Category Archives: News

Veteran health journalist Marshall Allen has been exposing health care grifters for years. Now he’s written a book about how to fight them. Host Dan Weissmann spoke with Allen about some of the best tips from “Never Pay the First Bill: And Other Ways to Fight the Health Care System and Win.”

Aduhelm, approved by the Food and Drug Administration last month despite questions about its efficacy, could be prescribed to at least 1 million patients a year, for a price tag of about $56 billion. Experts suggest there might be better ways to spend that money.

Experts say rural communities must find new models to keep emergency services afloat as more 911 calls go unanswered.

The World Health Organization this week updated its guidance on children and covid vaccinations — but in a different way than alleged in a viral social media post.

What’s known as emergency room boarding of psychiatric patients has risen between 200% and 400% monthly in Massachusetts during the pandemic — and the problem is widespread. The CDC says emergency room visits after suicide attempts among teen girls were up 51% earlier this year as compared with 2019.

Long before covid, music therapists used singing and wind instruments to help COPD and asthma patients. These same therapies might help patients recover from covid’s lingering symptoms as well. And though it wasn’t clinical music therapy, singing with an online choir has helped me navigate long covid.

Pressure is mounting on Congress and the Biden administration to make permanent pandemic-inspired rules that fueled telehealth growth. Some fear fraud and ballooning costs.

Besides shared culture and values, a Black physician can offer Black patients a sense of safety, validation and trust. By contrast, the impact of systemic racism can show up starkly in childbirth. Black women are three times as likely to die after giving birth as white women in the United States.

Two medical schools vie to open in Montana, highlighting the rapid spread of for-profit schools and their previously tarnished business model.

California lawmakers are debating a bill that would eliminate out-of-pocket costs that often prevent people from obtaining abortions, proponents say.