Focus

Not Medically Necessary: Inside the Company Helping America’s Biggest Health Insurers Deny Coverage for Care

ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox. Series: Uncovered - How the Insurance Industry Denies Coverage to Patients More in this series Every day, patients across America crack open envelopes with bad news. Yet another health insurer has decided not to pay for a treatment that their doctor...

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Halloween candy binges can overload your gut microbiome – a gut doctor explains how to minimize spooking your helpful bacteria

It’s probably best to enjoy your Halloween spoils in moderation. Jupiterimages/The Image Bank via Getty Images ~~~~~ Each October, as the days shorten and the air grows crisp, millions of Americans prepare for the beloved – and often sugar-fueled – tradition of Halloween. From jack-o’-lanterns glowing on porches to costumes ranging from the whimsical to the gory, Halloween is a time of playful...

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A Hospital Kept a Brain-Damaged Patient on Life Support to Boost Statistics. His Sister Is Now Suing for Malpractice.

ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox. In 2018, Darryl Young was hoping for a new lease on life when he received a heart transplant at a New Jersey hospital after years of congestive heart failure. But he suffered brain damage during the procedure and never woke up. The following year, a...

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What if a virus could reverse antibiotic resistance?

In promising experiments, phage therapy forces bacteria into a no-win dilemma that lowers their defenses against drugs they’d evolved to withstand Peering through his microscope in 1910, Franco-Canadian microbiologist Félix d'Hérelle noticed some “clear spots” in his bacterial cultures, an anomaly that turned out to be viruses preying on the bacteria. Years later, d'Hérelle would come to use...

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Needing Mental Health Care, He Got Trapped in His Insurer’s Ghost Network

ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox. This story was originally published by ProPublica. Series: America’s Mental Barrier - How Insurers Interfere With Mental Health Care Early one morning in February 2023, before the sun rose over Phoenix, Ravi Coutinho went on a walk and, for a brief...

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Mitochondria keep your brain cells alive − helping them run smoothly may protect against Parkinson’s disease

Mitochondria actively divide, multiply and move around in your cells. Nanoclustering/Science Photo Library via Getty Images ~~~~~ In 1817, a British physician named James Parkinson published An Essay on the Shaking Palsy, describing for the first time cases of a neurodegenerative disorder now known as Parkinson’s disease. Today, Parkinson’s disease is the second most common neurodegenerative...

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