The proposal details a wide-ranging agenda to remedy the gaps in health care and myriad challenges in rural America. In addition to more telehealth options, it includes shifts in hospital payments and expanded funding for school-based mental health programs.
Doctors are diagnosing a new stage of COVID-19 recovery: patients who take much longer than usual to regain consciousness after coming off a ventilator. And a growing number of doctors are worried some patients aren’t being given the time they need to wake up.
Rural hospitals were already struggling before the coronavirus emerged. Now, the loss of revenue from patients who are afraid to come to the emergency room, postponing doctor’s appointments and delaying elective surgeries is adding to the pressure.
Harbor-UCLA Medical Center serves patients who are especially vulnerable to the coronavirus: They are essential workers, have chronic diseases and are members of underrepresented racial and ethnic groups. When the safety-net hospital kicks off enrollment for its COVID-19 vaccine trial Wednesday, it will look to those patients to participate.
The rolling shortages of personal protective gear continue even in hospitals, as buyers look directly for manufacturers — often through a maze of companies that have sprung up overnight.
Poor information-sharing between hospitals and public health agencies has hurt the response to the pandemic. Some health care systems and IT companies are making inroads, but an overhaul would cost billions.
KHN and The Guardian unveil an interactive database documenting front-line health care worker deaths. The majority of them are people of color — and nurses face the highest toll.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought knee and hip replacements to a virtual halt because they aren’t usually considered emergency procedures. But they are profitable, and hospital systems are now counting on the surgeries to help restore their financial health.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought knee and hip replacements to a virtual halt because they aren’t usually considered emergency procedures. But they are profitable, and hospital systems are now counting on the surgeries to help restore their financial health.
President Donald Trump keeps promising a comprehensive plan to replace the Affordable Care Act. And he keeps not delivering. Meanwhile, members of Congress and White House officials seem unable to agree on a new COVID-19 relief bill. And Missouri becomes the sixth state where voters approved a Medicaid expansion ballot measure. Tami Luhby of CNN, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico and Kimberly Leonard of Business Insider join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss this and more. Plus, for extra credit, the panelists recommend their favorite health stories of the week they think you should read, too.
