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The Fierro family owed a Yuma, Arizona, hospital more than $7,000 for care given to mom and dad, so when a son dislocated his shoulder, they headed to Mexicali. The care was quick, good, and affordable.
Emergency medical services are a lifeline in regions with scarce medical care. But paramedics, trained to respond to patients with life-threatening injuries, are in short supply where they鈥檙e needed most.
Diagnosed with aggressive leukemia on a Western trip, a young man thought his insurance would cover an air ambulance ride home to North Carolina. Instead, questions about medical necessity left him with an astronomical bill.
The No Surprises Act offers protection from many surprise medical bills 鈥 but that protection may be only as good as a patient鈥檚 knowledge of the law and ability to make sure it鈥檚 enforced. Here鈥檚 what you need to know.
The insurance company said that the birth of the Bull family鈥檚 twins was not an emergency and that NICU care was 鈥渘ot medically necessary.鈥 The family鈥檚 experience with a huge bill sent to collections happened in 2020, but it exposes a hole in the new No Surprises law that took effect Jan. 1.
At Salem Health Salem Hospital in Oregon, the omicron surge is still swamping health care workers. They are ground down emotionally but keep showing up for their patients.
A St. Louis-area toddler burned his hand on the stove, and his mom took him to the ER on the advice of her pediatrician. He wasn鈥檛 seen by a doctor, and the dressing on the wound wasn鈥檛 changed. The bill was more than a thousand dollars.
As omicron sweeps the country, many hospitals are dealing with a flood of people hospitalized with covid 鈥 including those primarily admitted for other reasons. While often milder cases, so-called incidental covid infections still drain the beleaguered health care workforce and can put them and other patients at higher risk for contracting covid.
Years in the making, a new federal law against surprise medical bills took effect Jan. 1.
Rural areas such as Echols County, Georgia, have high levels of uninsured people and profound physician shortages that compound the lack of health care options, especially in the 12 states that have not expanded Medicaid.
Legislative crackdowns on out-of-network bills haven鈥檛 kept specialists from hitting patients with unexpected charges running into thousands of dollars.
Gunnison paramedics cover the largest response zone in Colorado. Because of covid and the lack of nearby hospital beds, patients increasingly are transported long distances, leaving few ambulances to respond to emergencies.
A record number of hospitals closed in rural America last year. For the residents of Cuthbert, Georgia, the loss has meant many problems, including delayed care for emergencies that can turn deadly.
With few options for health care in their rural community, a Tennessee couple鈥檚 experience with one outrageous bill could have led to a deadly decision the next time they needed help.
Certain patients who couldn't get in to see a doctor earlier in the pandemic, or were avoiding the covid risks inside hospitals, have become too sick to stay away. Many ERs now struggle to cope with an onslaught of demand.
The covid vaccination rate for first responders in the state is more than 95%. But it's lower in more rural areas, where ambulance crews can't function if even just a few people quit.
California Assembly member Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, who authored legislation to create and fund the state鈥檚 new 988 phone line for mental health emergencies, spoke with KHN about the effort and what more will be needed to create a full-fledged response network for people experiencing mental health crises.
Unvaccinated people are filling intensive care beds and dying of covid in record numbers in Tennessee and other Southern states. Many tell their nurses and doctors they regret the decision not to get the vaccine when they could.
Televisits took off during the worst days of the pandemic, but states are now rolling back the temporary rules that facilitated them. That鈥檚 adding fuel to debates about states鈥 authority over medical licensing.
Despite widespread consensus on the importance of addiction treatment in the ER, many hospitals fail to screen for substance use, offer medications to treat opioid use disorder or connect patients to follow-up care. But some are working to change that.
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