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Doctors and Patients Try to Shame Insurers Online to Reverse Prior Authorization Denials
Sally Nix was furious when her health insurance company refused to pay for the infusions she needs to ease her chronic pain and fatigue.
Nix has struggled with a combination of autoimmune diseases since 2011. Brain and spinal…
Naming Suicide in Obits Was Once Taboo. Changing That Can Help Loved Ones Grieve.
When Deborah and Warren Blum’s 16-year-old died by suicide in November 2021, they went into shock. For two days, the grief-stricken Los Angeles couple didn’t sleep.
But when it came time to write a death notice, Deborah Blum…
The Painful Pandemic Lessons Mandy Cohen Carries to the CDC
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — As covid-19 devastated communities across the nation in spring 2020, a group of Black ministers in this racially divided city made an urgent plea for more testing in their neighborhoods.
Testing at the time…
Few Firm Beliefs and Low Trust: Americans Not Sure What’s True in Age of Health Misinformation
Around 3 in 10 Americans still believe ivermectin is an effective treatment for covid. What’s more, few place significant trust in any form of news media or official institution to accurately convey information about health…
Doctors Advocate Fresh Efforts to Combat Chagas Disease, a Silent Killer
When Maira Gutiérrez was diagnosed with Chagas disease in 1997, neither she nor her primary care physician had even heard of the malady. She discovered her illness only by chance, after participating in a Red Cross blood drive…
Médicos abogan por nuevos esfuerzos para combatir al Chagas, un asesino silencioso
Cuando a Maira Gutiérrez le diagnosticaron Chagas en 1997, ni ella ni su médico de cabecera habían escuchado sobre la enfermedad. La descubrió por casualidad, después de participar en una campaña de donación de sangre de la Cruz…
Life in a Rural ‘Ambulance Desert’ Means Sometimes Help Isn’t on the Way
CARROLLTON, Ala. — Annie Jackson can’t know whether her sister Grena Prude might have survived had an ambulance been more readily available when she went into cardiac arrest on May 10. But Jackson is convinced her sister would…
The CDC Works to Overhaul Lab Operations After Covid Test Flop
In early February 2020, Kirsten St. George and her team at New York state’s public health lab received a test developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to diagnose people infected with the new, rapidly spreading…
Tribal Health Workers Aren’t Paid Like Their Peers. See Why Nevada Changed That.
FALLON, Nev. — Linda Noneo turned up the heat in her van to ward off the early-morning chill that persists in northern Nevada’s high desert even in late June. As the first rays of daylight broke over a Christian cross on the top…
A Peek at Big Pharma’s Playbook That Leaves Many Americans Unable to Afford Their Drugs
America’s pharmaceutical giants are suing this summer to block the federal government’s first effort at drug price regulation.
Last year’s Inflation Reduction Act included what on its face seems a modest proposal: The federal…