All Coverage
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Georgia鈥檚 Medicaid Work Requirements Costing Taxpayers Millions Despite Low Enrollment
Republican Gov. Brian Kemp鈥檚 Georgia Pathways to Coverage program has seen anemic enrollment while chalking up millions in start-up costs 鈥 largely in technology and consulting fees. Critics say the money鈥檚 being wasted on a costly and ineffective alternative to Obamacare鈥檚 Medicaid expansion.
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Needle Pain Is a Big Problem for Kids. One California Doctor Has a Plan.
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 children鈥檚 hospitals in Northern California.
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Watch: Many Americans Are Unaware of HIV Prevention Medication
Some Americans mistakenly believe medication to prevent HIV transmission through sex is just for certain groups such as gay men, but anyone who鈥檚 at risk for contracting HIV through sex could benefit.
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Amid Mental Health Staffing Crunch, Medi-Cal Patients Help One Another
Peer leaders can help ease the shortage of mental health providers and build trust through shared experiences, state health officials say. In 2022, California started allowing counties to use Medicaid dollars to pay them for their work.
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How National Political Ambition Could Fuel, or Fail, Initiatives to Protect Abortion Rights in States
As money flows to abortion rights initiatives in states, some donors focus on where anger over the “Dobbs” ruling could propel voter turnout and spur Democratic victories up and down the ballot, including in key Senate races and the White House.
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Health Workers Fear It鈥檚 Profits Before Protection as CDC Revisits Airborne Transmission
Four years since the covid pandemic emerged, health care workers want rules that protect them during outbreaks. They worry the CDC is repeating past mistakes as it develops a crucial set of guidelines for hospitals, nursing homes, prisons, and other facilities that provide health care.
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Covid and Medicare Payments Spark Remote Patient Monitoring Boom
Demand for help monitoring patients鈥 vital signs remotely has taken off since a Medicare change in 2019. Dozens of companies now push the service to help overburdened primary care doctors 鈥 and as a revenue stream. But some policy experts say its growth has outpaced oversight and evidence of effectiveness.
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As More States Target Disavowed 鈥楨xcited Delirium鈥 Diagnosis, Police Groups Push Back
After California passed the first law in the nation to limit the disavowed term 鈥渆xcited delirium,鈥 bills in other states are being introduced to help end use of the diagnosis. But momentum is being met with resistance from law enforcement and first responder groups, who cite free speech.
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When Copay Assistance Backfires on Patients
Drugmakers offer copay assistance programs to patients, but insurers are tapping into those funds, not counting the amounts toward patient deductibles. That leads to unexpected charges. But the practice is under growing scrutiny.
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A New Orleans Neighborhood Confronts the Racist Legacy of a Toxic Stretch of Highway
New federal funds aim to address an array of problems created by highway construction in minority neighborhoods. These are economic, social, and, perhaps above all, public health problems. In New Orleans鈥 Treme neighborhood, competing plans for how to deal with harm done by the Claiborne Expressway reveal the challenge of how to mitigate them meaningfully.
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Perspective
How Your In-Network Health Coverage Can Vanish Before You Know It
One of the most unfair aspects of medical insurance is this: Patients can change insurance only during end-of-year enrollment periods or at the time of 鈥渜ualifying life events.鈥 But insurers鈥 contracts with doctors, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies can change abruptly at any time.
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Maybe It鈥檚 a Health Care Election After All
Health care wasn鈥檛 expected to be a major theme for this year鈥檚 elections. But as President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump secured their respective party nominations this week, the future of both Medicare and the Affordable Care Act appears to be up for debate. Meanwhile, the cyberattack of the UnitedHealth Group subsidiary Change Healthcare continues to do damage to the companies鈥 finances with no quick end in sight. Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, and Joanne Kenen of Johns Hopkins University and Politico Magazine join 吃瓜不打烊鈥 Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews Kelly Henning of Bloomberg Philanthropies about a new, four-part documentary series on the history of public health, 鈥淭he Invisible Shield.鈥 Plus, for 鈥渆xtra credit鈥 the panelists suggest health policy stories they read this week that they think you should read, too.
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They Were Injured at the Super Bowl Parade. A Month Later, They Feel Forgotten.
In the first of our series 鈥淭he Injured,鈥 a Kansas family remembers Valentine鈥檚 Day as the beginning of panic attacks, life-altering trauma, and waking to nightmares of gunfire. Thrown into the spotlight by the shootings, they wonder how they will recover.
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Montana, an Island of Abortion Access, Preps for Consequential Elections and Court Decisions
A 25-year-old state Supreme Court ruling protects abortion rights in conservative Montana. That hasn鈥檛 stopped Republicans and anti-abortion advocates from trying to institute a ban.
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Exclusive: Social Security Chief Vows to Fix 鈥楥ruel-Hearted鈥 Overpayment Clawbacks
New Social Security Commissioner Martin O鈥橫alley is promising to change how the agency reclaims billions of dollars it wrongly pays to beneficiaries, saying the existing process is 鈥渃ruel-hearted and mindless.鈥
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West Virginia City Once Battered by Opioid Overdoses Confronts 鈥楩ourth Wave鈥
Years of struggle prepared residents in Cabell County, West Virginia, to confront the latest wave of the opioid epidemic as mixtures of fentanyl and other drugs claim lives nationwide.
