Even as Congress moves to expand health insurance coverage to millions, it's doing little to ensure there will be enough primary care doctors to meet the expected surge in demand for treatment. One prediction: the shortage of family doctors will reach 40,000 by 2019, as medical schools send about half the needed number of graduates into primary care medicine.
(Daily Report) Oct 12, 2009
Vermont scores high marks for a new experiment in coordinating care, as well as the overall quality of its health system. The gap between Vermont and lower performing states, however suggests to some that states may struggle to reform health care on their own. Other reports consider states that have made independent efforts.
(Daily Report) Oct 12, 2009
Many rural hospitals are against the ropes financially, leaving their administrators and patients wary of health bills that could cut Medicare payments. Access to physicians in those and other communities is already limited - with the United States facing a shortage of as many as 40,000 family doctors in the next decade.
(Daily Report) Oct 12, 2009
Even as Congress moves to expand health insurance coverage to millions of Americans, it's doing little to ensure there will be enough primary care doctors to meet the expected surge in demand for treatment. One prediction: the shortage of family doctors will reach 40,000 by 2019, as medical schools send about half the needed number of graduates into primary care medicine.
(Story) Oct 12, 2009
In the mid-1970s, an unconventional researcher named Jack Wennberg discovered an unusually high rate of hysterectomies in Lewiston, Maine. That was just one of a series of studies that led to a very surprising conclusion about health care: a large portion of the medical care Americans get is unnecessary.
(Story) Oct 09, 2009
Seriously ill or injured college students can now keep their parents' insurance for up to a year while they take time off school.
(Daily Report) Oct 09, 2009
Caring for Alzheimer's patients proves very costly.
(Daily Report) Oct 09, 2009
The Washington Post reports on a health care "tug of war" between a hospital and an insurer, leaving patients in the middle.
(Daily Report) Oct 09, 2009
Families with mentally ill members experience mixed feelings about a court decision that pushes them away from adult homes in New York. Meanwhile, state officials admit to errors in mixing mentally ill criminals with seniors in Illinois nursing homes.
(Daily Report) Oct 09, 2009
NPR publishes the first in a three-part series about how decisions by doctors can drive up medical costs.
(Daily Report) Oct 09, 2009