March 15, 2024
(New York Times) – Should your insurance company be allowed to stop you from getting a treatment — even if your doctor says it’s necessary? Doctors are often required to get insurance permission before providing medical care. This process is … Read More
March 15, 2024
(NPR) – Doctors have long complained about how the prior authorization process gets in the way of delivering care to patients. Insurance companies say the point is to make sure doctors prescribe the most cost effective treatments. States are responding … Read More
March 15, 2024
Journal of Medical Humanities (vol. 45, no 1, 2024) is available online by subscription only. Articles include: “Beyond Empathy to System Change: Four Poems on Health by Bertolt Brecht” by William MacGregor, Martin Horn and Dennis Raphael “Medical Pluralism as … Read More
March 14, 2024
The New England Journal of Medicine (vol. 390, no. 7, 2024) is available online by subscription only. Articles include: “Fundamentals of Medical Ethics: Ethical Issues in Providing Care in Safety-Net Health Systems” by D.A. Chokshi and F.P. Cerise “But My … Read More
March 13, 2024
(New York Times) – H3C is just one of many examples showing that health care systems are increasingly starting to see benefits in building affordable and safe housing, from the improved health of local communities to how much managed care … Read More
March 11, 2024
(Associated Press) – Doctors around the country say UnitedHealthcare and other insurers have made it harder to get coverage for certain home ventilators that patients like Armant need as their lungs fail. They say patients often must struggle first with … Read More
March 11, 2024
(Axios) – Disruptions from the Change Healthcare cyberattack are costing health providers as much as $1 billion a day and creating enough of a drag to depress first-quarter earnings, analysts and industry officials say. Why it matters: Even though Change’s … Read More
March 8, 2024
(Wall Street Journal) – More healthcare groups are charging fees to answer patients’ electronic messages, often the ones you exchange via their portal. Doctors say it’s only fair if they’re spending time on the messages and note that an email … Read More
March 5, 2024
(KFF Health News) – A Maryland firm that oversees the nation’s largest independent network of primary care medical practices is facing a whistleblower lawsuit alleging it cheated Medicare out of millions of dollars using billing software “rigged” to make patients … Read More
March 5, 2024
(Wall Street Journal) – “I have no brothers or sisters to take turns with me,” says Lori, 49. Lori is an only child. The family type is becoming more common, with about 22% of women at the end of their … Read More
March 5, 2024
(Wall Street Journal) – Employers that embraced paying for weight-loss drugs are now reckoning with the high costs, forcing growing numbers to dial back or cut off their reimbursement because they can’t afford it. The companies are putting in place … Read More
March 4, 2024
(New York Times) – Indiana’s social services agency has announced plans to end the caregiver program, citing a nearly $1 billion shortfall in the state Medicaid budget. By July 1, parents and guardians caring for children and spouses caring for … Read More
February 29, 2024
(CBS News) – The hospital where Rashid gave birth, St. Elizabeth’s, is one of dozens of hospitals across the U.S. acquired in the past 15 years by a company called Steward Health Care. With hundreds of millions of dollars in … Read More
February 29, 2024
(CBS News) – Proposed “personhood” laws getting a closer look after Alabama’s IVF ruling could vastly complicate reproductive care in some states that require insurance coverage of fertility treatments and drugs, by setting up potentially clashing mandates on what to … Read More
February 26, 2024
(ProPublica) – The report found that among people getting health care benefits through the Department of Veterans Affairs, the rate of severe complications nearly doubled during that time, from about 93 per 10,000 hospitalizations in 2011 to just over 184 … Read More
February 22, 2024
(Wall Street Journal) – What happens if you have to go off weight-loss drugs? It’s a growing concern for the millions of Americans taking medications including Wegovy, Zepbound or Ozempic. Employer-health plans are tightening requirements or dropping coverage. And manufacturers’ … Read More
February 22, 2024
(NPR) – Ratcliff, a quadriplegic who uses a ventilator, has lived at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist since she was 13. She wants to leave, too. But not to the nursing home the hospital found for her in another state. … Read More
February 22, 2024
(PBS) – Fewer than 5 percent of adult patients with cancer enroll in a clinical trial, according to a 2019 study by the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Many must seek out treatments that may be far away, creating financial … Read More
February 21, 2024
(Wall Street Journal) – Across the U.S., parents are spending weeks and even months searching—at times without success—for Beyfortus, a new monoclonal antibody that promises to reduce drastically infants’ chances of serious illness from RSV. A bumpy rollout of the … Read More
February 20, 2024
(Wall Street Journal) – A growing number of physicians say the value of a yearly physical depends in part on your age and health history, and that some young, healthy patients can afford to skip it. Some studies have suggested … Read More
February 19, 2024
(BBC) – Patients are facing delays stuck on hidden waiting lists that do not show up in the official figures in England, a BBC News investigation reveals. The published waiting list stands at 7.6 million – but the true scale … Read More
February 12, 2024
The Journal of Medicine & Philosophy (vol. 49, no. 1, 2024) is available online by subscription only. Articles include: “Phenomenological Interview and Gender Dysphoria: A Third Pathway for Diagnosis and Treatment” by Geoffrey Dierckxsens and Teresa R Baron “Patient Expertise … Read More
February 9, 2024
The New England Journal of Medicine (vol. 390, no. 3, 2024) is available online by subscription only. Articles include: “Fundamentals of Medical Ethics: Responding to Medical Errors — Implementing the Modern Ethical Paradigm” by T.H. Gallagher and A. Kachalia “Looking … Read More
February 8, 2024
(New York Times) – New York City has poured tens of millions of dollars into a program to treat severely mentally ill people on the streets and in the subways for nearly a decade without ensuring that it was operating … Read More
February 7, 2024
(The Atlantic) – Already, seniors make up 26.6 percent of the people who have been prescribed these and other GLP-1 agonists, including Ozempic, since 2018, according to a report from Truveta, which draws data from a large network of health-care … Read More