Public Health news and information

The gap in life expectancy between black and white Americans is at its narrowest since the federal government started systematically tracking it in the 1930s, but a difference of nearly four years remains, and federal researchers have detailed why in a new report.
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The number of Utah medical providers willing to treat Medicaid patients has been dropping since 2008—even as the number of Utahans on the public health program has climbed, according to new data from state analysts.
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Americans are living longer than they did two decades ago, but they are losing ground on key measures of health to people in other developed nations, a new study shows.
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More ailing joints, hearts and other chronic medical conditions may be to blame for higher spending by Medicare in some communities compared with others, new research suggests.
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Four of Iowa's largest health systems have joined with the state's new consumer-owned health insurance cooperative plan to offer plans this fall on the new state insurance exchanges.
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The digital divide is still there among rural providers but it appears to be closing, according to a report by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and new research it references.
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When registered nurse Patricia Pitts gets called to fill in at a hospital far from her Georgia home, she makes sure to pack the essentials first—a frying pan, a rice cooker, a slow cooker and two ball gowns.
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In an era of rising scrutiny of cardiac care, physicians are learning that their legal fates may hinge on one number—70%.
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National economic policies that impose harsh cuts on social programs, especially healthcare safety nets, can be lethal, literally. That's the argument made by David Stuckler, a senior research leader at Oxford University, and Dr. Sanjay Basu, a Stanford University epidemiologist, in their recent...
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Just three days before Sacred Heart Hospital was shut down, owner Edward Novak walked away from a deal to sell the troubled facility, according to a lawyer for the buyer, opportunistic healthcare investor Paul Tuft.
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