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At a camp for kids in Nashville, physical therapists use 鈥渃onstraint-induced movement therapy.鈥 It makes life tougher, temporarily, in hopes of strengthening the campers鈥 ability to navigate the world.
The proportion of money that California hospitals spent on free and discounted care for low-income people dropped by more than half from 2013 to 2017 鈥 even for nonprofit hospitals. Hospitals say there鈥檚 less demand for charity care because more people now have health insurance, but consumer advocates counter that people still need help.
Liberalized sex education policies are being considered in more states, even traditionally conservative ones, as more female lawmakers take office and legislators react to the #MeToo movement.
Medicare beneficiaries under observation care in the hospital can face higher costs for treatment and are not covered for nursing home care when discharged. A federal trial in Hartford, Conn., will determine whether the government鈥檚 ban on appeals involving observation care coverage is fair.
The patient is from Mississippi. The surgeon is from Wisconsin. They meet in a Mexican resort for knee replacement surgery. Because the care costs so much less than in the U.S, the patient鈥檚 health plan pays her $5,000.
Residents in Colorado ski resort country found relief from high insurance premiums and high hospital costs by joining forces and negotiating prices directly with the local hospital.
Veronica Kelley, head of San Bernardino County鈥檚 Department of Behavioral Health, knows firsthand that the mental health effects from mass shootings linger. Nearly four years after her community was devastated by a massacre of 14 people, Kelley has advice for Gilroy, El Paso, Dayton and other communities reeling from recent carnage.
Tennessee’s innovative Medicaid program is offering bonuses to mental health providers who help make sure their Medicaid patients get preventive help and treatment for physical ailments, too.
The recent tragic mass shootings have refocused efforts to treat gun violence as a public health issue rather than strictly a law enforcement problem. Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico and Mary Agnes Carey of Kaiser Health News join KHN鈥檚 Julie Rovner to discuss this, plus the health implications of the budget deal passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump, as well as reaction from Canada to a proposal to allow broader imports of its prescription drugs. Plus, for 鈥渆xtra credit,鈥 the panelists recommend their favorite health stories of the week.
The drug CroFab, which has been on the market since 2000, now faces competition from a drug called Anavip. But both are expensive.
A federal advisory panel says people between ages 27 and 45 may benefit from the vaccine to fight the human papillomavirus. But some public health advocates worry that the advice doesn鈥檛 provide doctors and patients clear guidance about who in this large age group are good candidates for the vaccine.
Obesity prevention does not get much attention in Colorado, often billed as the healthiest state. Yet more than 1 in 4 black or Hispanic residents are obese, as state and federal public health spending fuels other needs.
Amid forecasts for increasingly unhealthy air due to wildfire smoke, residents in Western states are snatching up home air purifiers. With good reason.
A case of questionable logic.
After journalists investigate, Fresenius, one of the largest dialysis providers in the U.S., has agreed to waive a half-million-dollar bill. Sovereign Valentine, from Plains, Mont., said it鈥檚 a 鈥渉uge relief.鈥
KHN鈥檚 Julie Rovner appears on CSPAN鈥檚 Washington Journal Tuesday and compares two key health programs being touted by Democratic presidential candidates: 鈥淢edicare for All鈥 and an optional government health plan, often called a public option.
Studies long have linked urban firefighters鈥 on-the-job exposure to toxins with an increased risk of cancer. More recently, as urban-style development reaches into once remote stretches of California鈥檚 mountains and forests, wildfire crews are exposed to fuels and carcinogens more typical of urban fires. We talk with Tony Stefani of the San Francisco Firefighters Cancer Prevention Foundation about the health risks that poses for firefighters.
So-called red flag laws that let police take guns away from people with mental illness have support from both advocates and opponents of gun control. But it won鈥檛 alleviate gun violence.
Known as 鈥渁uthorized generics,鈥 in-house spinoffs of brand-name drugs quietly undermine the competition.
Kathy Brandt and her wife, Kim Acquaviva, national experts in hospice and palliative care, shared intimate details of Brandt鈥檚 experience with terminal cancer before her death Sunday.
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