Health Care
Obamacare work in progress for Appalachian residents in Floyd County, KY
Four months after the Affordable Care Act took effect, a team of journalists from USA Today and The Courier-Journal has found that in Floyd County, Obamacare is a neither a train wreck nor a cure-all. It’s a work in progress; widely misrepresented and misunderstood, it’s helped some people and hurt others, while a handful seem…
Read MoreVeterans languish and die on a VA hospital’s secret list
At least 40 U.S. veterans died waiting for appointments at the Phoenix Veterans Affairs Health Care system, many of whom were placed on a secret waiting list. The secret list was part of an elaborate scheme designed by Veterans Affairs managers in Phoenix who were trying to hide that 1,400 to 1,600 sick veterans were…
Read MoreCalifornia’s $840-million medical prison beset by waste and mismanagement
California’s $840-million medical prison — the largest in the nation — was built to provide care to more than 1,800 inmates. When fully operational, it was supposed to help the state’s prison system emerge from a decade of federal oversight brought on by the persistent neglect and poor medical treatment of inmates. But since opening…
Read MoreVA pays out $200 million for nearly 1,000 veterans’ wrongful deaths
In the decade after 9/11, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs paid $200 million to nearly 1,000 families in wrongful death cases, according to VA data obtained by The Center for Investigative Reporting. In that time, CIR found the agency made wrongful death payments to nearly 1,000 grieving families, ranging from decorated Iraq War veterans…
Read MoreFewer Mississippi physicians accepting Medicaid patients
In the land of the poorest poor, less than half of Mississippi’s primary care physicians are willing to see new Medicaid patients. This contrasts with the nation as a whole, where more than two-thirds of doctors open their doors to new Medicaid patients.
Read MoreOklahoma veteran center doctors have records, substance abuse problems
Veterans centers in Oklahoma routinely hire doctors and other licensed medical personnel with a record of problems to treat the state’s sickest, most vulnerable veterans. Officials with the Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs say money is the culprit, claiming it’s difficult to find suitable applicants with clean records to work at the state’s seven veterans…
Read MoreHealthcare quality for poor varies from state to state
A review of data from the nation’s 306 healthcare markets, as well as interviews with scores of experts and visits to communities from Maine to Hawaii, points to many common features of America’s healthiest places. More people have health insurance. Doctors and hospitals cooperate more closely, ensuring patients get preventive care and don’t fall through…
Read MoreFlorida trauma centers charging patients expensive ‘trauma response fees’
Trauma patients, who have no choice in where the ambulance takes them, are being charged as much as $33,000 the moment they enter a Florida trauma center. That money doesn’t account for X-rays or treatment; it’s just a cover charge, and thousands of patients have been billed more for it than for their actual medical…
Read MoreIn New York, a Heart Surgery Factory With ‘Obscene Levels’ of Pay
Reports of scheduled ER visits raised a concern internally that some cardiologists might be using the emergency department to get the costs of uninsured patients’ procedures covered, according to hospital correspondence. In some cases, the government’s Medicaid program and private insurers will pay for procedures done via an emergency-room visit that wouldn’t be covered otherwise,…
Read MoreArizona ranks in bottom third of states for new born screening requirements
Arizona’s screening now tests for 29 diseases or conditions, including hearing loss. That number places Arizona in the bottom third of states. As of 2011, at least 15 states tested for more than 50 conditions, according to the Save Babies Through Screening Foundation, a national non-profit that advocates for newborn screening.
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