“People want covid-19 to be in the rearview mirror,” one nursing home official says. Faced with a slow rollout of the updated covid vaccines, and without state mandates for workers to get vaccinated, most skilled nursing facilities are relying on persuasion to boost vaccination rates among staff and residents.
Kristie Fields, a cancer patient in Virginia, was urged to go public to seek financial help. She worried about feeding hurtful stereotypes.
The community of Bristol straddles the border between two states with very different abortion laws. Tennessee prohibits most abortions at about six weeks and will soon ban them nearly outright. Virginia allows them at least through the second trimester. To maintain abortion access in the area, staff at a clinic on the Tennessee side of the state line are helping open a clinic about a mile down the road on the Virginia side.
Sens. Robert Casey Jr. and Ron Wyden want a probe into what barriers are keeping Medicaid plans from reaching enrollees.
Legislative crackdowns on out-of-network bills haven’t kept specialists from hitting patients with unexpected charges running into thousands of dollars.
HCA charges patients an “activation fee” of up to $50,000 for trauma teams at centers located in half its 179 hospitals — and they often don’t need trauma care, an analysis of insurance claims data shows.
The Virginia hospital giant had already stopped suing patients with less than $107,000 in household income.
In Virginia, if you called 1-877-VAX-IN-VA to register for a vaccine and wanted help in a language other than English or Spanish, the system might hang up on you.
The University of Virginia promised reforms but has stopped short of announcing them, while hospital giant VCU Health has freed tens of thousands from property liens.
The delays can be excruciating, with some extreme cases running more than 20 days. People getting tested at urgent care centers, community health centers, pharmacies and state-run drive-thru or walk-up sites are often waiting a week or more to find out if they tested positive for the coronavirus.
