Category: Aging

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: FDA Takes Center Stage

Congress is set to start its once-every-five-years review of the law that authorizes user fees to finance the hiring of personnel to speed the FDA review of drugs. The periodic renewals of “PDUFA” also give lawmakers a chance to make other changes to the agency at the hub of the pandemic. Meanwhile, the FDA could also find itself at the center of the abortion debate and a controversial new medication to treat Alzheimer’s disease. Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico, and Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more.

Pandemic-Fueled Shortages of Home Health Workers Strand Patients Without Necessary Care

Home health and hospice agencies are experiencing extreme worker shortages, which means they can’t provide services to all the patients seeking care.

In California Nursing Homes, Omicron Is Bad, but So Is the Isolation

Omicron infections are surging in residential care facilities, causing massive sickouts among staff members and an uptick in hospitalizations and deaths. The latest visitor restrictions and testing requirements are also compounding the isolation that residents have suffered for almost two years.

Medicare Patients Win the Right to Appeal Gap in Nursing Home Coverage

If federal officials accept a court’s decision, some patients will get a chance to seek refunds for their nursing home and other expenses.

Readers and Tweeters: Give Nurse Practitioners Their Due

KHN gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories.

Why Medicare Doesn’t Pay for Rapid At-Home Covid Tests

The laws governing Medicare don’t provide coverage for self-administered diagnostic tests, which is precisely what the rapid antigen tests are and why they are an important tool for containing the pandemic.

Families Complain as States Require Covid Testing for Nursing Home Visits

Relatives say it is important they be allowed to go into nursing homes because staff shortages are affecting care. And many are still upset about lengthy separations from loved ones during lockdowns earlier in the pandemic.

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Dealing With Drug Prices

Medicare officials tentatively plan to restrict the use of a controversial Alzheimer’s drug to only those patients participating in clinical trials, while the Department of Health and Human Services looks into lowering the monthly Medicare Part B premium. Meanwhile, covid confusion still reigns, as the Biden administration moves, belatedly, to make more masks and tests available. Joanne Kenen of Politico and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet and Rachel Cohrs of Stat join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more.

Black-Owned Hospice Seeks to Bring Greater Ease in Dying to Black Families

National data shows that Black Medicare patients and their families are not making the move to comfort care as often as white patients are. Experts speculate it’s related to spiritual beliefs and widespread mistrust in the medical system due to decades of discrimination.

A New Paradigm Is Needed: Top Experts Question the Value of Advance Care Planning

Prominent researchers say the nationwide effort to get people to spell out how they want to be treated as they die is not improving patients’ care.