The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
Michelle Andrews is a contributing writer and former columnist for ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø News. She has been writing about health care for more than 15 years. Her work has appeared frequently in The New York Times, where she wrote the Money and Medicine column and contributed regular news and features. Her work has also been published in Money, Fortune Small Business, National Geographic and Women’s Health magazines, among others. Michelle previously worked as a senior writer at U.S. News & World Report and at SmartMoney magazines. She has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin and a master’s in journalism from Columbia University.
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Research on patients with testicular cancer and others fighting a brain malignancy finds that people who are privately insured are more likely to be diagnosed earlier and survive longer.
Doctors are concerned that requiring referrals to genetic counselors can deter women from going forward with testing for genetic mutations that cause breast cancer.
The standardized policy options would provide a way for consumers to make apples-to-apples comparisons.
Most screening tests for colon cancer are covered by insurance but if they come back positive, they may require a diagnostic colonoscopy and that may not be covered completely by insurance.
The report describes steps that states could take to address a number of drug-coverage issues in the commercial insurance market.
Consumer campaigns, hospital rules and some new state laws seek to increase awareness about the lethal disease.
Researchers estimate thousands of children suffer two debilitating eye conditions because they don’t get proper exams while young.
The research finds that many plans don’t make details about what services are not covered readily apparent.
Many expected that the federal health law would push these employers in this direction. An analysis by the Employee Benefit Research Institute finds evidence that these predictions are coming to fruition.
A conversation with author David Barton Smith examines how civil rights activists working at the Social Security Administration and the Public Health Service in the 1960s used the new Medicare law to end racial discrimination at hospitals.
In more than three-quarters of the cases that researchers said might have been preventable, factors at the hospital contributed to the child’s return, according to the researchers.
News reports have led many consumers to blame drugmakers for the rapidly rising costs of some commonly used generic drugs. But changes made by insurers often play a major role, too.
The rate of hospital treatment for mental health conditions or substance abuse problems was four times higher for people with diabetes aged 19 through 25 than for those without the disease.
These facilities are full-service hospitals and offer a full array of emergency services but may have only a handful of beds for admitted patients.
Researchers found that nearly 15 percent of seniors filled prescriptions for an opioid painkiller after leaving the hospital and of those, 42.5 percent had the order refilled later.
Infants born to women covered by Medicaid or CHIP may be automatically eligible for that insurance during their first year, but advocates say confusing rules and bureaucratic problems too often prevent an easy extension of that coverage.
Despite the usual view that physicians are slow to alter their routines based on new scientific evidence, researchers found that breast cancer surgeons quickly adopted advice to not remove lymph nodes after a landmark clinical trial in 2011.
Even as the administration focuses on getting more young adults into marketplace coverage, many enrollment specialists say that this group has some difficulty transitioning from family plans or Medicaid.
Urban Institute researchers examine how such a plan could work and whether it would be better to make payments when people first need care or after they have used up much of their own money instead.
Now that young people up to the age of 26 can stay on their family plan, it can be difficult for them to keep their medical information confidential.
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