Court actions by hospitals to collect patient debt dropped sharply during the pandemic. But a new study says some of the nation’s largest hospital systems kept filing lawsuits, liens and garnishments — and most were nonprofit. More
This cross-sectional study assesses compliance within a random sample of hospitals with a federal rule requiring hospitals to disclose the prices they negotiate with insurers. More
Vaccine profits have minted new pandemic billionaires. Only 0.3% of vaccine doses have been given in low-income countries. That's wrong. More
UnitedHealthcare's new policy, which could reject as many as 1 in 10 claims, was labeled as "dangerous" by the American Hospital Association. More
STAT’s findings provide an unprecedented look at drug industry influence in state capitols across the 2020 election cycle. More
Many physicians' bonuses, 73% per data from 2019-2020, are tied to relative value units (RVUs), which measure time, skill and effort for each patient a physician sees. Fewer physician bonuses are tied to quality-of-care measures, or protocols and processes that encourage increased patient safety measures and decreased death rates. More
People don’t trust an industry known for bureaucratic traps and surprise billing to save them from the pandemic. More
Federal immigration officials failed to monitor medical treatment at a South Georgia detention center where dozens of women say they underwent unwanted procedures, including hysterectomies, newly released documents show. More
Attempt to hold a worker criminally liable for the spread of Covid resulted in Josefina Brito-Fernandez losing her license to work, fearing deportation More
Through the years, we’ve learned not to underestimate the lengths to which institutions and individuals will go to protect their bottom lines. We like to think that no bad behavior can surprise us anymore—but then we learn better. Last year, we found a pharmaceutical company seeking the financially advantageous “orphan” drug designation for a drug it said was for a rare disease. The disease was COVID-19.
When we put all the examples of Shkreli-like behavior together, they stop looking like anecdotes and start looking like evidence. That’s the point of the awards: to highlight the structural weaknesses in health care that allow this kind of behavior to occur.
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The government has so far paid Emergent BioSolutions $271 million, even though American regulators have yet to clear a single dose of vaccine produced at its manufacturing plant in Baltimore. More
Some vaccinated at Banner Health sites in Tucson have received $71 bills. Banner says the bills were a mistake and that anyone who paid them can get their money back. More
Insurers and Congress wrote rules to protect coronavirus patients, but the bills came anyway, leaving some mired in debt. More
The pandemic barely dented the financial outlook for some major networks, which continued to acquire weaker hospitals and ailing doctors’ practices. Critics worry consolidation leads to higher prices for medical care. More
One of America's largest hospital chains, Community Health Systems, has filed at least 19,000 lawsuits against patients in the last year, a CNN investigation finds. More
The pandemic stress-tested the way the world produces evidence — and revealed all the flaws. More
This Medical News article is an interview with Mona Hanna-Attisha, MD, MPH, the Flint, Michigan, pediatrician who discovered elevated blood lead levels among children exposed to the city’s drinking water. More
The FDA collaborated with Biogen to conduct repeated re-analyses of aducanumab for Alzheimer's and FDA committee members are raising concerns. More
The quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) attempts to capture the impact of disease. It's a metric worth improving, not discarding. More
CMS has started issuing its first round of warning letters to hospitals not in compliance with the hospital price disclosure rule, a CMS spokesperson confirmed to Becker's May 5. More