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With U.S. cases skyrocketing, demand for Gilead鈥檚 dark horse antiviral is only growing. Biden appointees propose potential legal tactics to tamp down the price for patients.
Even invoking the widely heralded Defense Production Act to pressure drugmakers wouldn鈥檛 overcome vast obstacles.
In Fort Scott, Kansas, the Community Health Center鈥檚 big green-and-white sign replaced Mercy Hospital鈥檚 name on the front of the town鈥檚 massive medical building. In the final chapter of Season One: 鈥淣o Mercy,鈥 we have an appointment to see what鈥檚 inside.
Meet Josh. He鈥檚 a teenager in Fort Scott, Kansas, who dropped out of high school around the same time the town鈥檚 hospital closed. He says those two things are related.
The hunt for good cancer treatment often means miles on the road, time spent waiting and exhaustion from treatment and transit. 鈥淭he further you have to travel to get care, the less likely that you are going to take that effort to do that,鈥 said Boban Mathew, an oncologist in southeastern Kansas.
Mercy Hospital and the people of Fort Scott, Kansas, have a long, tangled history. To understand what the town lost when the hospital shut its doors, we rewind the story to 1886.
Fort Scott, Kansas, went without an ER for 18 days, after the local hospital shut down. Documenting local trauma during that 鈥渄ark period鈥 helped investigative reporter Sarah Jane Tribble unravel some of the complications that come after a rural hospital closes.
After Mercy Hospital Fort Scott shut its doors, investigative reporter Sarah Jane Tribble traveled to Kansas and spent time with former hospital president Reta Baker and City Manager Dave Martin 鈥 to understand what their town lost.
Listen to 鈥淲here It Hurts,鈥 each episode debuting on Tuesdays, from Sept. 29 through Nov. 10. When Mercy Hospital Fort Scott shut its doors, locals lost care. Health workers lost jobs. The hole left behind is bigger than a hospital. Season One is 鈥淣o Mercy.鈥
A lack of direction from federal administrators is causing confusion for many hospital administrators. Rural hospitals are among the ones hit hardest.
The proposal details a wide-ranging agenda to remedy the gaps in health care and myriad challenges in rural America. In addition to more telehealth options, it includes shifts in hospital payments and expanded funding for school-based mental health programs.
Rural hospitals were already struggling before the coronavirus emerged. Now, the loss of revenue from patients who are afraid to come to the emergency room, postponing doctor鈥檚 appointments and delaying elective surgeries is adding to the pressure.
鈥淟ost on the Frontline鈥 is an ongoing project by Kaiser Health News and The Guardian that aims to document the lives of health care workers in the U.S. who died from COVID 19, and to investigate why so many are victims of the disease.
It鈥檚 been about a year since the hospital in Fort Scott, Kan., closed. The lessons for this community about meeting its residents鈥 health needs could provide insights for the rest of the country.
State regulators and even one medevac company have raised doubts about prepaid subscriptions and promised benefits offered by air ambulance companies.
The loss of the longtime hospital in Fort Scott, Kan., forces trauma patients to deal with changing services and expectations.
As the rural town of Fort Scott, Kan., grapples with the closure of its hospital, cancer patients face new challenges as they try to continue their treatments in different locations.
A proposed adjustment to the wage index, used in setting a hospital鈥檚 Medicare reimbursement payments, could be a lifeline for some rural facilities.
After depending on the local hospital for more than a century, Fort Scott residents now are trying to cope with life without it.
Biologic drugs, made from living organisms, are big moneymakers partly because they have little competition from 鈥渂iosimilars.鈥 It鈥檚 a very different story in Europe.
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