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Nearly all adults who die in La Crosse, Wisconsin, have filled out "advance directives" - explicit instructions on what treatments they do and don't want at the end of life. The medical ethicist who started the program says "We believe it's part of good patient care."
The people in Southeastern Kentucky have the poorest health in the country. Yet the area is rich with medical facilities. Health reform bills are unlikely to change much: One doctor says: "We have to transform the way we take care of people."
Six years ago, Cathy Nance had to have open heart surgery. Later, she had kidney cancer. Because of poor health and inability to work, she became homeless, until she was helped by Harlan Countians for a Healthy Community.
Gerry Roll says people don't understand the health problems in southeastern Kentucky: "You can get whatever you need as far as traditional medical care goes. Yet we have the highest levels of chronic disease in the nation. So when I hear people talking about access to health care being a problem, I am livid."
Family nurse practitioner Beverly May, of the Kentucky Mountain Health Alliance, treats many patients with chronic diseases.
Health care has to be looked at in context, according to Annie Fox and Teana Burns of "Harlan Countians for a Healthy Community" in Kentucky.
At Hillcrest Medical Center, which is testing a "bundled" Medicare payment system, some seniors get paid up to $1,157 for having surgery. The pilot program aims to save money and improve care by paying doctors and hospitals a lump sum and rewards the patients with part of the savings.
This brief explainer examines the number of uninsured illegal immigrants, where they go for health services and how they would fare if current health reform proposals pass.
Trying to discredit the Dartmouth data is a distraction from the real work that's needed to understand and remedy the extraordinary amount of money spent on care that does not appear to make a difference in health.
The finances of Hillsboro Medical Center in North Dakota improved after it got a "critical access" designation. Sens. Conrad, D-N.D., Wyden, D-Ore., Pryor, D-Ark., and Brownback, R-Kan., want to make it easier for other rural hospitals to get the designation as part of health reform.
A list of some vital statistics about children's oral health and dental insurance.
All of the Democratic health proposals would expand children's dental care - a serious need. Currently about twice as many children are without dental coverage as those without medical coverage. At the same time, some insurance experts worry that the legislation may have unintended consequences, disrupting adult coverage.
Even as Congress moves to expand health insurance coverage to millions of Americans, it's doing little to ensure there will be enough primary care doctors to meet the expected surge in demand for treatment. One prediction: the shortage of family doctors will reach 40,000 by 2019, as medical schools send about half the needed number of graduates into primary care medicine.
In the mid-1970s, an unconventional researcher named Jack Wennberg discovered an unusually high rate of hysterectomies in Lewiston, Maine. That was just one of a series of studies that led to a very surprising conclusion about health care: a large portion of the medical care Americans get is unnecessary.
Facility fees, charged to patients who get treatment in hospital-owned outpatient clinics, are used defray to hospital overhead, pay salaries and meet stringent standards, hospital officials say. Critics say the fees are a way to increase the cost of care when patients can least afford it.
The cornerstone of Atlanta medical care strives to turn a corner, but fight over dialysis center underscores difficulties of meeting increasing demands in a poor economy.
Fewer than half of all graduating medical students say they have a good sense of how to navigate health care systems or the economics of practicing medicine, according to a new study.
A study comparing U.S. treatment outcomes and other indicators among 30 developed nations found "no hard evidence" that American system stands out.
To get to universal coverage in a fiscally sound way, we need to come up with a "chronic care bailout" plan. The way to do this is through health payment reform.
As part of the series, "Are You Covered?" KHN and NPR profile Audrey Bernfield, 71, a two-time breast cancer survivor. When her cancer returned, her Medicare coverage enabled her to choose her own doctors, move closer to her family and get the best treatments for her situation. She says she prefers Medicare over a private insurer. |
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