused Of Paying Doctors Large Kickbacks In Quest For Patients

Hospitals are eager to get particular specialists on staff because they bring in business that can be highly profitable. But those efforts, if they involve unusually high salaries or other enticements, can violate federal anti-kickback laws.

A Medical Sanctuary For Migrant Farmworkers

A former farmworker, now a doctor, runs two clinics in California’s Central Valley providing care — often free of charge — for migrants who don’t have money and are deeply worried about the federal government’s hard-line stance on immigration.

Escalating Workplace Violence Rocks Hospitals

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.

Walmart Charts New Course By Steering Workers To High-Quality Imaging Centers

Walmart, the nation’s largest private employer, is recommending that employees and dependents use one of 800 imaging centers identified as providing trustworthy care.

Podcast: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’ ‘Conscience’ Rules, Rx Prices and Still More Medicare

Joanne Kenen of Politico, Jen Haberkorn of the Los Angeles Times and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss the latest news about the Trump administration’s effort to allow health care practitioners and organizations to refuse to provide care or refer patients for services that violate their conscience or religion. Also this week, the administration orders TV ads for prescription drugs to include list prices. And Tennessee wants free rein from the federal government to run its Medicaid program. Plus, Rovner interviews Joan Biskupic, author of a new book on Chief Justice John Roberts, about the behind-the-scenes negotiations that led to the 2012 ruling upholding the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act.

Effects Of Surgery On A Warming Planet: Can Anesthesia Go Green?

Two of the most commonly used anesthesia gases are similar medically but worlds apart when it comes to their impact on the planet.