Doctors, Emergency Medicine, Health Policy, Healthcare Providers

Doctors Are Disappearing From Emergency Rooms as Hospitals Look to Cut Costs

This staffing strategy has permeated hospitals, and particularly emergency rooms, that seek to reduce their top expense: physician labor. While diagnosing and treating patients was once their domain, doctors are increasingly being replaced by nurse practitioners and physician assistants, collectively known as “midlevel practitioners,” who can perform many of the same duties and generate much of the same revenue for less than half of the pay.

Cancer, Health Costs, Health Insurance, Health Policy

In America, Cancer Patients Endure Debt on Top of Disease

Cancer kills about 600,000 people in the U.S. every year, making it a leading cause of death. Many more survive it, because of breakthroughs in medicines and therapies. But the high costs of modern-day care have left millions with a devastating financial burden. That’s forced patients and their families to make gut-wrenching sacrifices even as they confront a grave illness.

Coronavirus, Drugs, Health Policy

Lifesaving COVID Medications Can Be Hard to Come By

Early in the pandemic, states competed for the limited supply of ventilators, personal protective equipment and tests in a chaotic free-for-all. To avoid a repeat, the federal government is buying millions of doses of the COVID-19 therapeutic medications and allocating those to states, which in turn distribute them to pharmacies or hospitals. In many places, what is arriving is far less than the need.