Category: Public Health

CDC's outlook for 2024-25 virus season: 4 notes

Leaders of the CDC, HHS and FDA held a press conference Aug. 23 about the upcoming respiratory virus season. Here are four things to know:

Feds Killed Plan To Curb Medicare Advantage Overbilling After Industry Opposition

A private 2014 decision by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services faces new scrutiny in a multibillion-dollar Justice Department fraud case against UnitedHealth Group.

With Only Gloves To Protect Them, Farmworkers Say They Tend Sick Cows Amid Bird Flu

A Colorado picnic celebrated Farmworker Appreciation Day. But some dairy workers there said they aren’t feeling appreciated: They don’t have basic protective gear, even as bird flu spreads through area farms.

Public Voices Often Ignored in States’ Opioid Settlement Money Decisions

In many places, victims of the opioid epidemic are silenced in decision-making about how to use opioid settlement money, a first-of-its-kind survey conducted by KFF Health News and Spotlight PA found.

Her Life Was at Risk. She Needed an Abortion. Insurance Refused To Pay.

Insurance coverage for abortion care in the U.S. is a hodgepodge. Patients often don’t know when or if a procedure or abortion pills are covered, and the proliferation of abortion bans has exacerbated the confusion.

The New Covid Vaccine Is Out. Why You Might Not Want To Rush To Get It.

Although public health officials recommend the newly approved covid vaccine for everyone 6 months and older, it may make more sense to wait until closer to the holiday season.

Many kids benefit from GLP-1s. What happens when they have to stop taking them?

At the November 2022 Obesity Week in San Diego, it was clear something big was happening. A late-breaking session released results of the STEP TEENS phase IIIa trial, showing 16 percent weight loss in adolescents with obesity treated with once-weekly s…

KFF Health News’ ‘What the Health?’: Let the General Election Commence

Abortion and reproductive health issues headlined the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, as expected. But what Vice President Kamala Harris has in mind for other health policies as the Democratic nominee remains something of a mystery. Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump says he would not use the 19th-century Comstock Act to impose, in effect, a national ban on abortion, which angered his anti-abortion backers. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Joanne Kenen of Politico and Johns Hopkins University, and Shefali Luthra of The 19th join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews KFF Health News’ Tony Leys, who reported and wrote the latest KFF Health News-NPR “Bill of the Month” feature about a woman who fought back after being charged for two surgeries despite undergoing only one.

Trump Drastically Inflates Annual Fentanyl Death Numbers

The former president’s claim of 300,000 annual opioid deaths contradicts government statistics.

A Teen’s Murder, Mold in the Walls: Unfulfilled Promises Haunt Public Housing

For years, federal lawmakers have failed to deliver the money needed to fix derelict public housing, leaving tenants — mostly people of color and families with low incomes — living with mold and gun violence that has had lasting health consequences.