Last Word

Her Mental Health Treatment Was Helping. That’s Why Insurance Cut Off Her Coverage.

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: America’s Mental Barrier - How Insurers Interfere With Mental Health Care Geneva Moore’s therapist pulled out her spiral notebook. At the top of the page, she jotted down the date, Jan. 30, 2024, Moore’s initials and the name of the doctor...

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What are pharmacy benefit managers? A health economist explains how lack of competition drives up drug prices for everyone

PBMs control which drugs insurers cover, for how much and for whom. cagkansayin/iStock via Getty Images Plus ~~~~~ James B. Rebitzer, Boston University Wegovy and Ozempic are weight loss drugs that promise to transform the treatment of obesity, heart disease and other chronic conditions that afflict millions of Americans. But while everyone agrees these drugs have the potential to transform...

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Patient endured 9 Years of chemotherapy for cancer he never had

ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox. Anthony Olson wanted a career, children, a partner with whom he could hike Montana’s trails. Despite the diabetes diagnosis at age 4, the anemia, the kidney transplant that failed at age 29, the dialysis, he clung to those dreams. He attended...

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Six years into an Appalachia hospital monopoly, patients are fearful and furious

KINGSPORT, Tenn. — Jerry Qualls had a heart attack in 2022 and was rushed by ambulance to Holston Valley Medical Center, where he was hospitalized for a week and kept alive by a ventilator and blood pump, according to his medical records. His wife, Katherine Qualls, said his doctors offered little hope. In an interview and a written complaint to the Tennessee government, she said doctors at...

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What Kennedy Must Do to Defeat Regulatory Capture

President-Elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to head the Department of Health and Human Services is cause for celebration for anyone who cares about the pharmaceutical industry’s influence over regulatory agencies, and the deleterious effect it has had on the health of Americans. It is nearly impossible to express just how remarkable and potentially world-changing this is....

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Strength training early in life can set up kids and adolescents for a lifetime of health and well-being

An age-appropriate strength training program can have significant benefits for children and adolescents. The Good Brigade/DigitalVision via Getty Images ~~~~~~ “Aren’t they a little young for that?” This is a question I used to hear regularly from parents when I’d recommend strength training for the kids I worked with, whose ages ranged from 6 to 18 years old, in youth sports. During my four...

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