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The Biden administration said Friday it has no timeline on whether it will allow states to import drugs from Canada, an effort that was approved under President Donald Trump as a key strategy to control costs. 

Six states have passed laws to start such programs, and Florida, Colorado and New Mexico are the furthest along in plans to get federal approval.   

The Biden administration said states still have several hurdles to get through, including a review by the Food and Drug Administration, and such efforts may face pressures from the Canadian government, which has warned its drug industry not to do anything that could cause drug shortages in that country.  

“Although two proposals have been submitted to FDA, no timeline exists for the agency to make a decision. Thus, the possible future injuries to Plaintiffs’ members are overly speculative and not … Read the rest

The pandemic has highlighted poor care in America’s nursing homes, where nearly 175,000 people have died of covid-19 — a third of all deaths from the disease nationwide.

This story is part of a partnership that includes KPCC, NPR and KHN. It can be republished for free.

Even before the pandemic, patient advocates pointed to dangerous conditions in U.S. nursing homes, including staffing shortages and infection control failures. Many nursing homes didn’t provide quality care, they charged.

Studies have found that homes owned by for-profit entities racked up more deficiencies and had lower staffing levels, compared with nonprofit facilities. And as the number of for-profit nursing home chains has increased, industry watchdogs and patient advocates say, states aren’t doing enough to vet nursing home owners.

California is home to about 1,200 licensed nursing homes. Those facilities care for 100,000 nursing home patients — the biggest nursing home population of any … Read the rest

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The “public option” is back — both in Washington, D.C., and the states. President Joe Biden as a candidate supported the idea of a government-run or heavily regulated insurance plan that would compete with private insurance. But until now it has been more of a concept than a plan. Two top health leaders in Congress say they will try to put a plan together, while public options in various forms work their way through legislatures in Colorado and Nevada.

Meanwhile, bioethicists are debating whether the U.S. should be vaccinating low-risk adolescents against covid-19 while high-risk adults in other countries remain vulnerable.

This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KHN, Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico … Read the rest

(Editor’s note: This is a follow-up to last year’s joint investigation by KHN and USA Today finding that police in several cities violated their own crowd-control policies during protests over racial injustice and police brutality.)

As police in riot gear approached the demonstrators, Soren Stevenson raised his hands like scores of others and called out, “Hands up, don’t shoot.”

This story also ran on USA Today. It can be republished for free.

Suddenly, tear gas canisters and rubber bullets rained down.

The demonstrators had gathered for a sixth straight day to decry Minneapolis police officers’ use-of-force practices after the slaying of an unarmed Black man named George Floyd.

On May 31, 2020, the protesters were under fire.

Stevenson, a graduate student at the University of Minnesota Humphrey School of Public Affairs, lost his left eye after an officer fired a plastic-tipped round at him — even though Minneapolis Police Department … Read the rest

This story also ran on U.S. News & World Report. It can be republished for free.

Many of the companies with the largest number of employees say they’ll do almost anything to encourage their employees to get vaccinated. But a survey of some of them found that none would be inclined to mandate shots as a condition for holding a job.

Almost all 15 companies surveyed — among the largest and most influential Fortune 500 companies — have strong pro-vaccine messages from their corporate leadership, emphasizing that the shots can both help protect individuals and bring the pandemic to a close.

CVS Health, which administers covid vaccines as part of the federal pharmacy distribution program, says it strongly encourages the shots for its employees “from a public health standpoint” but won’t mandate them. Starbucks is also encouraging the shots “to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19,” but also doesn’t mandate … Read the rest

Major hospital systems are betting big money that the future of hospital care looks a lot like the inside of patients’ homes.

This story also ran on Fortune. It can be republished for free.

Hospital-level care at home — some of it provided over the internet — is poised to grow after more than a decade as a niche offering, boosted both by hospitals eager to ease overcrowding during the pandemic and growing interest by insurers who want to slow health care spending. But a host of challenges remain, from deciding how much to pay for such services to which kinds of patients can safely benefit.

Under the model, patients with certain medical conditions, such as pneumonia or heart failure — even moderate covid — are offered high-acuity care in their homes, with 24/7 remote monitoring and daily visits by medical providers.

In the latest sign that the idea is … Read the rest

Colorado health officials so abhor the high costs associated with free-standing emergency rooms they’re offering to pay hospitals to shut the facilities down.

This story also ran on Fortune. It can be republished for free.

The state wants hospitals to convert them to other purposes, such as providing primary care or mental health services.

At least 500 free-standing ERs have set up in more than 20 states in the past decade. Colorado has 44, 34 owned by hospitals.

The trend began a decade ago with hopes these stand-alone facilities would fill a need for ER care when no hospital was nearby and reduce congestion at hospital ERs.

But that rarely happened.

Instead, these emergency rooms — not physically connected to hospitals — generally set up in affluent suburban communities, often near hospitals that compete with the free-standing ERs’ owners. And they largely treated patients who did not need emergency care, … Read the rest

KHN chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner discussed the Supreme Court’s decision to hear a challenge in an abortion case from Mississippi on Newsy on Tuesday.

• Click here to watch Rovner on Newsy

KHN freelancer Sara Reardon discussed allegations by a rail company that a clinic in Libby, Montana, is defrauding Medicare by overdiagnosing asbestos-related diseases on Montana Public Radio on May 13.

• Click here to hear Reardon on Montana Public Radio
• Read Reardon’s “In Poisoned Montana Town, Warren Buffett-Owned Railroad Accuses Clinic of Medicare Fraud“

California Healthline correspondent Angela Hart discussed how the pandemic has shaped California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s political outlook on KCBS’ “The State of California” on May 12.

• Click here to hear Hart on KCBS
• Read Hart’s “Salesforce, Google, Facebook. How Big Tech Undermines California’s Public Health System“

KHN freelancer Joshua Eaton discussed how CVS and Walgreens account for the majority of wasted covid-19 vaccines on NPR’s … Read the rest

Marissa Castrigno was walking through downtown Wilmington, North Carolina, when she spotted the sign in the window of one of her favorite dance clubs. After months of being shuttered by the pandemic, Ibiza Nightclub was reopening April 30, it announced.

This story also ran on Raleigh News & Observer. It can be republished for free.

Thrilled, Castrigno immediately made plans with friends to be there.

About 50 miles north in Jacksonville, Kennedy Swift learned of Ibiza’s reopening on social media. He, too, decided to attend with friends.

But on the night of April 30, the two groups were in for a surprise — one they would react to in starkly different ways.

In addition to IDs, they learned, they’d need to show covid-19 vaccination cards for entry. The club was letting in only people who had had at least one shot.

“I was shocked,” said Swift, 21. He learned of … Read the rest

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The Supreme Court agreed to hear a case next term that could result in a significant modification or overturn of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 case that legalized abortion nationwide. At issue is a Mississippi law that would ban the procedure after 15 weeks of gestation. That is well before a fetus is viable outside the womb and, under Roe, states may not ban abortion prior to viability.

Meanwhile, the unexpected announcement by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that fully vaccinated people could stop wearing masks inside and outside has caused considerable confusion, as the U.S. does not have a way for people to prove they are vaccinated.

And despite a successful voter referendum, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, has announced his state will not expand the Medicaid program after the Republican-led legislature failed … Read the rest