Thousands Got Exactech Knee or Hip Replacements. Then, Patients Say, the Parts Began to Fail.
By Fred Schulte
In a torrent of lawsuits, patients accuse Florida device maker Exactech of hiding knee and hip implant defects for years. The company denies the allegations.
Narcan, Now Available Without a Prescription, Can Still Be Hard to Get
By Jackie Fortiér, LAist and Nicole Leonard, WHYY
Narcan is available without a prescription. Addiction treatment experts hope this move will increase access to the medication, which can reverse opioid overdoses. But hurdles remain: cost and stigma.
Trump Misplaced Blame When He Said Drug Shortages Were Biden’s Fault
By Michelle Andrews
Former President Donald Trump, who’s running for another term in the White House, recently blamed drug shortages on his successor, President Joe Biden. Our findings don’t align with Trump’s claims; by some measures, drug shortages increased more on Trump’s watch than on Biden’s.
KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': An Encore: 3 HHS Secretaries Reveal What the Job Is Really Like
In this special encore episode, KFF Health News’ “What the Health?” asks three people who have served as the nation’s top health official: What does a day in the life of the U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services look like? And how much of their agenda is set by the White House? Taped in June before a live audience at Aspen Ideas: Health, part of the Aspen Ideas Festival, in Aspen, Colorado, host and chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner leads a rare conversation with the current and two former HHS secretaries. Secretary Xavier Becerra and former secretaries Kathleen Sebelius and Alex Azar talk candidly about what it takes to run a department with more than 80,000 employees and a budget larger than those of many countries.
Feds Rein In Use of Predictive Software That Limits Care for Medicare Advantage Patients
By Susan Jaffe
Software sifts through millions of medical records to match patients with similar diagnoses and characteristics and then predicts what kind of care an individual will need and for how long. New federal rules will ensure human experts are part of the process.
Social Security Chief Orders Broad Review of Benefit Overpayments
By David Hilzenrath and Jodie Fleischer, Cox Media Group
In the wake of an investigation by KFF Health News and Cox Media Group, the SSA acting commissioner said a special team will review “overpayment policies and procedures” and report directly back to her.
Mothers of Color Can’t See if Providers Have a History of Mistreatment. Why Not?
By Sarah Kwon
Many women, especially Black women, have reported discrimination in maternity care, but expectant mothers lack tools to see where this happens. Funding and regulations to measure disparities have been slow in arriving, but some innovators are trying to fill the void.
What Mobile Clinics in Dollar General Parking Lots Say About Health Care in Rural America
By Sarah Jane Tribble
Dollar General’s pilot mobile clinic program has been touted by company officials, rural health experts, and analysts as a model that could help solve rural America’s primary care shortage. But its Tennessee launch has been met with local skepticism.
Daily Edition for Monday, October 2, 2023
Note to Readers: California Healthline's Daily Edition will not be published for the rest of this week. It will return to your inbox on Oct. 10. Visit Californiahealthline.org for our latest original reporting.
Police Blame Some Deaths on ‘Excited Delirium.’ ER Docs Consider Pulling Plug on Term.
By Markian Hawryluk and Renuka Rayasam
The American College of Emergency Physicians will vote in early October on whether to disavow its 2009 research paper on excited delirium, which has been cited as a cause of death and used as a legal defense by police officers in several high-profile cases.
