Listen: Grieving Families Face the Cruelest Bills
KHN Midwest correspondent Lauren Weber talks with NPR’s “Consider This” podcast about her reporting on families confronted with medical bills while grieving the loss of a baby who received expensive hospital care.
Daily Edition for Friday, September 30, 2022
Newsom Signs Trans Youth Bill, Vetoes Solitary Confinement Bill: Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law Thursday that aims to protect transgender youths from bans against gender-affirming care. But he vetoed a bill that would limit solitary confinement in California’s prisons. Read more from the Los Angeles Times and The Sacramento Bee.
Sports Programs in States in Northern Climes Face a New Opponent: Scorching Septembers
By Aaron Bolton, MTPR
Montana and many other states in the northern U.S. have not updated their policies to keep young athletes safe from heatstroke amid rising temperatures.
Pharma-Funded FDA Gets Drugs Out Faster, But Some Work Only ‘Marginally’ and Most Are Pricey
By Arthur Allen
Since pharmaceutical companies started funding their FDA drug applications 30 years ago, the agency’s reviews have gone much faster — perhaps too fast.
KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: On Government Spending, Congress Decides Not to Decide
Congress has once again decided not to decide how to fund the federal government in time for the start of the fiscal year, racing toward a midnight Sept. 30 deadline to pass a stopgap bill that would keep the lights on for two more months. However, it does appear the FDA’s program that gets drugmakers to help fund some of the agency’s review staff will be renewed in time to stop pink slips from being sent. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Rachel Cohrs of Stat, and Victoria Knight of Axios join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these topics and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews filmmaker Cynthia Lowen, whose new documentary, “Battleground,” explores how anti-abortion forces played the long game to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Daily Edition for Thursday, September 29, 2022
Thursday’s roundup covers covid, Obama’s health care comments, abortion, monkeypox, mental health, drugs, hunger, nutrition, and more.
Centene Agrees to Pay Massachusetts $14 Million Over Medicaid Prescription Claims
By Andy Miller and Samantha Young
Massachusetts is the latest state to settle with St. Louis-based Centene Corp. over allegations that it overcharged Medicaid prescription drug programs.
Turned Away From Urgent Care — And Toward a Big ER Bill
By Sam Whitehead
Russell Cook was expecting a quick and inexpensive visit to an urgent care center for his daughter, Frankie, after she had a car wreck. Instead, they were advised to go to an emergency room and got a much larger bill.
Daily Edition for Wednesday, September 28, 2022
Wednesday’s roundup covers new California abortion and health laws, covid cases and vaccines, Medicare premiums, Alzheimer’s, and more.
