
U.S. MILITARY AND THE DOMESTIC CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE: KEY QUESTIONS
By Josh Michaud and Kellie Moss The domestic response to coronavirus in the U.S. is rapidly expanding. At this point, every U.S. state and territory has declared an emergency, and President Trump has declared the pandemic to represent a national emergency. Yet there are concerns that response capabilities

IVC JOINS VS IN DELAY OF CONFERENCE UNTIL JULY
By Larry Storer The International Vein Conference scheduled for April 30-May 2 in Miami Beach, Florida, has been delayed until July, Chairman Jose I. Almeida said March 20. At the time it was either to be July 9-11 or 10-12. He hopes to have the final date nailed

FDA REMOVES THE RED TAPE ON TEST DEVELOPERS MARCH 18
Despite a decade of tightly regulating testing, the FDA is now allowing companies to proceed with their diagnostic tests for COVID-19 without first submitting them for federal review or obtaining an official emergency clearance. In the past, the FDA has warned of the personal health risks that could follow

CORONAVIRUS IS UNLIKE ANYTHING IN OUR LIFETIME, AND WE HAVE TO STOP COMPARING IT TO THE FLU
EDITOR’s NOTE: Longtime health reporter Charles Ornstein says that comparing the novel coronavirus to the flu is dangerously inaccurate. Not one public health expert he trusts has called that comparison valid. Here’s why. by Charles Ornstein Is the United States Prepared for COVID-19? As a longtime health care

ABOUT 4 IN 10 ADULTS IN THE U.S. ARE AT GREATER RISK OF DEVELOPING SERIOUS ILLNESS IF INFECTED WITH CORONAVIRUS
Based on current understanding of risk, forty-one percent of adults ages 18 and older in the U.S. have a higher risk of developing more serious illness if they become infected with the virus that causes COVID-19, because they are older or have serious underlying health conditions, or both, according

TRUMP, CMS TAKE ACTION TO FIGHT CORONAVIRUS NATIONAL EMERGENCY
The Trump Administration announced on March 12 aggressive actions and regulatory flexibilities to help healthcare providers and states respond to and contain the spread of 2019 Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19). The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is taking these actions following President Trump’s declaration of a national

ONE-ON-ONE WITH TRUMP’S MEDICARE AND MEDICAID CHIEF SEEMA VERMA
By Sarah Varney Seema Verma, administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, sat down for a rare one-on-one interview with Kaiser Health News senior correspondent Sarah Varney. They discussed her views on President Donald Trump’s plan for sustaining public health insurance programs, how the administration would respond if Obamacare
REDUCE HEALTH COSTS BY NURTURING THE SICKEST? A MUCH-TOUTED IDEA DISAPPOINTS
By Dan Gorenstein and Leslie Walker Improving health and lowering costs for the sickest and most expensive patients in America is a dream harder to realize than many health care leaders had hoped, according to a study published Jan.8 by the New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers tested whether pairing frequently hospitalized
TEXAS GETTING STRONGEST U.S. LAW AGAINST SURPRISE MEDICAL BILLS
By Ashley Lopez It appears Texas will get one of the strongest laws in the nation against surprise medical bills after all. The law, which takes effect Jan. 1, waverein November when the Texas Medical Board drafted the rules for its implementation. The board, made up of healthcare

FEDERAL APPEALS COURT STRIKES DOWN PORTION OF OBAMACARE
By Julie Rovner A federal appeals court panel in New Orleans dealt another blow to the Affordable Care Act on Wednesday, agreeing with a lower-court judge that the portion of the health law requiring most people to have coverage is unconstitutional now that Congress has eliminated the tax penalty that