A long list of Lynda Hollander’s paternal relatives had heart disease, and several had undergone major surgeries. So when she hit her mid-50s and saw her cholesterol levels creeping up after menopause, she said, “I didn’t want to take a chance.” A cardiologist told Hollander that based on factors like age, sex, cholesterol, and blood…
A little-known federal agency that sends more than $12 billion annually to support community health centers, addiction treatment services, and workforce initiatives for America’s neediest people has been hobbled by the Trump administration’s staffing purges. The cuts are “just a little astonishing,” said Carole Johnson, who previously led the Health Resources and Services Administration. She…
According to a Health Affairs Scholar paper by Geoffrey Joyce out this month, the answer is ‘yes’. He writes: Most PBM contracts tie their compensation to a percentage of a drug’s list price, creating a financial incentive to favor high-cost, high-rebate drugs on plan formularies at the expense of lower-cost generics and biosimilars. Furthermore, the…
The Host Julie Rovner KFF Health News @jrovner @julierovner.bsky.social Read Julie’s stories. Julie Rovner is chief Washington correspondent and host of KFF Health News’ weekly health policy news podcast, “What the Health?” A noted expert on health policy issues, Julie is the author of the critically praised reference book “Health Care Politics and Policy A…
Letters to the Editor is a periodic feature. We welcome all comments and will publish a selection. We edit for length and clarity and require full names. Sounding the Alarm for Ambulances Thank you for shedding much-needed light on the exorbitant costs and lack of reimbursement that have become a harsh reality for many ambulance services across Colorado…
On a recent weekday evening, Ashly Richards helped her 13-year-old son, Case, with homework. He did math problems and some reading, underscoring how much he’s accomplished at his school for children with autism. Richards has heard Trump administration officials suggest that food dyes and pediatric vaccines cause autism and ADHD. That stance, she said, unfairly…
In retrospect, Erica Kahn realizes she made two big mistakes. The first was choosing to temporarily forgo health insurance when she was laid off from her job. The second was screaming when a wild bat later landed on her face. The bizarre encounter happened last August, while the Massachusetts resident was photographing the night sky…
Steve Brown is a genuine digital health OG. Starting with video games for kids with diabetes he eventually turned Health Hero into one of the first disease management companies. It was used in the VA to manage patients at home with CHF, diabetes and more and eventually sold to Bosch. Steve left health care for…
By KIM BELLARD We live on a water world (despite its name being “Earth”). We, like all life on earth, are water creatures, basically just sacks of water. We drink it, in its various forms (plain, sparking, carbonated, sweetened, flavored, even transformed by a mammal into milk). We use it to grow our crops, to…
That is the question that a paper by Wong et al. (2024) aims to answer. FDA use the accelerated approval (AA) pathway to expedite the availability of drugs for serious or life-threatening conditions when a drug demonstrates an effect on a surrogate endpoint that is reasonably likely to predict clinical benefit, or on a clinical…