Lauren Sausser

Stephanie Halver’s doctor recommended she get a breast MRI, partly because of her family’s cancer history. Her insurer approved the scan, but unlike mammograms, breast MRIs aren’t universally covered as zero-cost preventive care.

Many telehealth companies have emerged in recent years offering easy access to GLP-1 weight loss drugs as demand has exploded. Meanwhile, researchers and doctors are concerned that some of these online companies aren't properly screening or monitoring patients. “It gives a black eye to telemedicine,” one researcher said.

The new law will allow members who have been approved for a course of treatment to pursue an alternative, medically appropriate treatment of equal or lesser value without the need for another approval from PEIA.

After Eric Tennant died, his widow vowed to speak out against West Virginia’s Public Employees Insurance Agency, which had denied cancer treatment recommended by Tennant’s doctor. Her efforts paid off. In March, West Virginia’s governor signed a bill to protect some patients from harm tied to prior authorization.

Last summer, the Trump administration announced a voluntary pledge by health insurers to reform prior authorization, but patient advocates and medical providers remain skeptical.

Eric Tennant’s doctors recommended histotripsy, which would target, and potentially destroy, a cancerous tumor in his liver. But by the time his insurer approved the treatment, Tennant was no longer considered a good candidate. He died in September.

The case of one Maine woman shows how prior authorization rules can block coverage for even simple, medically necessary care.

The fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson prompted both grief and public outrage about the ways insurers deny treatment. Republicans and Democrats agree prior authorization needs fixing, but patients are growing impatient.

State legislatures nationwide, including several in the South, are spending millions to improve rural health outcomes and access. For years, though, most Southern states have refused billions of federal dollars to provide public health insurance to more low-income adults. That isn’t likely to change with Trump back in office.

Hospitals using volunteers is commonplace. But some labor experts argue that deploying unpaid workers to do work that benefits the organization’s bottom line lets for-profit hospitals skirt federal…

As public health departments work on improving their message, the skepticism and mistrust often reserved for covid-19 vaccines now threaten other public health priorities, including flu shots and c…

After almost every mass shooting, a debate is renewed over whether to publish the photos of the carnage the guns have inflicted.

Dashboards that rely on positive covid test results reported to local health departments no longer paint a reliable picture of how covid is spreading in an area. Some experts say wastewater surveil…

Homes for pregnant girls may seem like a vestige of the past. But they still exist and, in light of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on abortion, may become more necessary.

A new genetic research project underway in South Carolina aims to reduce health disparities between Black and white residents — such as cancer and cardiovascular disease rates — that have long rank…

Research has long shown that doctors are less likely to respect patients who are overweight or obese — terms that now apply to nearly three-quarters of adults in the U.S. The Association of America…

Some U.S. states have reduced use of the procedure, including by sharing C-section data with doctors and hospitals. But change has proved difficult in the South, where women are generally less heal…

Nearly all psychiatric residential treatment centers for children in South Carolina operate as for-profit businesses — some backed by private equity — and many prioritize out-of-state kids because …