Category
Complaints about hospital food are certainly not new, and Jell-O and fruit juice are often the butt of related jokes. But the Trump administration has recently upped the ante. It is urging the public to report hospitals and nursing homes that serve sugary drinks, nutrition shakes, or meals that it says don’t meet dietary guidelines established last year by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, with officials vowing…
If you or someone you know may be experiencing a mental health crisis, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by dialing or texting “988.” Someone in America dies by suicide every 11 minutes. It’s that common. But that doesn’t make it normal. Humans have evolved over centuries to survive. So when people try to kill themselves, something has gone wrong. Typically, the assumption is that something happened in…
Hundreds of foreign doctors about to complete training in the U.S. will have to leave the country if the federal government doesn’t rapidly process their visa waiver applications, which have been languishing since the fall and winter, immigration attorneys say. Use Our Content It can be republished for free. The waiver program, run by the Department of Health and Human Services, allows physicians who aren’t U.S.…
The Host Republicans and Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee had strong words for hospital CEOs about their prices at a hearing this week. But it remains unclear whether they will follow up their words with actions to force prices down. Meanwhile, in a rare bit of positive health policy news, a study of the first two years of the new 988 suicide prevention hotline shows it reduced suicides among young…
Use Our Content It can be republished for free. State officials remain uncertain on how to enforce a requirement that many adult Medicaid enrollees show they’re working — even as one state launches its program this week — and they’re taking a variety of approaches to the job, including, in a handful of states, using artificial intelligence. A KFF survey of Medicaid officials from 42 states and the District of…
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations Tuesday, Apr 28 2026 Full Issue At least three pharma firms — Novartis, Amgen, and Eli Lilly — say they're closer to unraveling the mystery of lipoprotein(a), which is a more dangerous cousin to LDL cholesterol. Diet and exercise don't influence lp(a) levels, CNBC reported, and there is currently no medication for it. CNBC: Lp(A) Drugs From…
Silvana Toska was playing in a grass field with her daughters late last fall when she felt a sting on her ankle. The family had come to listen for barred and great horned owls as the sun set on a large park near their Davidson, North Carolina, home. It was “just like a mosquito bite, nothing major, and I just scratched it,” said Toska, a political science professor. Then she began to itch everywhere. She couldn’t…
Tory Starr is worried about the people who get medical care at Open Door Community Health Centers along California’s North Coast. “They’re the folks that work at restaurants. They’re the teacher’s aides,” said Starr, a registered nurse who became Open Door’s chief executive more than six years ago. Those patients, he said, are “really the heart and soul of rural America.” He said if his remote health centers…
How often do hospitals, physicians, and other providers sue patients over unpaid bills? That’s a question we’ve asked a lot over the last several years at KFF Health News. Since 2022, we’ve been working with newsrooms around the country, such as the Connecticut Mirror, to explore the scale and impact of America’s medical debt crisis. It’s part of a project we call “Diagnosis: Debt.” We know that this type of debt…
In the last months, weeks, and days of his life, “I will not go to the emergency room” became my husband’s mantra. Andrej had esophageal cancer that had spread throughout his body (but not to his ever-willful brain), and, having trained as a doctor, I had jury-rigged a hospital at home, aided by specialists who got me pills to boost blood pressure; to dampen the effects of liver failure; to stem his cough; to…
In this “How Would You Fix It?” interview, Julie Rovner, KFF Health News’ chief Washington correspondent and host of the What the Health? podcast, sat down with David Blumenthal — a physician, health policy expert, former Obama administration official, and author — to explore the dynamics that make fixing the nation’s health care system so difficult. They discussed the pivotal role the president of the United…
After decades of selling insurance, Illinois-based broker John Jaggi had never seen anything like it. More than 80 of his customers who were enrolled in the same Medicare supplemental plan from the insurer Chubb got hit last August with a 45% increase. “In my 49 years of doing biz as a broker, I’ve never seen a premium increase be effective immediately on everyone, instead of on their policy anniversary,” said…
By the time she was hospitalized in 2020, Pearlene Darby, a retired teacher, had suffered open sores on both legs, both hips, and both heels, as well as a five-inch-long gash on her tailbone. She died two weeks later at age 81 from infections and bedsores, according to her death certificate. Her daughter sued the nursing home, alleging it had left Darby sitting in her own feces and urine time and again. The…
Democratic lawmakers are demanding that the Trump administration halt plans to collect sensitive medical records for millions of federal workers and retirees, as well as their family members. The Office of Personnel Management has asked 65 insurance companies to provide monthly reports with detailed medical and pharmaceutical claims data of more than 8 million people enrolled in federal health plans, KFF Health…
Noam N. Levey and Katy Golvala and Jenna Carlesso, CT Mirror BRISTOL, Conn. — Many hospital systems in Connecticut have stopped suing their patients over unpaid bills, stung by criticism about the harm caused by aggressive collection tactics. But physicians, dentists, ambulance companies, and other health care providers are still taking their patients to court, a Connecticut Mirror-KFF Health News investigation…
Dan Weissmann Depending on whom you ask, Alfred Engelberg could be a hero or a villain in the story of American pharmaceuticals. The patent lawyer helped write legislation that led to a dramatic increase in the number of generic drugs on the market. He also contributed to a patent system that gives pharmaceutical companies monopolies on their most lucrative drugs, blocking generic competition and keeping prices…
Vince Lahey, de Carefree, Arizona, utiliza con entusiasmo los chatbots. Desde los productos de grandes empresas tecnológicas hasta los más “sospechosos”, le ofrecen “alguien con quien puedo compartir más secretos que con mi terapeuta”. Le gustan especialmente las aplicaciones para recibir comentarios y apoyo, aunque a veces lo regañan o hacen que se pelee con su ex esposa. “Me dan ganas de compartir más”, dijo…
If you or someone you know may be experiencing a mental health crisis, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by dialing or texting “988.” Vince Lahey of Carefree, Arizona, embraces chatbots. From Big Tech products to “shady” ones, they offer “someone that I could share more secrets with than my therapist.” He especially likes the apps for feedback and support, even though sometimes they berate him or lead him…
By Lauren Sausser April 17, 2026 Article HTML Lauren Sausser LISTEN: Quashing innovation or risking a patient’s health? Lauren Sausser told WAMU’s Health Hub on April 15 why the White House and some states are at odds over how to regulate AI in health care. Speed, efficiency, and lower costs. Those are the traits artificial intelligence supporters celebrate. But the same qualities worry physicians who fear the…
Millions of people who apply for Medicaid in the coming years will have to prove they’ve been working, going to school, or volunteering for at least a month before they can gain or retain health insurance through the government program. But Republican lawmakers in some states think the new rules — part of the GOP’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed last July by President Donald Trump — don’t go far enough.…
For months, a cloud of fear has hovered over the immigrant community in San Bernardino, California, making it hard for María González to do her job as a community health worker in this city where almost a quarter of residents are foreign-born. It started building over the summer, fed by news of immigration raids across Southern California, Trump administration plans to share Medicaid data with Immigration and…
Cuando los subsidios federales mejorados expiraron a fines de 2025, muchas personas que compraban su propio seguro de salud en los mercados estatales y federales vieron aumentar sus primas mensuales. Para reducir costos, muchos cambiaron a planes de salud con deducibles altos. Estos planes ofrecen pagos mensuales más bajos, pero los pacientes pueden enfrentar gastos altos de su propio bolsillo cuando necesitan…
El accidente ocurrió en Pittsburgh el 16 de noviembre. Joseph Masterson, un abogado que estaba a pocos días de jubilarse a los 63 años, sufrió un paro cardíaco mientras conducía: chocó contra una barrera de contención y perdió el conocimiento. Otros conductores se detuvieron, rompieron la ventana del auto y lo llevaron a un lugar seguro. Un bombero voluntario que pasaba por allí le practicó reanimación…
Jackie Fortiér and Oona Zenda Ilustrations by Oona Zenda An elementary school teacher chose a low-price health insurance plan but soon realized she wasn’t clear about what it would mean for her family’s finances. “Once I got the insurance card, I compared our old plan to our new plan, and that’s when I really got worried, because I didn’t really understand what a deductible was. It got me thinking, how do I use…