By JoNel Aleccia As a deadly heat wave scorched the Pacific Northwest last month, overwhelming hospital emergency rooms in a region unaccustomed to triple-digit temperatures, doctors resorted to a grim but practical tool to save lives: human body bags filled with ice and water. Officials at hospitals in Seattle and Renton, Washington, said that as more…
A federal price transparency rule that took effect this year was supposed to give patients, employers and insurers a clearer picture of the true cost of hospital care. When the Trump administration unveiled the rule in 2019, Seema Verma, then chief of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, promised it would “upend the status quo to empower patients…
Many of us have visited a doctor’s office. And in many circumstances our doctors visit includes a follow up correspondence of some sort. Whether it was a medical assistant contacting a patient to set up his/her next doctor’s visit, or in some cases a follow up notification from your doctor informing you of the results…