Nearly 15 months have passed since Hurricane Florence struck land at Wrightsville Beach and left rivers and creeks so swollen that their floodwaters turned Wilmington and its many surrounding communities into an island cut off from the rest of the state. North Carolina Health News and Working Narratives/ Coastal Youth Media held a workshop in September for seven […]
In an increasingly competitive online news division, NC Health News took home two first-place awards, six second-place awards and seven third-place awards at the annual N.C. Press Association’s awards ceremony in Raleigh. “I’m so proud and honored to lead this team of super-smart, super-dedicated reporters,” said editor and website founder Rose Hoban. “We have decades […]
By Greg Barnes The coronavirus pandemic has resulted in thousands of families skipping or delaying well-child visits to pediatricians, where many children would have been tested for lead poisoning or received vaccinations. A survey of pediatric offices across North Carolina taken near the beginning of the pandemic found that 85 percent reported a patient decrease […]
By Phil Galewitz Kaiser Health News Health insurance costs for Americans who get their coverage through work continued a relentless march upward with average family premiums rising 4 percent to $21,342 this year, according to a study published Thursday. The annual survey by KFF found workers on average are paying nearly $5,600 this year toward […]
Due to a lack of mental health community services, more patients are languishing in emergency departments — sometimes for weeks — waiting for an inpatient psychiatric bed to open up somewhere in North Carolina. By Taylor Knopf Bridget Narsh said she was unhappy that her son, Mason, spent 26 days this summer in a “windowless […]
Federal health officials, citing a need to focus on the COVID-19 pandemic, have temporarily halted some efforts to recover hundreds of millions of dollars in overpayments made to Medicare Advantage health plans. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services says the decision will allow insurers and the agency to “focus on patient care,” and will […]
The agencies that oversee the health of U.S. military personnel and veterans were pushing ahead this spring with the biggest overhaul of their health systems in three decades. The initiatives aimed to shift up to 15 million patients to private care providers, shutter clinics and hospitals, and reduce the number of military doctors and nurses. […]
With medical supplies in high demand, federal authorities say health workers can wear surgical masks for protection while treating COVID-19 patients — but growing evidence suggests the practice is putting workers in jeopardy. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently said lower-grade surgical masks are “an acceptable alternative” to N95 masks unless workers are […]
When President Donald Trump started touting hydroxychloroquine as “one of the biggest game changers” for treating COVID-19, researchers hoped electronic health records could quickly tell them if he was on the right track. Yet pooling data from the digital records systems in thousands of hospitals has proved a technical nightmare thus far. That’s largely because […]
Jill Goodridge was shopping for affordable health insurance when a friend told her about O’NA HealthCare, a low-cost alternative to commercial insurance. The self-described “health care cooperative” promised a shield against catastrophic claims. Its name suggested an affiliation with a Native American tribe — a theme that carried through on its website, where a feather […]
With new daily coronavirus cases rising in at least two dozen states, an explosion of new infections in Arizona is stretching some hospitals and alarming public health experts who link the surge in cases to the state’s lifting of a stay-at-home order a month ago. Arizona has emerged as one of the country’s newest coronavirus hot […]
As the mother of a child with food allergies, Heather Sapp was well versed in reading labels and calling manufacturers to verify ingredients. For years, she kept her daughter’s diet free of the peanuts and tree nuts that could kill her. But when a bite of lemon-ginger hummus three years ago sent Sapp herself into […]
