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Tuesday
Thursday
The Bristol Regional Medical Center, now part of Ballad Health, was among hundreds of hospitals that have joined lawsuits against opioid makers. Earl Neikirk hide caption
Some Hospitals Sue Opioid Makers For Costs Of Treating Uninsured For Addiction
Wednesday
Vaping devices now come in many shapes and sizes; these were confiscated from students by a high school principal in Massachusetts in 2018. Steven Senne/AP hide caption
Tuesday
In The Price We Pay, published this fall, author Marty Makary shows how rising costs are eroding trust in medicine. Catie Dull/NPR hide caption
Friday
Wednesday
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, along with 1,500 self-funded health plans, sued Sutter Health for antitrust violations. The closely watched case, which many expected to set precedents nationwide, ended in a settlement Wednesday. Above, Sutter Medical Center in Sacramento, Calif. Rich Pedroncelli/AP hide caption
Monday
While prescriptions for durable medical equipment, such as orthotic braces or wheelchairs, have long been a staple of Medicare fraud schemes, some alleged scammers are now using telemedicine and unscrupulous health providers to prescribe unneeded equipment to distant patients. Joelle Sedlmeyer/Getty Images hide caption
Friday
In the alleged scheme, Medicare beneficiaries were offered, at no cost to them, genetic testing to estimate their cancer risk. Al Drago/Bloomberg/Getty Images hide caption
U.S. Justice Department Charges 35 People In Fraudulent Genetic Testing Scheme
Medicare Advantage health plans, mostly run by private insurance companies, have enrolled more than 22 million seniors and people with disabilities — more than 1 in 3 people who are on some sort of Medicare plan. Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP hide caption
Wednesday
Carrie Barrett, a former defendant in a suit brought by Methodist Hospital, testifies during service at Apostolic Fellowship Church in Memphis, Tenn., on Sept. 15. Her debt to the hospital was cleared following an MLK50 and ProPublica investigation into the debt collection practices. Andrea Morales for MLK50 hide caption
Friday
Some insurers using this new payment model offer a single fee to one OB-GYN or medical practice, which then uses part of that money to cover the hospital care involved in labor and delivery. Other insurers opt to cut a separate contract with the hospital. Adene Sanchez/Getty Images hide caption
Thursday
A pharmacist collects packets of boxed medication from the shelves of a pharmacy in London, U.K. A proposal announced by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Thursday would allow the government to directly negotiate the price of 250 U.S. drugs, using what the drugs cost in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom as a baseline. Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption
Saturday
Visitors and park rangers at historic Fort Scott check out a medevac helicopter operated by Midwest AeroCare during the Kansas town's Good Ol' Days festival. Sarah Jane Tribble/Kaiser Health News hide caption
Air Ambulances Woo Rural Consumers With Memberships That May Leave Them Hanging
Monday
Unlike Planned Parenthood which pulled out of Title X family planning funding, many clinics still take the funding and must comply with new rules on discussing abortion. Doctors worry it will affect their relationships with patients. SDI Productions/Getty Images hide caption
Friday
UK Biobank has granted 10,000 qualified scientists access to its large database of genetic sequences and other medical data, but other organizations with databases have been far more restrictive in giving access. KTSDESIGN/Getty Images/Science Photo Library hide caption