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Lalit Bajaj, an emergency medicine doctor at Children’s Hospital Colorado, with fellow emergency physician Julia Fuzak Freeman. To reduce unnecessary X-rays and antibiotics, Bajaj and his colleagues implemented new protocols in 2015 to educate parents on bronchiolitis, how to manage symptoms until kids get better, and why imaging or medication is unlikely to help. | AUSTIN DAY/CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL COLORADO

Why it’s so tough to reduce unnecessary medical care

The U.S. spends huge amounts of money on health care that does little or nothing to help patients, and may even harm them

Nov 14, 2023

Christine Rogers of Wake Forest, North Carolina, was asked to complete a mental health questionnaire as part of her annual physical. Her physician then asked about her responses, and she replied that she was having a hard year after the death of her mother. The brief conversation landed her with a charge for a separate consultation with her physician. | KATE MEDLEY/KFF HEALTH NEWS

When that supposedly free annual physical generates a bill

Annual wellness checks are typically covered without cost sharing under the Affordable Care Act, but if an issue arises during a checkup that prompts discussion, that consult can be billed — sometimes inappropriately

Nov 14, 2023

CareOregon. | COURTESY OF CAREOREGON

More public-comment meetings slated for proposed CareOregon/SCAN merger

Details on potential effects of the pending deal remain hazy as a California nonprofit Medicare insurer moves toward absorption of a major provider of health care to low-income Oregonians

Nov 14, 2023

SHUTTERSTOCK

Study: Nearly half of people using opioids in rural areas were recently incarcerated

Oregon Health & Science University author of national study says jails have an opportunity to treat drug addiction

Nov 11, 2023

Kaiser Permanente workers represented by the Service Employees International Union Local 49 hold a picket outside Westside Medical Center in Hillsboro on July 24, 2023 to pressure the managed care consortium on contract negotiations. | JAKE THOMAS/THE LUND REPORT

Kaiser Permanente workers ratify deal after historic strike

The approved contract includes a 21% wage increase over four years, a $23 per hour minimum wage in Oregon and Washington facilities, and a year of accelerated hiring to improve staffing ratios

Nov 11, 2023

Protest signs were placed by the Legacy Mount Hood Medical Center's entrance during a vigil for the birth center's closure on March 17, 2023. | JAKE THOMAS/THE LUND REPORT

Women’s health workers at Legacy push for union

Citing the attempted closure of the Mount Hood birth center and other developments, about 60 nurses and other health professionals are the latest to organize at the health system

Nov 10, 2023
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Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in southwest Portland. | M.O. STEVENS/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

State's billing probe of Providence Health continues

Oregon Department of Justice investigation of alleged improper billing of low-income people remains open 13 months later

Nov 9, 2023
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STEFAN SCHWEIHOFER/PIXABAY

Oregon residential care facilities say a new law is making them look bad

The number of facilities in Oregon with red flags on their license has tripled in the last two years, but lobbyists say they are technical violations

Nov 9, 2023
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Wesley Jackson Wade is a licensed clinical mental health counselor who practices in Durham, North Carolina. Wade was diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and dyslexia in 2020, after years of grappling with the symptoms of those conditions. Now Wade counsels Black youth and adults to help identify neurological conditions. | EAMON QUEENEY/KFF HEALTH NEWS