By April Dembosky, KQED Kaiser Health News When Greta Christina fell into a deep depression five years ago, she called up her therapist in San Francisco. She’d had a great connection with the provider when she needed therapy in the past. She was delighted to learn that he was now “in network” with her insurance company,… Read more
By Harris Meyer Kaiser Health News Medicare’s annual open-enrollment season is here and millions of beneficiaries — prompted by a massive advertising campaign and aided by a detailed federal website — will choose a private Medicare Advantage plan. But those who have instead opted for traditional Medicare face a critical decision about private insurance. Too often… Read more
By Andy Miller, Kaiser Health News Many patients dealing with mental health crises are having to wait several days in an ER until a bed becomes available at one of Georgia’s five state psychiatric hospitals, as public facilities nationwide feel the pinch of the pandemic. “We’re in crisis mode,’’ said Dr. John Sy, an emergency medicine… Read more
By Emily Pisacreta Kaiser Health News What if a law passed but no one enforced it? That’s essentially what has happened with one small but helpful rule about hospitals and financial assistance for medical bills. The Affordable Care Act, the health law also known as Obamacare, requires nonprofit hospitals to make financial assistance available to low-income… Read more
Freedom to buy devices without a fitting or test by a specialist will likely make them cheaper and the market more competitive By Emily Kopp Roll Call The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday took a major step toward bringing down the cost of hearing aids by making them available over the counter. The freedom to buy… Read more
Mackenzie Bean and Gabrielle Masson, Becker’s Hospital Review The healthcare industry’s staffing shortage crisis has had clear consequences for care delivery and efficiency, forcing some health systems to pause nonemergency surgeries or temporarily close facilities. Less understood is how these shortages are affecting care quality and patient safety. A mix of high COVID-19 patient volume… Read more
Patsy Newitt, Becker’s ASC Review The U.S. is expected to reach a shortage of 37,800 to 124,000 physicians by 2034, and more than 2 of 5 active physicians will be older than 65 in the next decade. This impending physician shortage, paired with increasing industry consolidation, has some ASC leaders worried the physician-owned business model of ASCs… Read more
By Mark Kreidler, Kaiser Health News, OCTOBER 4, 2021 Phebe Cox grew up in what might seem an unlikely mental health danger zone for a kid: tony Palo Alto, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley. But behind its façade of family success and wealth, she said, is an environment of crushing pressure on students to… Read more
By Michelle Andrews Kaiser Health News After being laid off from her job as a systems analyst for a specialty chemicals company in December, Gabriela de Pompignan opted to hang on to her former employer’s insurance coverage under the federal law known as COBRA. Typically, laid-off workers pick up the total cost of premiums under COBRA,… Read more
Jackie Drees Kaiser Health News Patient satisfaction from virtual visits with their healthcare providers appears to be comparable to traditional in-person visits, according to a recent study published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research. For the June 2021 study, Cleveland Clinic researchers surveyed 426 adult patients who had virtual visits June 21-July 12, 2017, to… Read more
