Inside the Pentagon’s Painfully Slow Effort to Clean Up Decades of PFAS Contamination
By Hannah Norman and Patricia Kime
Cost estimates balloon and complications mount as the Defense Department grapples with PFAS pollution at hundreds of its bases and surrounding communities.
The Year in Opioid Settlements: 5 Things You Need to Know
By Aneri Pattani
In the past year, opioid settlement money has gone from an emerging funding stream for which people had lofty but uncertain aspirations to a coveted pot of billions being invested in remediation efforts. Here are some important and evolving factors to watch going forward.
Daily Edition for Wednesday, December 20, 2023
Los Angeles’ Lost Radiation Tool Returned: A potentially hazardous thin layer density gauge that went missing in Littlerock last week is back in the hands of Los Angeles County officials perfectly intact after a nearby resident spotted it and called authorities, a county supervisor said Monday night, Dec. 18. Read more from the Los Angeles Daily News and Los Angeles Times.
A New Test Could Save Arthritis Patients Time, Money, and Pain. But Will It Be Used?
By Arthur Allen
Stories of chronic pain, drug-hopping, and insurance meddling are all too common among patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Precision medicine offers new hope.
‘I Am Just Waiting to Die’: Social Security Clawbacks Drive Some Into Homelessness
By Fred Clasen-Kelly
The Social Security Administration is reclaiming billions of dollars in alleged overpayments from some of the nation’s poorest and most vulnerable, leaving some people homeless or struggling to stay in housing, beneficiaries and advocates say.
Daily Edition for Tuesday, December 19, 2023
Gun laws, social media addiction lawsuit, health worker shortages, medical device safety, Medi-Cal, housing, and more are in the news.
Patients Facing Death Are Opting for a Lifesaving Heart Device — But at What Risk?
By Daniel Chang and Holly K. Hacker
The HeartMate 3 is considered the safest mechanical heart pump of its kind, but a federal database contains more than 4,500 reports in which the medical device may have caused or contributed to a patient’s death.
When a Quick Telehealth Visit Yields Multiple Surprises Beyond a Big Bill
By Darius Tahir
For the patient, it was a quick and inexpensive virtual appointment. Why it cost 10 times what she expected became a mystery.
Social Security Chief Apologizes to Congress for Misleading Testimony on Overpayments
By David Hilzenrath and Jodie Fleischer, Cox Media Group
Acting Commissioner Kilolo Kijakazi sent the letter days after KFF Health News and Cox Media Group reported that the agency has been demanding money back from more than twice as many people as she’d disclosed in October testimony.
