Private equity investors, with their focus on buying cheap and reaping quick returns, are moving voraciously into the U.S. health care system; investments increased twentyfold from 2000 to 2018, and have only accelerated since. Financially distressed rural hospitals are targets, putting vulnerable communities at the mercy of firms whose North Star is profit, rather than patient health.
About 1 in 5 women have trouble getting pregnant, and IVF has become a common path to parenthood for many. But even as demand grows, insurance coverage remains limited.
Canada has a proud history of achievement in the areas of science and technology, and the field of biomanufacturing and life sciences is no exception.
Startup experts and clinicians working on the front lines of the drug and overdose epidemic doubt the flashy Silicon Valley technology will ever reach people in the throes of addiction who are unstably housed, financially challenged, and on the wrong side of the digital divide.
When Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said March 13 that all Americans would need a second booster shot, it struck many covid experts as a self-serving remark without scientific merit. It also set off spasms of doubt over the country’s objectives in its fight against the coronavirus. The decision on how often and widely to vaccinate […]
The Cuthbert hospital in Georgia was one of 19 rural hospitals in the U.S. that closed in 2020. That’s the largest number of such facilities to shut down in a single year since 2005.
Seeking greater respect for their profession, physician assistants are pushing to rebrand themselves as “physician associates.” Meanwhile rechristening the P.A. name has spiked the blood pressures of physicians.
California's Senate Bill 221, which passed the state legislature with a nearly unanimous vote, requires health insurers across the state to reduce wait times for mental health care to no more than 10 business days.
A California law signed Oct. 8 by Gov. Gavin Newsom requires that mental health and substance abuse patients be offered return appointments no more than 10 days after a previous session, unless their provider OKs less frequent visits.
William Stork needs a tooth out. That’s what the 71-year-old retired truck driver’s dentist told him during a recent checkup. That kind of extraction requires an oral surgeon, which could cost him around $1,000 because, like most seniors, Stork does not have dental insurance, and Medicare won’t cover his dental bills. Between Social Security and […]
Contributions covering the first half of this year show that some of its biggest donations were delivered with surgical-strike precision to sympathetic or moderate Democratic lawmakers the industry needs to remain in its corner.
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
Hospitals have to pay handsomely to get that temporary help, and those higher wages are tempting some staff nurses to hit the road, too.
Large majorities regardless of party identification and age found the following argument convincing: “Those in favor say negotiation is needed because Americans pay higher prices than people in other countries, many can’t afford their prescriptions, and drug company profits are too high.”
Pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, suspended in-person audits because of covid last year, shifting to virtual audits, much as in-person doctor visits shifted to telehealth. Amid added pandemic pressure, that means pharmacists are bearing significantly more workload for the audits.
If Wilmington’s self-sufficient medical center cannot stand alone, can any public hospital avoid being subsumed into the large systems that economists say are helping propel the cost of American health care ever upward?
At the last minute, President Donald Trump granted pardons to several individuals convicted in huge Medicare swindles that prosecutors alleged often harmed or endangered elderly and infirm patients while fleecing taxpayers.
