The nation’s largest private health system, HCA Healthcare, has faced years of scrutiny over its share of emergency room patients who are admitted to the hospital. And now U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, a Democrat from New Jersey, is calling for a federal investigation, prompting an escalating defense by the hospital system, based in Nashville, Tennessee.
Centene, the largest Medicaid managed-care company in the U.S., has thrown more than $26.9 million at political campaigns across the country since 2015, especially focused on states where it is wooing Medicaid contracts and settling accusations that it overbilled taxpayers. Among its tactics: Centene is skirting contribution limits by giving to candidates through its many subsidiaries.
Californians will decide Nov. 8 whether to approve a statewide ban on the sale of flavored tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes. But the measure, known as Proposition 31, exempts hookah tobacco. Anti-smoking activists criticize the carve-out, calling it the latest example of businesses using identity politics to profit from a deadly product.
In September, a popular pandemic benefit expired: free school lunch for all children attending public schools. Some states are stepping up to try to keep the free food available, and it is on the ballot next week in Colorado.
State employees could receive checks ranging from $50 to thousands of dollars if they choose the right provider.
Lengthy checklists from public health officials on handling emergencies miss vulnerable seniors who can’t always follow the recommendations.
Federal officials have ordered the probe after reports that a woman whose water broke at 18 weeks could not get medical care recommended by her doctors to end the pregnancy because hospital officials were concerned about Missouri’s strict abortion law.
Complaints about misleading health insurance marketing are soaring. State insurance commissioners are taking notice. They’ve created a shared internal database to monitor questionable business practices, and, in the future, they hope to provide a public-facing resource for consumers. In the meantime, consumers should shop wisely as open enrollment season begins.
Federal officials said they are penalizing 2,273 hospitals, the fewest since the fiscal year that ended in September 2014. Driving the decline was a change in the formula to compensate for the chaos caused by the covid-19 pandemic.
Despite the end of Jim Crow segregation, its legacy lives on in medical debt that disproportionately burdens Black communities.
