Category: Social Services

November 23, 2020

President-elect Joe Biden is putting scientists in charge and back on the stage to restore trust in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The plans include immediately reviving regular media briefings and giving a central role to long-sidelined career […]

November 20, 2020

With its choice of a new leader, the Florida Hospital Association has signaled that seeking legislative approval to expand Medicaid to nearly 850,000 uninsured adults won’t be among its top priorities. In October, Mary Mayhew became the association’s CEO. Mayhew, […]

November 19, 2020

News from global pharma firms that their coronavirus vaccine candidates are highly effective is welcome, but work needs to be done to ensure they reach everyone around the world, the World Health Organization’s Europe chief said Thursday. “I firmly believe […]

November 17, 2020

As the novel coronavirus emerged in the news in January, Sarah Keeley was working as a medical scribe and considering what to do with her biology degree. By February, as the disease crept across the U.S., Keeley said she found […]

November 10, 2020

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has issued guidance and an accompanying one-pager to help employers understand which standards are most frequently cited during coronavirus-related inspections. OSHA based these documents on data from citations issued, […]

November 6, 2020

The Department of Veterans Affairs is recruiting 8,000 volunteers for the Phase 3 clinical trials of at least four COVID-19 vaccine candidates at 20 federal medical facilities across the U.S., according to officials with the VA and Operation Warp Speed, […]

November 3, 2020

With the Trump administration announcing two days before Election Day that Georgia’s healthcare.gov website will no longer provide options for residents shopping for plans starting in 2023, consumers will need to rely on private brokers, insurance companies, agents and commercial […]

November 2, 2020

Nearly half the nation’s hospitals, many of which are still wrestling with the financial fallout of the unexpected coronavirus, will get lower payments for all Medicare patients because of their history of readmitting patients, federal records show. The penalties are […]

October 29, 2020

Sen. Lindsey Graham has never been a fan of the Affordable Care Act — even though it’s helped dramatically lower the number of uninsured people in his home state of South Carolina. The Republican, who heads the Senate Judiciary Committee, […]

October 27, 2020

With the development of a coronavirus vaccine nearing its final stages, public health departments across the U.S. are hastily preparing to distribute it — even though they don’t know when it will be approved or which ones will ultimately get […]

October 21, 2020

A bill introduced by Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) and John Larson (D-Conn.) seeks to increase the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment to 3%, up from the 1.3% announced by President Donald Trump earlier this month. The Social Security adjustment also applies […]

October 8, 2020

California-based lab test manufacturer GenMark Diagnostics announced Thursday that the Food and Drug Administration granted emergency authorization for its rapid molecular test that can distinguish between more than 20 different viruses and bacteria, including the coronavirus. Flu and Covid-19 patients […]

October 7, 2020

Within one day, President Donald Trump announced his COVID diagnosis and was admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for treatment. The flurry of events was stunning, confusing and triggered many questions. What was his prognosis? When was he […]

October 5, 2020

According to CISA, China “has a history of using national military and economic resources to leverage offensive cyber tactics in pursuing its national interests.” The agency warned that attacks could target industries considered critical to U.S. national and economic interests, […]

October 1, 2020

Public health measures like wearing a mask and avoiding close contact with others could help prevent the forthcoming influenza season from complicating the nation’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, White House coronavirus advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Thursday. The […]

September 28, 2020

When it comes to health care, President Donald Trump has promised far more than he has delivered. But that doesn’t mean his administration has had no impact on health issues — including the operation of the Affordable Care Act, prescription […]

September 23, 2020

Reopening colleges drove a coronavirus surge of about 3,000 new cases a day in the United States, according to a draft study released Tuesday. The study, done jointly by researchers at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, Indiana University, the University […]

September 22, 2020

David Usher is sitting on $1.7 million he’s scared to spend. The money lent from the federal government is meant to help hospitals and other health care providers weather the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet some hospital administrators have called it a […]

September 10, 2020

Nurses at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center were on edge as early as March when patients with COVID-19 began to show up in areas of the hospital that were not set aside to care for them. The Centers for Disease […]

August 24, 2020

The Trump administration’s latest effort to use COVID-19 rapid tests — touted by one senior official as a “turning point” in arresting the coronavirus’s spread within nursing homes — is running into roadblocks likely to limit how widely they’ll be […]