The Disasters That Built the FDA and Where We Go From Here
A series of disasters shaped the FDA into what it is today. We need to make sure that this pandemic moves the agency in the right direction. More
Trump’s covid vaccine dilemma: how public skepticism threatens to undermine a possible cure
Public health experts say that while companies may be legally covered, they still have a high degree of interest in showing a vaccine is effective. “For many drugs, trials are oriented to showing efficacy and a minimal level of safety, then our system allows them to be released into the wild, into the marketplace,” said Dr. Vikas Saini, president of the Lown Institute, a nonpartisan think tank in Massachusetts that advocates for health care reform.
If any of the current vaccine trials show high efficacy there could be political pressure to rush it to market to save lives and help return the country to normal. “We desperately need a vaccine. It would be a game-changer,” said Saini.
“So, what we face is a genuine trade off that is now being distorted horrendously by the politics. We may get a signal of efficacy before we get a signal of safety,” said Saini.
That presents a dilemma for whoever is president. "Trying to time good news results around Election Day for political advantage is not a Trump thing or a Biden thing. That’s what politicians do. And it’s been dirty business long before Trump,” Saini said.
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Nonprofit and for-profit hospitals provide similar levels of charity care, study finds
A new study finds that for-profit hospitals are spending the same amount proportionally on charity care as nonprofits. More
Sent Home to Die
In New Orleans, hospitals sent patients infected with the coronavirus into hospice facilities or back to their families to die at home, in some cases discontinuing treatment even as relatives begged them to keep trying. More
Regulatory Decision-making on COVID-19 Vaccines During a Public Health Emergency
Vaccine development and use depend on data-driven assessment of benefits and risks, first by regulatory bodies, and then more subjectively, millions of times over, by individual physicians and patients. More
With Canada and Mexico borders closed, Americans are trapped in their own healthcare system
"For any given individual in the short run, going to Canada is a decent solution, but it's not a systemic solution," says Dr. Vikas Saini, a Harvard-trained cardiologist and president of the Lown Institute, a nonpartisan healthcare think tank. More
The Hospital Industry Is In A Financial Mess: We Have A Unique Opportunity To Fix It
Since the declaration of COVID-19 as a pandemic in early March 2020, there has been a deluge of articles describing its horrible effects on hospital finances. More
CDC was pressured ‘from the top down’ to change coronavirus testing guidance, official says
A sudden change in federal guidelines on coronavirus testing came this week as a result of pressure from the upper ranks of the Trump administration, a federal health official close to the process tells CNN, and a key White House coronavirus task force member was not part of the meeting when the new guidelines were discussed. More
The Hospital Industry Is In A Financial Mess: We Have A Unique Opportunity To Fix It
A new hospital ranking by the Lown Institute finds that some of the biggest, most prestigious medical institutions in the country perform poorly on indicators such as inclusivity (defined in the study as the extent to which they treat patients with low incomes and educational attainment, as well as people of color), delivery of low-value care, and community benefit. More
Prognosis for Rural Hospitals Worsens With Pandemic
As COVID-19 continues to spread, an increasing number of rural communities find themselves without their hospital or on the brink of losing already cash-strapped facilities. More
VIDEO: US News “Best Hospitals” ranking vs the Lown Hospitals Index
In this latest edition of “Lown Hospitals Q&A,” Shannon Brownlee and Vikas Saini discuss why certain hospitals on the top of the US News ranking don't come out on top in the Lown Index. More
Tackling health care consolidation to build a better health system
What has been the impact of hospital consolidation, and what can we do to reverse the harm from health care monopolies? At the second in an Open Markets Institute webinar series, health care experts outlined some of the key steps forward. More
Hospital-acquired infections may be rising as COVID-19 strains workforce
Infection control specialists are being deployed to battle COVID-19, but there are concerns the workforce is being stretched thin and hospital-acquired infections may be rising as a result. More
It’s not just Nabel: Why Boston’s hospital CEOs don’t belong on corporate boards
When nonprofit medicine and nitty-gritty capitalism mix, the potential for financial conflicts abound. More
As Georgia Reopened, Officials Knew of Severe Shortage of PPE for Health Workers
As the coronavirus crisis deepened in April, Georgia officials circulated documents showing that to get through the next month, the state would need millions more masks, gowns and other supplies than it had on hand. More
Trump administration limits FDA review of some coronavirus tests
The policy change has been a major point of tension for weeks between HHS and FDA. More
VIDEO: How much is too much for hospital CEO compensation?
In this latest edition of “Lown Hospitals Q&A,” Shannon Brownlee and Vikas Saini discuss trends in hospital executive pay and explain why the Lown Institute included pay equity as a metric on the Lown Institute Hospitals Index More
Health Experts Warn About Perils of New Virus Data Collection System
An administration shift is putting a burden on hospitals and undercutting the integrity of data on the pandemic, current and former members of a federal advisory panel said. More
Business Is Booming for Dialysis Giant Fresenius. It Took a $137M Bailout Anyway.
Half of the money the Trump administration gave dialysis companies was collected by Fresenius, an international juggernaut with a robust balance sheet, a KHN analysis has found. More
Conflicts running rampant in the Covid era
As our country faces difficult decisions about how to mitigate the pandemic, pharmaceutical companies are wielding their influence through contributions to policymakers, health care administrators, and journalists. More