With TV Drug Ads, What You See Is Not Necessarily What You Get
The pharmaceutical industry has invented a new art form: finding ways to make their wares seem like joyous must-have treatments, while often minimizing lackluster efficacy and risks.
En los comerciales de medicamentos en TV, lo que ves no siempre es lo que es
Los anuncios de medicamentos han sido omnipresentes en la televisi贸n desde finales de la d茅cada de 1990 y se han extendido a internet y las redes sociales. Pocas naciones en el mundo los permiten
Turning 26 and Struggling To Find Health Insurance? Tell Us About It.
天天看片 Health News and The New York Times are looking into a dreaded 鈥渁dulting鈥 milestone: finding your own medical insurance at 26.
Why Many Nonprofit (Wink, Wink) Hospitals Are Rolling in Money
Legal maneuvering, industry lobbying, and lax IRS oversight leave lots of room for 鈥渙perating surpluses.鈥
Her Hearing Implant Was Preapproved. Nonetheless, She Got $139,000 Bills for Months.
Even when patients double-check that their care is covered by insurance, health providers often send them bills as they haggle with insurers over reimbursement, which can last for months. It鈥檚 stressful and annoying 鈥 but legal.
Pain Doesn鈥檛 Belong on a Scale of Zero to 10
A popular scale for measuring pain doesn鈥檛 work, but medicine still has no better alternative.
El dolor ya no se puede medir en una escala de cero a 10
Los m茅dicos de hoy tienen una comprensi贸n m谩s completa del tratamiento del dolor, as铆 como de las terribles consecuencias de recetar opioides con liviandad. Lo que est谩n aprendiendo ahora es c贸mo medir mejor el dolor y tratar sus muchas formas.
I Was There When Bird Flu First Appeared. It鈥檚 Different Today.
The H5N1 flu virus and I go way back. In 1997, I watched as more than a million chickens were slaughtered in Hong Kong to combat the first major global outbreak of the disease. Eighteen people were sickened by the virus and six died, all of whom had close contact with the birds. They were […]
Whatever Happened to Biden鈥檚 Public Option?
In the 2020 elections, then-candidate Joe Biden and many of his congressional colleagues loudly advocated for a federal 鈥減ublic option鈥 health insurance plan. It was framed, at the time, as part of his incoming administration鈥檚 response to the pandemic. 鈥淟ow-income Americans will be automatically enrolled in the public option at zero cost to them, though […]
This State Isn鈥檛 Waiting for Biden To Negotiate Drug Prices
As the federal government negotiates with drugmakers to lower the price of 10 expensive drugs for Medicare patients, impatient legislators in some states are trying to go even further. Leading the pack is Colorado, where a new Prescription Drug Affordability Review Board is set to recommend an 鈥渦pper payment limit鈥 for drugs it deems unaffordable. In late […]
Cuando tu cobertura de salud dentro de la red鈥 simplemente se esfuma
los contratos de las aseguradoras con m茅dicos, hospitales y farmac茅uticas (o sus intermediarios, los llamados administradores de beneficios farmac茅uticos) pueden cambiar abruptamente de la noche a la ma帽ana.
How Your In-Network Health Coverage Can Vanish Before You Know It
One of the most unfair aspects of medical insurance is this: Patients can change insurance only during end-of-year enrollment periods or at the time of 鈥渜ualifying life events.鈥 But insurers鈥 contracts with doctors, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies can change abruptly at any time.
The No Surprises Act Comes With Some Surprises
The No Surprises Act, the landmark law intended to protect patients from surprise out-of-network medical bills, has come with, well, some surprises. A little more than two years after it took effect, there鈥檚 good and bad news about how it鈥檚 working. First, it鈥檚 important to note that the law has successfully protected millions of patients […]
GoFundMe, 驴realmente ayuda a pagar facturas m茅dicas?
Incluso defensores de pacientes y personal del 谩rea de ayuda financiera en hospitales recomiendan iniciar una sesi贸n en GoFundMe como una alternativa a terminar con una cuenta en una agencia de cobros.聽
GoFundMe Has Become a Health Care Utility
Resorting to crowdfunding to pay medical bills has become so routine, in some cases health professionals recommend it.
The FTC Is Attacking Drugmakers鈥 鈥楶atent Thickets鈥
It鈥檚 a big job clearing out so-called 鈥減atent thickets鈥 drugmakers create to keep their products鈥 prices high. But the Federal Trade Commission is giving it a shot.
Ouch. That 鈥楩ree鈥 Annual Checkup Might Cost You. Here鈥檚 Why.
The designers of the Affordable Care Act might have assumed that they spelled out with sufficient clarity that millions of Americans would no longer have to pay for certain types of preventive care. But they didn鈥檛 reckon with America鈥檚 ever-creative medical billing juggernaut.
The FTC Escalates Biden鈥檚 Fight Against Drug Prices
It鈥檚 daggers out at the Federal Trade Commission in its fight against anticompetitive practices in health care. This past year, it has issued more stringent guidelines to block and discourage hospital mergers, and it investigated practices by middlemen in the drug supply chain. Now drug manufacturers themselves are in the agency鈥檚 crosshairs. In November, the FTC challenged the validity of more […]
From Hospital to Hospitality: Spin Doctors Brand Getting Sick as an Adventure. It’s Not.
At $1,000 a night for a private room, medical centers are offering fancy food and casting health care as a 鈥渏ourney.鈥 Instead of creature comforts, how about helping us feel better?
What One Expectant Mom鈥檚 Effort To Get an RSV Shot Says About Health Policy
Today we bring you the story of a patient seeking the RSV vaccine 鈥 and how her frustrating journey illustrates why it can be so hard in the United States to get an important medicine recommended by federal regulators. Hannah Fegley of Silver Spring, Md., says she spent seven hours on the phone last month […]
