Tag Archives: healthcare

ABC News reports: A small nodule was found in former President Joe Biden’s prostate after “a routine physical exam,” a spokesperson confirmed to ABC News on Tuesday. “In a routine physical exam a small nodule was found in the prostate which necessitated further evaluation,” a spokesperson told ABC News. A “small nodule” can mean a wide range of things and …

US News reports: As part of the 2025 Best States rankings, U.S. News evaluated adult obesity rates for all 50 states based on self-reported survey data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, a partnership between the CDC and state health departments. Thirty-nine states with data available for 2023 posted age-adjusted obesity rates of 30% or more, with three hitting …

The Washington Post reports: The U.S. DOGE Service is putting new curbs on billions of dollars in federal health-care grants, requiring government officials to manually review and approve previously routine payments — and paralyzing grant awards to tens of thousands of organizations. The effort, which DOGE has dubbed “Defend the Spend,” has left thousands of payments backed up, including funding …

The Associated Press reports: A coalition of state attorneys general sued the administration Tuesday over its decision to cut $11 billion in federal funds that go toward COVID-19 initiatives and various public health projects across the country. Officials from 23 states filed the suit in federal court in Rhode Island. They include New York Attorney General Letitia James, Kentucky Gov. …

The Associated Press reports: Employees across the massive U.S. Health and Human Services Department began receiving notices of dismissal on Tuesday in an overhaul ultimately expected to lay off up to 10,000 people. The notices come just days after President Donald Trump moved to strip workers of their collective bargaining rights at HHS and other agencies throughout the government. Health …

CBS News reports: A newly proposed California ballot initiative aims to prevent health insurance companies from denying medical care to patients. Retired litigator Paul Eisner has submitted the “Luigi Mangione Access to Health Care Act” to the state Attorney General’s office. The proposed measure would make it illegal in California for anyone other than a licensed physician to deny, delay, …

UnitedHealth Group’s CEO writes for the New York Times: We greatly appreciate the enormous outpouring of support for Brian Thompson, who ran our health insurance business, UnitedHealthcare, as well as for our wider company, which I lead. Yet we also are struggling to make sense of this unconscionable act and the vitriol that has been directed at our colleagues who …

The New York Times reports: The Department of Health and Human Services said on Monday that hospitals must obtain written informed consent from patients before they undergo sensitive examinations — like pelvis and prostate exams — especially if the patients will be under anesthesia. A New York Times investigation in 2020 found that hospitals, doctors and doctors in training sometimes …

The New York Times reports: More than 15 million people have signed up for health insurance plans offered on the Affordable Care Act’s federal marketplace, a 33 percent increase compared to the same time last year, according to preliminary data released by the Biden administration on Wednesday. Federal health officials project that more than 19 million people will enroll in …

Becker’s Hospital Review reports: Hospital Sisters Health System, a Catholic organization based in Springfield, Ill., is removing all wooden and metal crucifixes from its hospitals’ emergency departments and patient rooms. That decision is a response to “the changing healthcare landscape and the general increase in healthcare workers experiencing workplace violence,” according to a Nov. 21 statement the health system shared …

From the Justice Department: More than two dozen individuals have been charged in the Southern District of Florida for their alleged participation in a wire fraud scheme that created an illegal licensing and employment shortcut for aspiring nurses. According to three recently unsealed indictments returned by a South Florida federal grand jury and two informations filed by federal prosecutors, defendants …

The Associated Press reports: New York City hospitals have reached a tentative contract agreement with thousands of striking nurses that ends this week’s walkout that disrupted patient care, officials announced Thursday. Nurses began returning to work Thursday morning, with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul greeting returning nurses at Mount Sinai just before dawn. Hochul, a Democrat, said that with the …

CNN reports: More than 7,000 nurses at two major New York City hospitals walked off the job Monday, arguing immense staffing shortages are causing widespread burnout and hindering their ability to properly care for their patients. The nurses say they are working long hours in unsafe conditions without enough pay – a refrain echoed by several other nurses strikes across …

NBC News reports: Republicans are abandoning their long crusade to repeal the Affordable Care Act, making the 2022 election the first in more than a decade that won’t be fought over whether to protect or undo President Barack Obama’s signature achievement. The diminished appetite for repeal means the law — which has extended health care coverage to millions of people …

Ars Technica reports: A tracking tool installed on many hospitals’ websites has been collecting patients’ sensitive health information—including details about their medical conditions, prescriptions, and doctor’s appointments—and sending it to Facebook. The Markup tested the websites of Newsweek’s top 100 hospitals in America. On 33 of them we found the tracker, called the Meta Pixel, sending Facebook a packet of …

Law & Crime reports: Jurors convicted a man of murder and other charges after hearing him testify that he shot up a Minnesota health clinic. Gregory Paul Ulrich, 69, will get a mandatory sentence of life in prison for the homicide in a hearing scheduled for June 17. Medical assistant Lindsay Overbay, 37, died of a gunshot wound to the …

The Michigan Advance reports: When Tom Kelsch heads to his job as a registered nurse in Mercy Health Muskegon’s emergency department, he knows, almost without a doubt, that he’ll be threatened by a patient or their family that day. He knows he may see someone’s fist in his face, as has happened in the past, or have to endure a …

The Associated Press reports: Alaska on Saturday activated emergency crisis protocols that allow 20 medical facilities to ration care if needed as the state recorded the nation’s worst COVID-19 diagnosis rates in recent days, straining the state’s limited health care system. The declaration covers three facilities that had already announced emergency protocols, including the state’s largest hospital, Providence Alaska Medical …

The Associated Press reports: Nurses and hundreds of other staff members will soon begin wearing panic buttons at a Missouri hospital where assaults on workers tripled after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Cox Medical Center Branson is using grant money to add buttons to identification badges worn by up to 400 employees who work in the emergency room and …

The Hill reports: Coronavirus patients are flooding and straining hospitals across the U.S., particularly in western states where administrators are put in positions of needing to ration care as their facilities are pushed to their breaking point by the delta variant. Alaska this past week joined Idaho in adopting statewide crisis standards of care that provide guidance to health care …