The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
Health care and how much it costs is scary. But youre not alone with this stuff, and knowledge is power.
An Arm and a Leg, a podcast about these issues, is co-produced by host Dan Weissmann and 窪蹋勛圖厙 News. Previously, Weissmann was a staff reporter for Marketplace and Chicago’s WBEZ. His work also appears on “All Things Considered,” Marketplace, the BBC, 99% Invisible, and “Reveal” from the Center for Investigative Reporting.
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Most infants in the United States have a hearing screening in their first few days of life. Twenty years ago, before universal newborn screening, many kids missed out on early intervention services that help children with hearing loss access sound and develop spoken language.
Health insurance in Texas didn't cover hearing aids for kids which can cost $6,000 and need to be replaced about every three years. So Stephanie Wittels Wachs teamed up with other moms to lobby the Texas legislature for change, and they won.
A small health center in Goshen, Ind., near the border with Michigan, puts listening to patients stories first. The rest is housekeeping.
Electronic health records can help reduce medical errors, but when not used well they can strain the doctor-patient relationship. Dr. Wei Wei Lee, an internist with the University of Chicago Medicine, has developed strategies to make sure tech is a tool, not a barrier.
Are physicians asking patients the right questions in order to provide good care? Laser-focused on biomedical symptoms, some doctors miss the psychosocial factors that can be a barrier to good health. In Episode 7 of the podcast, we hear about a creative study that uncovers how some medical errors happen.
An estimated 18 million American adults have sleep apnea. The go-to treatment a CPAP machine offers a healthy restful nights sleep, but many people struggle to use it. As many as 50% of patients stop using the device.
Check the fine print. When you get a prescription for expensive medical equipment, you may need to follow the doctors orders to the letter to get your health insurance company to pay up.
Skipping meals. Rationing medicine to make it last. The high cost of insulin has pushed some people with diabetes to make hard choices. Hear about insulins backstory and the hacks that might make it affordable.
Beware at the pharmacy counter: Your insurance company could be in cahoots with a pharmacy benefit manager and the negotiations that go on between them are trade secrets.
Some patient advocates say your doctors notes offer insights you might never hear from your physician, putting patient and provider on the same page.
Doctors routinely order MRIs, but the price patients pay can be unpredictable. Hear how one determined woman scanned her options to find the best deal.
An unexpected hospital bill can bust the family budget. That leaves lots of people with bills they cant pay. Turns out, thats a crisis for hospitals too, and some are getting creative about collecting debt.
Como le ocurri籀 a 矇sta, muchas familias olvidan el pago de una prima y son removidas de sus planes de salud sin recibir un alerta previa o claras notificaciones.
People who buy insurance on their own may have little notice when something goes amiss. Its a quirk in health policy at the heart of the next episode of An Arm and a Leg podcast.
Health care and how much it costs is scary. But you're not alone with this stuff, and knowledge is power. "An Arm and a Leg" is a podcast about these issues, and its second season is co-produced by KHN.
Health care and how much it costs is scary. But youre not alone with this stuff, and knowledge is power. "An Arm and a Leg" is a podcast about all these issues, and its second season, co-produced by Kaiser Health News, starts on June 4.
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