100 Million People in America Are Saddled With Health Care Debt
The U.S. health system now produces debt on a mass scale, a new investigation shows. Patients face gut-wrenching sacrifices.
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121-140 of 215 results
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Buy and Bust: When Private Equity Comes for Rural Hospitals
Noble Health swept into two small Missouri towns promising to save their hospitals. Instead, workers and vendors say it stopped paying bills and government inspectors found it put patients at risk. Within two years 鈥 after taking millions in federal covid relief and big administrative fees 鈥 it locked the doors.
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States Have Yet to Spend Hundreds of Millions of Federal Dollars to Tackle Covid Health Disparities
A year ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention awarded states and local health departments $2.25 billion to help people of color and other populations at higher risk from covid. But a KHN review shows public health agencies across the country have been slow to spend it.
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Is Paxlovid, the Covid Pill, Reaching Those Who Most Need It? The Government Won鈥檛 Say
Many public health workers are unable to see how many doses of Pfizer鈥檚 antiviral treatment are shipped to their communities and cannot tell whether vulnerable residents are filling prescriptions as often as their wealthier neighbors.
By Hannah Recht -
Why Won鈥檛 More Older Americans Get Their Covid Booster?
Approximately 1 in 3 Americans 65 and older who completed their initial vaccination round still have not received a first booster shot. The numbers dismay researchers, who say the lag has cost tens of thousands of lives.
By Liz Szabo -
What鈥檚 Next if 鈥楻oe v. Wade鈥 Falls? More Than Half of States Expected to Ban or Restrict Abortion
If the Supreme Court affirms the leaked draft decision and overturns abortion rights, the effects would be sweeping in states where Republican-led legislatures have been eagerly awaiting the repudiation of a woman鈥檚 right to terminate a pregnancy.
By Sarah Varney -
At US Hospitals, a Drug Mix-Up Is Just a Few Keystrokes Away
After a Tennessee nurse killed a patient because of a drug error, the companies behind hospital medication cabinets said they鈥檇 make the devices safer. But did they?
By Brett Kelman -
How the Test-to-Treat Pillar of the US Covid Strategy Is Failing Patients
The federal 鈥渢est-to-treat鈥 program was designed to be a one-stop shop for people to get tested for covid and to receive treatment. But as covid cases rise again, many communities have no participating locations, and website bugs make it difficult to book an appointment at the biggest participant.
By Hannah Recht -
Persistent Problem: High C-Section Rates Plague the South
Some U.S. states have reduced use of the procedure, including by sharing C-section data with doctors and hospitals. But change has proved difficult in the South, where women are generally less healthy heading into their pregnancies and maternal and infant health problems are among the highest in the U.S.
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Babies Die as Congenital Syphilis Continues a Decade-Long Surge Across the US
Congenital syphilis rates keep climbing, according to newly released federal data. But the primary funding source for most public health departments has been largely stagnant, its purchasing power dragged even lower by inflation.
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Picture of Health
California Sees Dramatic Decline in Child Homicide Victims. What鈥檚 Changed?
Bucking the alarming spike in overall homicides in recent years, the homicide rate involving young children is down 70% in California from three decades ago. The nation has seen a parallel, albeit slower, decline.
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The Pandemic Exacerbates the 鈥楶aramedic Paradox鈥 in Rural America
Emergency medical services are a lifeline in regions with scarce medical care. But paramedics, trained to respond to patients with life-threatening injuries, are in short supply where they鈥檙e needed most.
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Can Melatonin Gummies Solve Family Bedtime Struggles? Experts Advise Caution
Throughout history, parents have searched for the secret to getting fretful children to sleep through the night. The latest strategy involves giving children melatonin-infused gummies and tablets, a trend that concerns some doctors.
By Jenny Gold -
It Was Already Hard to Find Evusheld, a Covid Prevention Therapy. Now It鈥檚 Even Harder.
At least 7 million immunocompromised people could benefit from the monoclonal antibody injections designed to prevent covid-19. The government says it has enough doses for a fraction of those in need 鈥 and it doesn鈥檛 have the money to buy more.
By Hannah Recht -
Dangerous Levels of Lead Were Found in the Water of About Half the Schools Tested in Montana
Officials testing water found high lead levels in more than 100 of the state鈥檚 nearly 600 school buildings. But as of mid-February, half the state鈥檚 schools had yet to provide samples.
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At Nursing Homes, Long Waits for Results Render Covid Tests 鈥楿seless鈥
As omicron surges, more nursing homes are facing a double whammy: Lab tests are taking too long, and fast antigen tests are in short supply.
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As Omicron Surges, Effort to Vaccinate Young Children Stalls
Just 18% of 5- to 11-year-olds are fully vaccinated, with rates varying significantly across the country, a KHN analysis of federal data shows. Pediatricians say the slow pace and geographic disparities are alarming, especially against the backdrop of record numbers of cases and pediatric hospitalizations.
By Rachana Pradhan and Hannah Recht -
As Hospitals Fill Up, Paramedics Spend More Time Moving Patients, Less on Emergencies
Gunnison paramedics cover the largest response zone in Colorado. Because of covid and the lack of nearby hospital beds, patients increasingly are transported long distances, leaving few ambulances to respond to emergencies.
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Data Science Proved What Pittsburgh鈥檚 Black Leaders Knew: Racial Disparities Compound Covid Risk
Inside the Black Equity Coalition鈥檚 novel effort to share community health intel and scrape government data to understand 鈥 and document 鈥 the life-threatening differences between white and Black Pittsburgh.
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How Rural Communities Are Losing Their Pharmacies
More than 1,000 independent rural pharmacies have closed since 2003, leaving 630 communities with no retail drugstore. As 41 million people stuck in pharmacy deserts make do, the remaining drugstores struggle to survive.