Health Care Helpline
Health Care Helpline helps you navigate the hurdles between you and good care. This crowdsourced project is from NPR and Ńī¹óåś“«Ć½Ņīl Health News.
The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
Health Care Helpline helps you navigate the hurdles between you and good care. This crowdsourced project is from NPR and Ńī¹óåś“«Ć½Ņīl Health News.
HealthQ is a health series from reporters Cara Anthony and Blake Farmer, approachable guides to an unapproachable health care system. Itās a collaboration between Nashville Public Radio and Ńī¹óåś“«Ć½Ņīl Health News.
Listen to Ńī¹óåś“«Ć½Ņīl Health Newsā ongoing and completed podcasts.
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The U.S. is one of nine countries that do not guarantee paid sick leave. Since the covid pandemic, advocates in states including Missouri, Alaska, and Nebraska are organizing to take the issue to voters with ballot initiatives this November.
Despite the rise of gun violence in America, few medical guidelines exist on removing bullets from survivorsā bodies. In the second installment of our series āThe Injured,ā we meet three people shot at the Kansas City Super Bowl parade who are dealing with the bullets inside them in different ways.
Puff inhalers can be lifesavers for people with asthma and other respiratory diseases, but some types release potent greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. That, in turn, worsens wildfires, contributes to air pollution, and intensifies allergy seasons ā which can increase the need for inhalers. Some doctors are helping patients switch to more eco-sensitive inhalers.
Agreeing to an out-of-network doctorās own financial policy ā which generally protects their ability to get paid and may be littered with confusing insurance and legal jargon ā can create a binding contract that leaves a patient owing.
Some of the nearly 130,000 Montanans who have lost Medicaid coverage as the state reevaluates eligibility are homeless. Thatās in part because Montana kicked more than 80,000 people off the program for technical reasons rather than income ineligibility. For unhoused people who were disenrolled, getting back on Medicaid can be extraordinarily difficult.
Nurses are telling lawmakers that there are not enough of them working in hospitals and that it risks patientsā lives. California and Oregon legally limit the number of patients under a nurseās care. Other states trying to do the same were blocked by the hospital industry. Now patientsā relatives are joining the fight.
A shortage of primary care providers is driving more people to seek routine care in emergency settings. In Rhode Island, safety-net clinics are under pressure as clinicians retire or burn out, and patients say itās harder to find care as they lose connections to familiar doctors.
A California law that takes effect this summer will grant minors on public insurance the ability to get mental health treatment without their parentsā consent, a privilege that their peers with private insurance have had for years. But the law has become a flashpoint in the stateās culture wars.
The pain and trauma from repeated needle sticks leads some kids to hold on to needle phobia into adulthood. Research shows the biggest source of pain for children in the health care system is needles. But one doctor thinks he has a solution and is putting it into practice at two childrenās hospitals in Northern California.
A mathematical model designed to direct spending of opioid settlement funds is at the center of a debate over whether to invest in technology to guide long-term decisions or focus on the immediate needs of people in addiction.
Cities are experimenting with new ways to meet the rapidly increasing demand for behavioral health crisis intervention, at a time when incidents of police shooting and killing people in mental health crisis have become painfully familiar.
Six years ago, the hospital in Fort Scott, Kansas, shuttered, leaving residents in the small community without a cornerstone health care institution. In the years since, despite new programs meant to save small hospitals, dozens of other communities have watched theirs close.
āHealth Minuteā brings original health care and health policy reporting from the Ńī¹óåś“«Ć½Ņīl Health News newsroom to the airwaves each week.
For the patient, it was a quick and inexpensive virtual appointment. Why it cost 10 times what she expected became a mystery.
An award-winning project by Ńī¹óåś“«Ć½Ņīl Health News and NPR found that at least 100 million people in the United States are saddled with medical bills they cannot pay ā and exposed a health care system that systematically pushes people into debt.
Safe storage maps show gun owners where to put their firearms for safekeeping if they experience a mental health crisis. The idea has support among some gun enthusiasts, but legal obstacles threaten wider adoption.
Ńī¹óåś“«Ć½Ņīl Health News senior correspondent Angela Hart leads a discussion about the role women play as California grapples with a shortage of health care providers.
High-risk patients from states that heavily restrict abortion are coming to hospitals in states such as Illinois that protect abortion rights. The journey can mean more medical risks and higher bills.
With millions of Americans suffering under relentless heat waves this summer, more people are seeking medical attention for heat-related illnesses. As temperatures get more extreme, hospitals, fire departments, and ambulance crews are preparing to treat more patients for heat exhaustion and heatstroke.
The National Eating Disorders Associationās help line has seen demand climb to unsustainable levels since the beginning of the covid pandemic, with more people reporting severe mental health problems, the nonprofit says. But staffers worry this chatbot may make things worse.
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