KFF Health News: America’s Health System Isn’t Ready for the Surge of Seniors With Disabilities
The number of older adults with disabilities — difficulty with walking, seeing, hearing, memory, cognition, or performing daily tasks such as bathing or using the bathroom — will soar in the decades ahead, as baby boomers enter their 70s, 80s, and 90s.
But the health care ... Read more
KFF Health News: Deep Flaws in FDA Oversight of Medical Devices, and Patient Harm, Exposed in Lawsuits and Records
Living with diabetes, Carlton “PeeWee” Gautney Jr. relied on a digital device about the size of a deck of playing cards to pump insulin into his bloodstream.
The pump, manufactured by device maker Medtronic, connected plastic tubing to an insulin reservoir, which Gautney s... Read more
KFF Health News: Extra Fees Drive Assisted Living Profits
Assisted living centers have become an appealing retirement option for hundreds of thousands of boomers who can no longer live independently, promising a cheerful alternative to the institutional feel of a nursing home.
But their cost is so crushingly high that most Americans ... Read more
KFF Health News: Save Billions or Stick With Humira? Drug Brokers Steer Americans to the Costly Choice
Tennessee last year spent $48 million on a single drug, Humira — about $62,000 for each of the 775 patients who were covered by its employee health insurance program and receiving the treatment. So when nine Humira knockoffs, known as biosimilars, hit the market for as little a... Read more
Government Watchdogs Attack Medicare Advantage for Denying Care and Overcharging
Congress should crack down on Medicare Advantage health plans for seniors that sometimes deny patients vital medical care while overcharging the government billions of dollars every year, government watchdogs told a House panel Tuesday.
Witnesses sharply criticized the fast-gr... Read more
Apple, Bose and Others Pump Up the Volume on Hearing Aid Options, Filling Void Left by FDA
Spurred by decades of complaints about the high cost of hearing aids, Congress passed a law in 2017 to allow over-the-counter sales, with hopes it would boost competition and lower prices.
Four years later, federal regulators have yet to issue rules to implement the law. B... Read more
Members of Congress Suggest Expanding Medicare Telehealth Options
Early on in the pandemic, the federal government expanded telehealth services covered under traditional Medicare on a temporary, emergency basis. Before, only patients who lived in rural areas could access telehealth options from certain providers and under certain conditions. Mo... Read more
Hearing Exposes Greed of Drug Corporation AbbVie
According to a study released on May 18 by the U.S. House Oversight and Reform Committee, the pharmaceutical corporation AbbVie has raised prices 470% in the United States for its widely used drugs Humira and Imbruvica over the past two decades. The price increases boosted the co... Read more