The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
Doctors, patients, and hospitals have railed for years about the prior authorization processes that health insurers use to decide whether they鈥檒l pay for patients鈥 drugs or medical procedures. The Biden administration announced a crackdown in January, but some state lawmakers are looking to go further.
Resorting to crowdfunding to pay medical bills has become so routine, in some cases health professionals recommend it.
Recently, thousands of older Americans have been dying weekly of covid. But most Americans aren鈥檛 wearing masks in public, a move that could prevent infections. Many at-risk seniors aren鈥檛 getting antiviral therapies, and older adults in nursing homes aren鈥檛 getting vaccines. Why?
For the first time, a jury has convicted a parent of a school shooter of charges related to the child鈥檚 crime, finding a mother in Michigan guilty of involuntary manslaughter and possibly opening a new legal avenue for gun control advocates. Meanwhile, as the Supreme Court prepares to hear a case challenging the FDA鈥檚 approval of the abortion drug mifepristone, a medical publisher has retracted some of the journal studies that lower-court judges relied on in their decisions. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet, and Rachana Pradhan of 51视频 Health News join 51视频 Health News鈥 Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Plus, for 鈥渆xtra credit,鈥 the panelists suggest health policy stories they read this week that they think you should read, too.
The FDA鈥檚 recent notice that it would move to ban formaldehyde in hair-straightening products comes more than a decade after researchers raised alarms about health risks. Scientists say a ban would still leave many dangerous chemicals in hair straighteners.
Cities are experimenting with new ways to meet the rapidly increasing demand for behavioral health crisis intervention, at a time when incidents of police shooting and killing people in mental health crisis have become painfully familiar.
Advocates say two bills under consideration could help migrant communities but that more needs to be done.
While more Medicaid beneficiaries have been purged in the span of a year than ever before, enrollment is on track to settle at pre-pandemic levels.
States are using their Medicaid programs to offer poor and sick people housing services, such as paying six months鈥 rent or helping hunt for apartments. The trend comes in response to a growing homelessness epidemic, but experts caution this may not be the best use of limited health care money.
Three leading California officials who represented the state at the United Nations climate talks late last year reflect on climate change鈥檚 growing threat to human health 鈥 and explain what the state is trying to do about it.
Facts don鈥檛 support claims by a likely Republican Senate candidate that a federal research laboratory in Montana infected bats with a coronavirus from China before the covid-19 outbreak.
51视频 Health News and California Healthline staff made the rounds on national and local media this week to discuss their stories. Here鈥檚 a collection of their appearances.
A response is ramping up to a potential spillover of the neurological disease to humans from deer, elk, and other animals.
A soon-to-be-finalized legal settlement would offer transgender women in Colorado prisons new housing options, including a pipeline to the Denver Women鈥檚 Correctional Facility. The change comes amid a growing number of lawsuits across the country aimed at improving health care access and safety for incarcerated trans people.
As science skepticism pervades politics, the Supreme Court will soon consider two cases that seek to define the power of 鈥渆xperts.鈥 Meanwhile, abortion opponents are laying out plans for how Donald Trump, if reelected as president, could effectively curtail abortion even in states where it remains legal. Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Call, Joanne Kenen of Johns Hopkins University and Politico Magazine, and Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet join 51视频 Health News鈥 Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews Samantha Liss, who reported and wrote the latest 51视频 Health News-NPR 鈥淏ill of the Month鈥 feature about a husband and wife who got billed for preventive care that should have been fully covered.
