Health Wire

FILE - Swedish Medical Center health care workers look on from inside the hospital, April 16, 2020, in Seattle. Providence health care system is refunding nearly $21 million in medical bills paid by low-income residents of Washington Ç&fnof;Ó and it’s erasing $137 million more in outstanding debt for tens of thousands of others Ç&fnof;Ó to settle the state’s allegations that it overcharged those patients and then used aggressive collection tactics when they failed to pay. The announcement was made Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024.

Health workers fear it’s profits before protection as CDC revisits airborne transmission

March 24, 2024, 6:00am Health

Four years after hospitals in New York City overflowed with COVID-19 patients, emergency physician Sonya Stokes remains shaken by how unprepared and misguided the American health system was. Read story

Verdell and William Haleck have pushed for lawmakers to rein in how the Ç&fnof;úexcited deliriumÇ&fnof;ù term is used in Hawaii, where their son Sheldon died in 2015 after he was pepper-sprayed, shocked and restrained by Honolulu police. In a civil trial that the Halecks lost, officers blamed his death on excited delirium.

As more states target disavowed ‘excited delirium’ diagnosis, police groups push back

March 24, 2024, 6:00am Health

Following a pivotal year in the movement to discard the term “excited delirium,” momentum is building in several states to ban the discredited medical diagnosis from death certificates, law enforcement training, police incident reports, and civil court testimony. Read story

Concerns grow over quality of care as investor groups buy not-for-profit nursing homes

March 24, 2024, 6:00am Health

Shelly Olson’s mother, who has dementia, has lived at the Scandia Village nursing home in rural Sister Bay, Wisconsin, for almost five years. At first, Olson said, her mother received great care at the facility, then owned by a not-for-profit organization, the Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society. Read story

1 in 5 maternal deaths are from suicide. Why is it so hard to get help?

March 24, 2024, 6:00am Health

There are traces of Andrea Kolbe all over her big sister, Kyra Vocci. Read story

Life expectancy in WA counties varies by as much as 11 years

March 24, 2024, 5:55am Health

Where you live has a significant impact on how long you live. In Washington, life expectancy varies by up to 11 years depending on your county of residence, according to a new report. Read story

Medicare can pay for obesity drugs like Wegovy in certain heart patients

FILE - Donna Cooper holds up a dosage of Wegovy, a drug used for weight loss, at her home, March 1, 2024, in Front Royal, Va. The popular weight-loss drug Wegovy may be paid for by Medicare — as long as patients using it also have heart disease and need to reduce the risk of future heart attacks, strokes and other serious problems, federal officials said Thursday, March 21.

March 21, 2024, 3:52pm Health

Medicare can pay for the popular weight-loss drug Wegovy — as long as the patients using it also have heart disease and need to reduce the risk of future heart attacks, strokes and other serious problems, federal officials said Thursday. Read story

Fred Hutch researchers unveil new blood test that detects colon cancer

March 20, 2024, 7:35am Health

Researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center have unveiled a new type of blood test used to detect colorectal cancer, with high hopes not only in its ability to reduce barriers to testing for this particular disease, but also potentially pave the way for many other types of cancer screenings. Read story

Putting off the poke: More parents delaying their children’s vaccines — and it’s alarming pediatricians

March 19, 2024, 6:02am Health

As measles cases pop up across the country this winter — including several in Clark County and Washington — one group of children is stirring deep concerns among pediatricians: the babies and toddlers of vaccine-hesitant parents who are delaying their child’s measles-mumps-rubella shots. Read story

Health Wire

Health workers fear it’s profits before protection as CDC revisits airborne transmission

As more states target disavowed ‘excited delirium’ diagnosis, police groups push back

Concerns grow over quality of care as investor groups buy not-for-profit nursing homes

1 in 5 maternal deaths are from suicide. Why is it so hard to get help?

Life expectancy in WA counties varies by as much as 11 years

Medicare can pay for obesity drugs like Wegovy in certain heart patients

Drug overdoses reach another record with almost 108,000 Americans in 2022, CDC says

US surgeons have transplanted a pig kidney into a patient

Fred Hutch researchers unveil new blood test that detects colon cancer

Putting off the poke: More parents delaying their children’s vaccines — and it’s alarming pediatricians