Claudia and Jesús Fierro of Yuma, Ariz., review their medical bills. They pay $1,000 a month for health insurance yet still owed more than $7,000 after two episodes of care at the local hospital. Lisa Hornak for Kaiser Health News 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.
Shots
Health News From NPRHealth Inc.
Wednesday
Tuesday
'Pandemic, Inc.' author says financial predators made more than $1 billion off COVID
Wednesday
Suzanne and Jim Rybak, inside the craft room where their son, Jameson, would encourage Suzanne to make colorful beach bags, received a $4,928 medical bill months after it was supposedly resolved. By Gavin McIntyre/Kaiser Health News hide caption
Sunday
Mary Daniel took a dishwasher job at her husband's Florida memory care facility to see him during the initial coronavirus lockdown. She has been fighting for visitation rights ever since. Tiffany Manning for NPR hide caption
New laws let visitors see loved ones in health care facilities, even in an outbreak
Thursday
Close friends Joshua Paredes, Michael Walujo and John LeBlanc are working together to set up a crisis help line for nurses following the suicide of their friend Michael Odell in January. Rachel Bujalski for NPR hide caption
Friday
RaDonda Vaught and her attorney, Peter Strianse, listen as verdicts are read at her trial in Nashville, Tenn., on Friday, March 25. The jury found Vaught, a former nurse, guilty of criminally negligent homicide and gross neglect of an impaired adult in the death of a patient to whom she accidentally gave the wrong medication. Nicole Hester/The Tennessean/AP hide caption
Thursday
RaDonda Vaught, a former Vanderbilt University Medical Center nurse charged in the death of a patient, listens to opening statements during her trial in Nashville, Tenn., on Tuesday, March 22. Stephanie Amador/AP hide caption
Tuesday
Nurse's aide Patricia Johnson has worked for the Ambassador Nursing and Rehabilitation Center on the north side of Chicago for nearly 24 years. The pandemic has been grueling on her and her colleagues. "The hardest part is watching people die alone without their families," says Johnson, who now sometimes works double shifts due to staff shortages. Jennifer Swanson/NPR hide caption
The pandemic pummeled long-term care – it may not recover quickly, experts warn
Tuesday
Nurse Tami Hampson and Dr. Vinay Shah with DispatchHealth arrive at the Wiese family's apartment for a medical visit on January 3, 2022. Katie Davis-Young hide caption
Acute care at home brings the hospital to patients' living rooms
Sunday
Friday
Nurse Sara Dean of Mount Juliet, Tenn., attends her daughter Harper's gymnastics practice. Dean spent nearly two years travelling the country as a nurse, gaining a much higher salary than she could at home. Blake Farmer/WPLN News hide caption
For travel nurses, jobs at home can't come close to pay they get on the road
Thursday
Hospital staff at Gritman Medical Center in the northern Idaho city of Moscow were unable to find Katie Ripley an open ICU bed at a larger hospital as her condition deteriorated. Don & Melinda Crawford/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images hide caption
In rural America, patients are waiting for care — sometimes with deadly consequences
Monday
Dhaval Bhatt plays Monopoly with his children, Hridaya (left) and Martand, at their home in St. Peters, Missouri. Martand's mother took him to a children's hospital in April after he burned his hand, and the bill for the emergency room visit was more than $1,000 — even though the child was never seen by a doctor. Whitney Curtis for Kaiser Health News hide caption
The doctor didn't show up, but the hospital ER still billed $1,012
Thursday
May Nast arrives for dinner at RiverWalk, an independent senior housing facility, in New York, April 1, 2021. COVID-19 infections are soaring again at U.S. nursing homes because of the omicron wave, and deaths are climbing too. That's leading to new restrictions on family visits and a renewed push to get more residents and staff members vaccinated and boosted. Seth Wenig/AP hide caption
Tuesday
A photo of Tony Tsantinis hangs in a collage set up for a celebration of his life on the final day that Athens Pizza in Brimfield, Mass., was open for business. Tsantinis, who owned the pizzeria for many years, died of COVID-19 last month when efforts to find space at a hospital that could offer him a higher level of care could not be found. Jesse Costa/WBUR hide caption