At Stake in Mifepristone Case: Abortion, FDA’s Authority, and Return to 1873 Obscenity Law Sarah Varney Lawyers from the conservative Christian group that won the case to overturn Roe v. Wade are returning to the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday in pursuit of an urgent priority: shutting down access to abortion pills for women […]

  A Mom’s $97,000 Question: How Was Her Baby’s Air-Ambulance Ride Not Medically Necessary? Molly Castle Work Sara England was putting together Ghostbusters costumes for Halloween when she noticed her baby wasn’t doing well. Her 3-month-old son, Amari Vaca, had undergone open-heart surgery two months before, so she called his cardiologist, who recommended getting him […]

  California’s Expanded Health Coverage for Immigrants Collides With Medicaid Reviews Jasmine Aguilera, El Tímpano OAKLAND — Medi-Cal health coverage kicked in for Antonio Abundis just when the custodian needed it most. Shortly after Abundis transitioned from limited to full-scope coverage in 2022 under California’s expansion of Medi-Cal to older residents without legal immigration status, […]

  Georgia’s Medicaid Work Requirements Costing Taxpayers Millions Despite Low Enrollment Andy Miller and Renuka Rayasam Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s plan for a conservative alternative to Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion has cost taxpayers at least $26 million so far, with more than 90% going toward administrative and consulting costs rather than medical care for low-income people. […]

  Telehealth Sites Promise Cure for ‘Male Menopause’ Despite FDA Ban on Off-Label Ads Michael Scaturro Online stores sprang up during the covid-19 pandemic’s telehealth boom touting testosterone as a cure-all for men’s age-related illnesses — despite FDA rules issued years ago restricting such “low testosterone” advertising. In ads on Google, Facebook, and elsewhere, testosterone […]

  Rapid Rise in Syphilis Hits Native Americans Hardest Cecilia Nowell From her base in Gallup, New Mexico, Melissa Wyaco supervises about two dozen public health nurses who crisscross the sprawling Navajo Nation searching for patients who have tested positive for or been exposed to a disease once nearly eradicated in the U.S.: syphilis. Infection […]

  Amid Mental Health Staffing Crunch, Medi-Cal Patients Help One Another Indira Khera VALLEJO — Three people gathered in a classroom on a recent rainy afternoon listened intently as Derrick Cordero urged them to turn their negative feelings around. “What I’m hearing is that you’re a self-starter,” he told one participant, who had taken up […]

Covid and Medicare Payments Spark Remote Patient Monitoring Boom Phil Galewitz and Holly K. Hacker Billy Abbott, a retired Army medic, wakes at 6 every morning, steps on the bathroom scale, and uses a cuff to take his blood pressure. The devices send those measurements electronically to his doctor in Gulf Shores, Alabama, and a […]

  As More States Target Disavowed ‘Excited Delirium’ Diagnosis, Police Groups Push Back Renuka Rayasam Following a pivotal year in the movement to discard the term “excited delirium,” momentum is building in several states to ban the discredited medical diagnosis from death certificates, law enforcement training, police incident reports, and civil court testimony. In January, […]

  Montana, an Island of Abortion Access, Preps for Consequential Elections and Court Decisions Arielle Zionts https://kffhealthnews.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/montana-abortion-for-KFF.mp3 Abortion remains legal in the conservative stronghold because of a 25-year-old state Supreme Court ruling that protected it under the right to privacy included in the state’s constitution. So far, most efforts by Montana’s Republican governor and GOP-led […]