An employee of Johnson & Johnson has filed a proposed class-action lawsuit challenging the company’s spending on healthcare for its workers, which may portend a change in the way all employers spend their money. “Johnson & Johnson was hit with a proposed class action on Monday accusing the company’s employee health plans of failing to […]
Posted inCosts
Hospitals are happy for patients to try GoFundMe
“GoFundMe started as a crowdfunding site for underwriting ‘ideas and dreams,’ and, as GoFundMe’s co-founders, Andrew Ballester and Brad Damphousse, once put it, “for life’s important moments.” In the early years, it funded honeymoon trips, graduation gifts, and church missions to overseas hospitals in need. Now GoFundMe has become a go-to for patients trying to […]
Posted inCosts
Medical bill surprises come out of ‘No Surprises Act’
The No Surprises Act appears to have actually reduced the number of surprise medical bills received by patients, according to people familiar with the topic. There was a “huge falloff” over the past year in appeals for billing help from people looking for help in resolving big medical bills, Susan Null, from one billing advocate, […]
Posted inCovid
Study finds Oklahoma leads the nation in long Covid
“Nearly one in every four American adults who get Covid-19 suffer from long Covid, but a new study found Oklahoma has the highest rate in the country,” Tanner DeLeon writes over at KFOR TV. “According to the study, 34% of adults in Oklahoma are suffering from long Covid. Dean of OU’s Hudson College of Public Health Dale […]
Posted inCovid
Paxlovid cost help: It’s more pricey now, but here are some workarounds
The Covid antiviral Paxlovid can be free or it can cost $1,600. With the Covid surge continuing, and the price no longer routinely subsidized by the government, what can you do? Here are some options. First, the manufacturer, Pfizer, is offering a coupon program, called “Paxcess,” which may bring your price to $0 if you […]
Posted inCovid
U.S. government failure to protect frontline workers from Covid led to thousands of deaths, scientists say
“Thousands of frontline workers may have survived the Covid-19 pandemic if the US regulatory system had better protected them, report the authors of an analysis published yesterday in BMJ,” Mary Van Beusekom writes over at CIDRAP. “The study is the first in a series that discusses the lessons learned from Covid-19 and the steps needed to avert deaths […]
Posted inPatients
Ketamine therapy for mental health a ‘Wild West’ for doctors and patients
By Dawn Megli In late 2022, Sarah Gutilla’s treatment-resistant depression had grown so severe, she was actively contemplating suicide. Raised in foster care, the 34-year-old’s childhood was marked by physical violence, sexual abuse, and drug use, leaving her with life-threatening mental scars. Out of desperation, her husband scraped together $600 for the first of six […]
Posted inMental Health
Mental health and addiction care falls short because it’s not profitable
“Some of America’s most challenging behavioral health care problems include a key disadvantage: They’re not very profitable to treat,” Caitlin Owens writes over at Axios. “Why it matters: Serious mental illness and addiction have a profound effect on families and communities, but their complexity and their concentration among lower-income people make them issues that the private market has little incentive […]
Posted inCosts
The colonoscopies were free. But the ‘surgical trays’ came with $600 price tags.
By Samantha Liss Chantal Panozzo and her husband followed their primary care doctors’ orders last year after they both turned 45, now the recommended age to start screening for colorectal cancer. They scheduled their first routine colonoscopies a few months apart. Panozzo said she was excited to get a colonoscopy, of all things, because it […]
Posted inCosts
Whole-body ‘preventive’ scans: What you need to know
(Updated Feb. 2024) The whole-body “preventive” scan comes up every so once in a while: People, saying they want to take control of their health, put substantial sums of money into a full-body MRI or other test that is not ordered by a doctor, but instead at their own will. The idea is that they’ll […]
