Healthcare

Starting May 11 most people will have to pay for those at-home test kits for COVID-19, as the federal government's declaration of a COVID-19 public health emergency officially ends.

COVID test kits, treatments and vaccines won't be free to many consumers much longer

Julie Appleby

Insurers, employers, taxpayers and other consumers will all be affected as drugmakers move these products to the commercial market in May. How much you'll pay depends on your health insurance.

An aerial view shows a statue of Eureka, part of the Pioneer Monument, looking over squares painted on the ground to encourage homeless people to keep to social distancing at a city-sanctioned homeless encampment across from City Hall in San Francisco, on May 22, 2020, amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.

This doctor wants to prescribe a cure for homelessness

Greg Rosalsky

A growing hospital movement aims to improve health outcomes of homeless patients with what might be considered the ultimate preventive care: providing them with a home.

Louise Salant (right), 72, and her aunt Eileen Salant (center), 86, both got very sick with COVID-19 in 2020. And as Eileen developed long COVID symptoms, so too did Louise, who struggled with fatigue and shortness of breath while also managing her aunt's care. Nearly three years later, home health aides like Elfnesh Legesse (left) help Louise take care of her aunt.

Family caregivers of people with long COVID bear an extra burden

Kat McGowan

When a case of COVID-19 morphs into the mysterious, chronic condition known as long COVID, the specialists, appointments, medications and daily need for family care can overwhelm everyone involved.

The sign for Glen Oaks Alzheimer's Special Care Center is seen on Google Earth. The facility pronounced a living woman dead and is being fined $10,000.

Iowa Alzheimer's care facility is fined $10,000 after pronouncing a living woman dead

Kaitlyn Radde

The woman was unresponsive, and nurses were unable to detect her breathing. A state agency report found the facility "failed to ensure residents received dignified treatment and care at end of life."

New York state records show nearly half the state's 600-plus nursing homes hired real estate, management and staffing companies run or controlled by their owners, frequently paying them well above the cost of services. Meanwhile, in the pandemic's height, the federal government was giving the facilities hundreds of millions in fiscal relief.

Nursing home owners drained cash while residents deteriorated, state filings suggest

Jordan Rau

As the U.S. government debates whether to require higher staffing levels at nursing homes, financial records show some owners routinely push profits to sister companies while residents are neglected.

Humira, the injectable biologic treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, now faces its first competition from one of several copycat "biosimilar" drugs expected to come to market this year. Some patients spend $70,000 a year on Humira.

AbbVie's blockbuster drug Humira finally loses its 20-year, $200 billion monopoly

Leslie Walker

U.S. doctors can now choose Amjevita instead, the first of several close copies of the popular rheumatoid arthritis drug expected this year. But industry-watchers warn consumer savings may be limited.

Obesity is linked to numerous serious health conditions in the U.S. but doctors receive little training in the causes of and treatments for the condition.

Scant obesity training in medical school leaves docs ill-prepared to help patients

Yuki Noguchi

Most doctors get little training in the science of obesity or how to counsel people with the disease. As a result, many patients experience stigma in the exam room.

"I was much less self-assured now that I was a patient myself," says neurosurgeon Henry Marsh. "I suddenly felt much less certain about how I'd been [as a doctor], how I'd handled patients, how I'd spoken to them."

After cancer diagnosis, a neurosurgeon sees life, death and his career in a new way

Terry Gross

Dr. Henry Marsh felt comfortable in hospitals — until he was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer. "I was much less self-assured now that I was a patient myself," he says. His book is And Finally.

Wegovy has been called "a major breakthrough" given how well it works to reduce body weight. But the injection drug is extremely expensive and when people can't afford to stay on it, they experience rebound weight gain that's hard to stop.

Wegovy works. But here's what happens if you can't afford to keep taking the drug

Allison Aubrey

The new weight-loss drugs can be life-changing for people facing health conditions worsened by obesity, but price and spotty insurance coverage may keep them out of reach.

On Jan. 23, 2020, as the coronavirus spread in China, residents of Wuhan, where it was first identified, donned masks to go shopping. The U.S. didn't officially endorse masks as a preventive measure for the public for a number of weeks.

COVID flashback: On Jan. 30, 2020, WHO declared a global health emergency

Carmen Drahl

The World Health Organization issued the statement as the novel coronavirus, calling it an "unprecedented outbreak." Here's what we knew — and didn't know — about the virus at that time.