New studies reveal that getting corticosteroid injections to relieve the pain of arthritis might actually cause your arthritis to worsen. NBC news reports on two small studies which found that people...
Diane Archer
Surgery comes with life-threatening risks for older adults
Almost 14 percent of older adults die soon after receiving major surgery. They face life-threatening risks from surgery, according to a new study. Judith Graham reports for Kaiser Health News on the...
DiRx cuts out Rx middlemen to lower costs
Why should insurers be involved in people’s purchase of prescription drugs? Allison Bell writes for Think Advisor about Satish Srinivasan, whose company eliminates insurers and PBMs from...
Congress should lift debt ceiling, protect against Republican...
In an op-ed for The Hill, Nancy Altman, Chair of Social Security Works, speaks to the Democrats’ need to lift the debt ceiling during the lame duck session of Congress. If they don’t, the...
Medical debt is a profit center for banks and private equity
Noam N. Levey and Aneri Pattani report for Kaiser Health News on how people’s medical debt has become a profit center for banks and private equity firms. Banks and private equity firms now...
Prescription drug middlemen, PBMs, will always drive up drug...
There’s a move afoot in Congress to do something about prescription drug middlemen—Pharmacy Benefit Managers (“PBMs”). But, whatever the fix, it won’t bring down drug prices. Here’s a...
CMS overpays Medicare Advantage plans and lets them keep the...
CMS last audited Medicare Advantage plans nine years ago, in 2013, and found millions of overpayments in just a small sampling of Medicare Advantage plans. But, instead of continuing and expanding...
The benefits of eating cooked vegetables
When I was growing up, my mother always taught me that vegetables lost their nutrients when cooked. Little did she know. Hannah Seo reports for the New York Times on the array of vegetables that are...
Pharma pours money into telehealth
One upside of the Covid-19 pandemic is that it has become much easier to see a doctor, if you’re willing to go online. Medicare and many insurers will cover your care without an in person...
Colorado legalizes medicinal psychedelics
Olivia Goldhill writes for Stat NewsStat News on Colorado’s legalization of psychedelics, otherwise known as “magic mushrooms,” in a ballot measure that passed last week with more than 52...