Maryland's overturned law restricted the price of generic drugs, and had been hailed as a model for other states. It's one of a number of state initiatives designed to combat rapidly rising drug prices. Towfiqu Photography/Getty Images hide caption
Health Inc. : Shots - Health News As spending on care rises, the business of health keeps getting more important. We feature news on and analysis of drugmakers, health insurers, hospitals, doctors and others in the business of providing health care.
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Health News From NPRHealth Inc.
Tuesday
Free-standing ERs tend to have lower standby costs than hospital-based facilities that have to be ready to treat dire injuries. But the free-standing ERs typically receive the same Medicare rate for emergency services. sshepard/Getty Images hide caption
Wednesday
Under current law, Medicare requires patients to get a referral before seeing an audiologist to diagnose hearing loss. Leyla B / EyeEm/Getty Images hide caption
Monday
Bill Of The Month: A Tale Of 2 CT Scanners — One Richer, One Poorer
Saturday
Melodie Beckham (left), here with her daughter, Laura, had metastatic lung cancer and chose to stop taking medical marijuana after it failed to relieve her symptoms. She died a few weeks after this photo was taken. Melissa Bailey/Kaiser Health News hide caption
Tuesday
In 2014, Kaiser Health News' Jenny Gold interviewed patients getting blood tests from Theranos at a Walgreens in Palo Alto, Calif., until a fire alarm stopped everything. Paul Sakuma/AP hide caption
Thursday
Health insurer Cigna is looking to increase its muscle by buying Express Scripts, a leading manager of prescription benefits. Wilfredo Lee/AP hide caption
Wednesday
As a "hospital-at-home" patient, Phyllis Petruzzelli was visited twice a day by doctors and nurses who were able to perform any needed tests or bloodwork there to help her heal from pneumonia. "I'd do it again in a heartbeat," Petruzzelli says. Trina Dalziel/Getty Images/Ikon Images hide caption
Monday
Jessica Morris prepares to inject a blood-clotting protein into son Landon's arm at their home in Yuba City, Calif. Heidi de Marco/Kaiser Health News hide caption
Wednesday
Getting health care to rural areas may involve tough decisions about the role of hospitals. hmproudlove/Getty Images hide caption
Saturday
Smallpox virus, colorized and magnified in this micrograph 42,000 times, is the real concern for biologists working on a cousin virus — horsepox. They're hoping to develop a better vaccine against smallpox, should that human scourge ever be used as a bioweapon. Chris Bjornberg/Science Source hide caption
Did Pox Virus Research Put Potential Profits Ahead of Public Safety?
Tuesday
Bottles of Purdue Pharma L.P. OxyContin medication sit on a pharmacy shelf in Provo, Utah, in 2016. George Frey/Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption
Sunday
The new hospital garment ties in the front, like a robe, allowing the patient more modesty than the standard gown. Sophie Sahara Barkham/courtesy Care+Wear hide caption
Tuesday
(From left) Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase; Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway; and Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, are creating health care venture, but details are scarce. (From left) Simon Dawson/Bloomberg via Getty Images; Andy Kropa/Invision/AP; Mark Wilson/Getty Images hide caption
Monday
As mother and daughter, Carmen and Gisele Grayson thought their DNA ancestry tests would be very similar. Boy were they surprised. Meredith Rizzo/NPR hide caption