If you’re told Medicare’s home health benefits have changed, don’t believe it: Coverage rules haven’t been altered and people are still entitled to the same types of services. All that has changed is how Medicare pays agencies.
Category: Public Health
Why Home Health Care Is Suddenly Harder To Come By For Medicare Patients
Medicare has changed how it pays for services. In response, agencies across the country are firing therapists, limiting physical, occupational and speech therapy, and terminating services for some longtime, severely ill patients.
As VA Tests Keto Diet To Help Diabetic Patients, Skeptics Raise Red Flags
The Department of Veterans Affairs is partnering with Virta Health, a California startup that offers remote coaching and monitoring for people with Type 2 diabetes to help them follow the ultra-low carbohydrate diet.
Public Health Officials Offer Scant Details On U.S. Coronavirus Patients
To date, the U.S. has six confirmed cases of the viral infection that originated in Wuhan, China. One person caught it from a person in the U.S. So why don’t health officials share more information with the public?
Preeminent Hospitals Penalized Over Rates Of Patients’ Injuries
Medicare cut payments for 786 hospitals because of high infection and complication rates. They included a third of the hospitals proclaimed as the nation’s best in one prominent ranking.
No Masking The Best Way To Avoid The Scary Coronavirus: Wash Your Hands
While covering the SARS outbreak as a reporter in China, KHN’s editor-in-chief saw that common sense is the best defense against viral illness.
KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: Remaking Medicaid — Maybe
The Trump administration is proposing to let states have more control of their Medicaid programs in exchange for potentially less money from the federal government. Meanwhile, the dangerous respiratory virus spreading from China is starting to affect trade and transportation along with public health. Kimberly Leonard of the Washington Examiner, Erin Mershon of Stat and Joanne Kenen of Politico join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss this and more.
A Guide To Following The Health Debate In The 2020 Elections
As the Democratic primary campaign nears pivotal voting, important aspects of health care policy are being overlooked.
Masks Reveal Cultural Disconnect As L.A.’s Chinese Community Braces For Coronavirus
Since two cases of the mysterious new coronavirus were reported in Southern California, Chinese immigrants have begun donning face masks. The practice is common in China but goes against official guidance in the U.S., and that’s causing conflict in local schools.
Response To Nation’s 1st Coronavirus Case Draws On Lessons From Measles Outbreak
When the first confirmed U.S. patient was pinpointed in Washington state, health clinic workers there weren’t rattled. They were prepped by new statewide protocols on contagion containment, in the wake of last year’s measles scare.
