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No local hospital and anemic ambulance services mean residents in rural Pickens County, Alabama, are thrown into perilous situations when they have medical emergencies. It鈥檚 a kind of medical care roulette that has become a fact of life for rural Americans who live in ambulance deserts.
In early 2020, U.S. public health labs received covid-19 tests from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that were flawed, as a result of poor design and contamination. Now the CDC is overhauling its lab operations, but efforts to be better prepared for future threats won鈥檛 be easy, observers say.
Florida鈥檚 new immigration law requires hospitals to ask patients about their immigration status at admission and in emergency rooms, and report that information plus the cost of care for residents without legal status. Doctors and nurses who oppose the policy seem reluctant to criticize lawmakers for fear of political retribution.
An analysis of court records by the state treasurer and Duke researchers finds Atrium Health, originally a public hospital system, accounted for almost a third of the legal actions against North Carolina patients over roughly five years.
Federal officials are trying to clamp down on private arrangements among some hospitals to pay themselves back for the Medicaid taxes they鈥檝e paid. State health officials and the influential hospital industry argue that regulators have no jurisdiction over the agreements.
A Tulsa-based gas station chain is using its knowledge of how to serve customers and locate shops in easy-to-find spots to enter the urgent care industry, which has doubled in size over the past decade. Experts question how the explosion of convenient clinics will affect care costs and wait times.
The day-to-day struggles that parents of kids with mental health conditions must navigate have led to their own crisis: The stress can take a physical toll that disrupts parents鈥 ability to provide care, say psychologists, researchers, and advocates for families.
Patient advocates are tackling the 鈥渙verwhelming task鈥 of connecting people with health insurance as millions lose coverage due to the end of pandemic protections on Medicaid eligibility.
Within two years of North Carolina鈥檚 public university system going into business with AccessOne to finance patients鈥 payment plans, nearly half of its patients were in loans that charged interest. As federal scrutiny increases on lenders, 51视频 Health News is sharing that contract and others obtained through public records requests.
Stark, plaintive testimony from women denied abortion care represents the start of 鈥渢he 50-year fight to get rid of Dobbs,鈥 one historian says.
With millions of Americans suffering under relentless heat waves this summer, more people are seeking medical attention for heat-related illnesses. As temperatures get more extreme, hospitals, fire departments, and ambulance crews are preparing to treat more patients for heat exhaustion and heatstroke.
As drought and climate change threaten water supplies, municipalities around the country are ramping up water reuse efforts. But they have to overcome the 鈥測uk鈥 factor.
Social and economic pressures have long compelled Black girls and women to straighten their hair. But mounting evidence shows chemical straighteners 鈥 products with little regulatory oversight 鈥 may pose cancer and other health risks.
Consumers should know that this type of fraud can happen, whether from a large-scale breach or theft of an individual鈥檚 data. The result could be thousands of dollars in medical bills.
Florida鈥檚 six-week abortion law allows exemptions in cases of rape, incest, and human trafficking, and to save the health or life of the mother. But the recent history of such exemptions in other states suggests that very few women will be able to take advantage of them.
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.
As much of the U.S. faces extremely high summer temperatures, Texas鈥 Republican governor, Greg Abbott, has taken steps that effectively eliminate mandated water breaks for construction workers. In response, protesters from the Lone Star State came to Washington, D.C., to press for federal protections for such outdoor workers.
Although nearly 40% of Americans 60 and older are obese, Medicare doesn鈥檛 cover weight loss medications. Meanwhile, studies haven鈥檛 thoroughly examined new drugs鈥 impact on older adults.
It鈥檚 been the summer of broken weather records around the world 鈥 for heat, rain, and wildfire smoke 鈥 advertising the risks of climate change in a big way. But, apparently, it鈥檚 not enough to break the logjam in Washington over how to address the growing climate crisis. Meanwhile, in Texas, women who were unable to get care for pregnancy complications took their stories to court, and Congress gears up to 鈥 maybe 鈥 do something about prescription drug prices. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Shefali Luthra of The 19th, and Rachel Cohrs of Stat join Julie Rovner, 51视频 Health News鈥 chief Washington correspondent, to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews Meena Seshamani, the top administrator for the federal Medicare program.
As politicians bash privately run hospitals for their aggressive debt collection tactics, consumer advocates say one North Carolina family鈥檚 six-figure medical bill is an example of how state attorneys general and state-operated hospitals also can harm patients financially.
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