2023-10-01 Social Security Overpayments Draw Scrutiny and Outrage From Members of Congress David Hilzenrath and Jodie Fleischer, Cox Media Group Several members of Congress are calling on the Social Security Administration to answer for issuing billions of dollars of payments it says beneficiaries weren’t entitled to receive — and then demanding the money […]

    2023-09-30 What Happens to Health Programs if the Federal Government Shuts Down? Julie Rovner, KFF Health News For the first time since 2019, congressional gridlock is poised to at least temporarily shut down big parts of the federal government — including many health programs. If it happens, some government functions would stop completely […]

    2023-09-29 As Covid Infections Rise, Nursing Homes Are Still Waiting for Vaccines Jordan Rau, KFF Health News and Tony Leys DALLAS CENTER, Iowa — “Covid is not pretty in a nursing home,” said Deb Wityk, a 70-year-old retired massage therapist who lives in one called Spurgeon Manor, in rural Iowa. She twice contracted […]

    2023-09-28 Florida Foster Kids Are Given Powerful Medications, but Feds Find State Oversight Lacking Christopher O’Donnell, Tampa Bay Times The powerful anti-seizure drug the 5-year-old boy had been taking for more than a year made him “almost catatonic,” his new foster mom from Florida’s Pinellas County worried. And there was no paperwork showing […]

    2023-09-27 A Decades-Long Drop in Teen Births Is Slowing, and Advocates Worry a Reversal Is Coming Catherine Sweeney, WPLN NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Cicely Wilson’s work doesn’t end when she leaves her day job as a lactation consultant, doula, and child care expert. Wilson founded a nonprofit called Sunnyside Up Youth Pregnancy Services, which […]

    2023-09-25 Biden Administration to Ban Medical Debt From Americans’ Credit Scores Noam N. Levey The Biden administration announced a major initiative to protect Americans from medical debt on Thursday, outlining plans to develop federal rules barring unpaid medical bills from affecting patients’ credit scores. The regulations, if enacted, would potentially help tens of […]

    2023-09-24 California Officials Seek ‘CARE’ Without Coercion as New Mental Health Courts Launch This Fall April Dembosky, KQED The first time Heidi Sweeney began hallucinating, the voices in her head told her Orange County’s Huntington Beach was where she would be safe. There, behind the bikini-clad crowds playing volleyball and riding beach cruisers, […]

    2023-09-23 As Younger Children Increasingly Die by Suicide, Better Tracking and Prevention Is Sought Cheryl Platzman Weinstock If you or someone you know is in crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741. Jason Lance thought Jan. 21, 2010, was a day like any […]

    2023-09-22 Hep C’s Number Comes Up: Can Biden’s 5-Year Plan Eliminate the Longtime Scourge? Michelle Andrews Rick Jaenisch went through treatment six times before his hepatitis C was cured in 2017. Each time his doctors recommended a different combination of drugs, his insurer denied the initial request before eventually approving it. This sometimes […]

    2023-09-21 How Will Rural Americans Fare During Medicaid Unwinding? Experts Fear They’re on Their Own Jazmin Orozco Rodriguez Abby Madore covers a lot of ground each day at work. A staffer at a community health center in Carson City, Nevada, Madore spends her days helping low-income residents understand their health insurance options, including […]