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A Massachusetts health care cost watchdog agency helped block plans of the stateās largest hospital system to expand into the suburbs. Now, other states are looking at whether Massachusettsā decade-old model of controlling health costs is worth emulating.
Almost a year after the American Rescue Plan Act allocated what could amount to $25 billion to home and community-based services run by Medicaid, many states have yet to access much of the money due to delays and red tape.
As the pandemic wanes, for now, the ever-rising cost of health care is again taking center stage. Meanwhile, a year into the Biden administration, the FDA finally has a Senate-confirmed commissioner, Dr. Robert Califf. Tami Luhby of CNN, Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet, and Rachel Cohrs of Stat join KHNās Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews Hannah Wesolowski of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, about how the pandemic has worsened the nationās mental health crisis and what can be done about it.
A mother-and-daughter team went comparison-shopping to see what grocery store shelves revealed about inequity in America.
Mass General Brighamās $2.3 billion expansion plan is raising state officialsā concerns that it will reduce competition and raise the price of care in Massachusetts. It also signals a national shift from a focus on hospital mergers and purchases of physician practices ā which boost the cost of care ā to individual hospitalsā expansions to gain a bigger share of the market.
Following the devastating impact of covid-19 on nursing homes, state lawmakers want to be sure that government and private payments primarily go to improve care and staffing.
Dr. Kingsley R. Chin and SpineFrontier were the subject of a recent KHN āSpinal Tapā investigation.
Vermont and Massachusetts lead the nation, with more than 70% of adults having had at least one dose of a covid-19 vaccine. Southern states like Tennessee lag far behind.
What's known as emergency room boarding of psychiatric patients has risen between 200% and 400% monthly in Massachusetts during the pandemic ā and the problem is widespread. The CDC says emergency room visits after suicide attempts among teen girls were up 51% earlier this year as compared with 2019.
When they were 6, Hallel told their parents they are a boy-girl. At 9, they are helping their parents, grandparents and friends understand what it means to be nonbinary.
Covid patients who did not speak English well were 35% more likely to die, data from one Boston hospital shows.
Hunger among kids is skyrocketing, even in Americaās wealthiest counties. But given the nationās highly uneven charitable food system, affluent communities have been far less ready for the unprecedented crisis than places accustomed to dealing with poverty and hardship.
Hospitals dealing with staff shortages during the current covid surge are unable to tap into one valuable resource: foreign-trained doctors, nurses and other health workers, many with experience treating infectious diseases. Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Nevada are the only states to have eased credentialing requirements during the pandemic.
A survey of 17 cities found more than 50,000 pandemic-related eviction filings. Housing advocates worry that increased housing instability will lead to more COVID-19 and other illnesses.
Doctors are diagnosing a new stage of COVID-19 recovery: patients who take much longer than usual to regain consciousness after coming off a ventilator. And a growing number of doctors are worried some patients arenāt being given the time they need to wake up.
Massachusetts offers support and resources for people isolating because of COVID-19 ā helping them make choices that keep everyone safe. Experts say that is work that more states need to fund.
āThe awful truth is families have no control over whatās happening,ā one advocate says.
Health care providers are seeing the effects of climate change in hospitals across the U.S. ā and urging their peers to take action.
"I know we will succeed somewhat and we will fail somewhat," says one of the plan's chief architects. "We won't be able to find every single person ā but we will hopefully prevent a lot of deaths."
Revenue is way down for primary care, specialty physicians and some hospitals as patients avoid non-urgent visits. Practices small and large are doling out layoffs and furloughs to staff.
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