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Senate to scrutinize hospitals on low-income patient profits and spending

Jun 19, 2018
This morning, a Senate committee checks in to see how the cuts to the so-called 340b program, which allows hospitals to buy drugs at a discount, are impacting hospitals and patients. Critics say there’s little evidence that hospitals used the savings to help patients. Click the audio player above to hear the full story. 

Exploring the link between housing and health

Jun 13, 2018
Kaiser joins other healthcare organizations investing in affordable housing.
Sidney Bond (left) meets with peer recovery specialist Nathan Thomas at Baltimore's Health Care for the Homeless.
Amy Scott/Marketplace

Patients in a mental health crisis often end up in ERs, which are ill-equipped to help

May 15, 2018
Emergency rooms are often the first places people end up during a mental health crisis. But many ERs aren’t really equipped to help. After they check in, patients can end up staying in emergency rooms for days just waiting for in-patient psychiatric treatment elsewhere. As emergency rooms see a growing number of behavioral health patients, […]

5 ways to treat your allergies on the cheap

May 4, 2018
Because this allergy season is longer and worse than last year.
PHILIPPE HUGUEN/AFP/Getty Images

Some health care firms focus on empathy to keep people healthier

May 2, 2018
One reason for the interest in a more empathetic clinical staff stems from the fact that hospitals and physicians, increasingly, have financial incentives to keep patients out of the hospital.
A nurse tends to recovering patients on a general ward at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital on March 16, 2010 in Birmingham, England.
Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Planning ahead might be key to avoid getting sick on your next trip

Feb 8, 2018
We get a few tips on how to avoid getting sick when you have to travel during this flu season.
ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images

When doctors need to learn "webside" manner

Jan 29, 2018
A New York hospital is introducing telescreens into the emergency room in an effort to save time — and possibly money.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images

For public good, not for profit.

How one sentence helped set off the opioid crisis

Dec 13, 2017
Recently unsealed documents shed light on how the maker of OxyContin seems to have relied more on focus groups than on scientific studies to create an aggressive and misleading marketing campaign that helped fuel the national opioid epidemic.
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Trump declares opioid epidemic a public health crisis but doesn’t add any additional funds

Oct 26, 2017
President Donald Trump has long promised to declare the opioid crisis in America a national emergency, freeing up more federal resources to fight the epidemic. Today turned out to the be the day. At the White House this afternoon, the president directed acting Health Secretary Eric Hargan to declare a public health emergency under the […]

New survey shows the number of adults with no health insurance is on the rise

Oct 20, 2017
Gallup is out with a new survey today. It shows a steady increase in the number of uninsured adults in the U.S. That’s in spite of a fairly healthy economy, and falling unemployment rate. So what’s going on?   Click the audio player above to hear the full story.