Kaiser Health News

Medscape News has partnered with Kaiser Health News (KHN) to provide timely, relevant health care policy news on Medscape. KHN is a nonprofit news organization committed to in-depth coverage of healthcare policy and politics. KHN's mission is to provide high-quality coverage of health policy issues and developments at the federal and state levels. In addition, KHN covers trends in the delivery of health care and in the marketplace.

• This Rural County Was a Vaccine Success Story. Not Anymore. Meigs County, Tennessee, reported one of the highest COVID-19 vaccination rates in the South for much of the past year. But those reports were wrong because of a data error.
  Kaiser Health News, May 2022
• Long COVID Symptoms Are Often Overlooked in Seniors Millions of older adults are grappling with long COVID, yet the impact on them has received little attention. Research suggests seniors are more likely to develop the poorly understood condition.
  Kaiser Health News, May 2022
• How Better Ventilation Can Help ‘COVID-Proof’ Your Home Is someone at home sick with COVID-19? One simple but effective strategy for keeping the virus from spreading is to make your indoor air as much like the outdoors' as possible.
  Kaiser Health News, May 2022
• Hospitals Call for More Choice Than Pricey Blood Treatment Method The nation's largest supplier of platelets is moving to a method it says is easier for hospitals, but one that sharply raises costs, leading some centers to demand more options.
  Kaiser Health News, May 2022
• Millions of Federal Dollars Available to Tackle COVID Health Gaps A year ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention awarded states and local health departments $2.25 billion to help people of color and other populations at higher risk from COVID.
  Kaiser Health News, May 2022
• Why Won't More Older Americans Get Their Covid Booster? The numbers dismay researchers, who say the lag has cost tens of thousands of lives.
  Kaiser Health News, May 2022
• Is Paxlovid, the Covid Pill, Reaching Those Who Most Need It? Many public health workers cannot tell whether vulnerable residents are filling prescriptions as often as their wealthier neighbors.
  Kaiser Health News, May 2022
• 1931 State Law Makes Abortion a Felony if 'Roe' Falls Dana Nessel, the Democratic attorney general of Michigan, said she would not have the authority to keep county prosecutors from enforcing the old law.
  Kaiser Health News, May 2022
• Travel Nurses See Change of Fortunes as COVID Money Runs Dry Travel nurse contracts that were plentiful and paid the temporary nurses far more than hospital staff nurses are vanishing. Hospitals nationwide are turning their energies to recruiting full-time people.
  Kaiser Health News, May 2022
• A Guide to Help You Keep Up With the Omicron Subvariants How different are the seemingly endless stream of emerging omicron subvariants from one another and how protected are we?
  Kaiser Health News, May 2022
• What's at Stake in the Mask Mandate Appeal? Dictionaries, public comments, and even an old court case that involved underwear pricing could play a role as the government appeals a ruling that sharply limits federal authority during pandemics.
  Kaiser Health News, May 2022
• Massachusetts Takes Aim at Hospital Building Boom and Costs Other states are looking at whether Massachusetts' decade-old model of controlling health costs is worth emulating.
  Kaiser Health News, May 2022
• Abortion Politics Lead to Power Struggles Over Grants Conservative-leaning states and nonprofit reproductive healthcare providers are competing over control of states' Title X funding for family planning programs.
  Kaiser Health News, May 2022
• City Sees Its Healthcare Downsized as Hospital Awaits Demolition A 124-year-old hospital in a midsize Rust Belt city in Indiana will soon be torn down, despite protests from residents and city officials decrying the loss of local health services.
  Kaiser Health News, May 2022
• Emergency Contraception Marks a New Battle Line in Texas In the shadow of Texas' austere abortion regulations, grassroots organizers employ stealth tactics to help young women get emergency contraception.
  Kaiser Health News, April 2022
• Shopping for Space, Health Systems Make Over Malls Dying malls have turned out to be good places to care for the living. During the pandemic, mall-to-medicine transitions accelerated, with at least 10 health systems moving in where retail has moved out.
  Kaiser Health News, April 2022
• Physicians Are Uneasy as Colorado Collects Providers' Diversity Data Colorado is requiring insurers that offer public option plans to collect demographic data on health providers, including race and sexual orientation. Providers are worried about their privacy.
  Kaiser Health News, April 2022
• Judge's Ruling on CDC Mask Mandate Shows Limits of CDC's Power A recent court decision that overturns one of the CDC's few pandemic rules spotlights how little power remains in federal hands to enforce public health protections.
  Kaiser Health News, April 2022
• Anti-Vaccine Ideology Gains Ground, Lawmakers Seek to End Rules Legislators are pushing bills to expand exemptions for vaccines, allowing religious exemptions for all vaccine requirements in the state's schools without having to provide any proof of their beliefs.
  Kaiser Health News, April 2022
• Is My Drug Copay Coupon a Form of Charity — Or a Bribe? Drug copayment assistance is a form of profitable charity — and, yes, that's an oxymoron. But these programs create a mirage that perpetuates our health care system's reckless spending.
  Kaiser Health News, April 2022

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