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9 Tips for Tapping into Telehealth for Menopause
Read More: 9 Tips for Tapping into Telehealth for Menopause+ Infographic text Trouble sleeping. Irritability. Unexplained weight gain. Hot flashes. If you’re a woman in midlife, menopause symptoms can be brutal. The good news: Consulting a healthcare provider (HCP) via telehealth can help you understand and manage your symptoms. Here are 9 tips for getting the most out of your telehealth visit: 1. Choose…
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Making the Most of Telehealth for Menopause
Read More: Making the Most of Telehealth for MenopauseJodi Miller, 49, was experiencing distressing changes to her skin, weight, moods, sleep schedule and menstrual cycle. But when she talked to her OB-GYN, she didn’t get much help. “I was told that all of what I was experiencing was a part of ‘the change’ and that there was nothing that could be done,” Miller…
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Health Insurance 101: How to Choose Health Insurance When You’re Living with Obesity
Read More: Health Insurance 101: How to Choose Health Insurance When You’re Living with ObesityApproximately 4 out of 10 American adults live with obesity, a medical condition that can cause serious health problems such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer. There are treatments, like weight loss medications and surgery, that can help, but they can also be expensive. For example, medication prescribed for weight loss can cost around $1,000…
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How to Choose Health Insurance When You Have Fibroids
Read More: How to Choose Health Insurance When You Have FibroidsUterine fibroids are so common that more than three out of four women will develop them at some point during their lifetimes. Fibroids don’t always cause symptoms, but in one-quarter to one-half of cases, they do. Fibroids can cause heavy and long-lasting periods, pain in the pelvic floor and pain during sex, frequent urination, constipation,…
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The Importance of Black Dermatologists: Skin Care Must See Color
Read More: The Importance of Black Dermatologists: Skin Care Must See ColorThe dentist’s office was the last place I expected to be warned about skin cancer. When my hygienist lifted my hair off my ears during a head and neck exam, she noticed a mole that hadn’t been present six months ago. “I’m not an expert on skin conditions, but just to be safe, you might…
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Why Access to Contraception Matters for Women of All Ages
Read More: Why Access to Contraception Matters for Women of All AgesKelsie Williams grew up in rural Kentucky, where accessing contraception was — and still is — a struggle. “The more rural regions are really short-staffed and they’re low on specialists who provide reproductive healthcare,” Williams explained. “I still hear from friends and family who have to take time off for work to drive long distances.…
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Top Facts You Need to Know About Medical Abortion
Read More: Top Facts You Need to Know About Medical AbortionA medical abortion is one way to end an early pregnancy using prescription medication. Complications are very rare, and this method is considered safe and effective for most people up to 70 days of pregnancy, or about 9 to 10 weeks since their last period. In 2020, more than half of the abortions in the…
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Telehealth and Pain Management: What You Need to Know
Read More: Telehealth and Pain Management: What You Need to KnowThe last thing you want to do when you’re experiencing debilitating pain is hop on public transportation or get in the car (perhaps with kids in tow) to go see your doctor. Instead, today, you can log into a telehealth appointment with your healthcare provider (HCP) for assessment, pain medication prescriptions, and follow-up care all…
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Race, Gender and the Ways These Identities Intersect Matter in Cancer Outcomes
Read More: Race, Gender and the Ways These Identities Intersect Matter in Cancer OutcomesBy Timothy Pawlik, The Ohio State University; Elizabeth Palmer, The Ohio State University, and Samilia Obeng-Gyasi, The Ohio State University The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work. The big idea Belonging to one or more groups with long-standing social and economic disadvantages increases the risk of cancer diagnoses and death, according…
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15 Minutes With: Dr. Neel Shah Talks to HealthyWomen About Racism in Healthcare
Read More: 15 Minutes With: Dr. Neel Shah Talks to HealthyWomen About Racism in HealthcareDr. Neel Shah is chief medical officer of Maven Clinic, the world’s largest virtual clinic for women’s and family health, assistant professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School and the founder of Costs of Care. Shah is featured in “The Color of Care,” an original documentary from Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo productions…
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A Recap: HealthyWomen’s Webinar, “CURES 2.0: Leading Women’s Health Forward”
Read More: A Recap: HealthyWomen’s Webinar, “CURES 2.0: Leading Women’s Health Forward”The United States Congress has the power to give women resources, tools and treatments to improve their own health and the health of their families. According to HealthyWomen’s CEO Beth Battaglino, RN-C, bipartisan legislation moving through Congress — the Cures 2.0 Act — would do just that. To examine key provisions and implications of the…
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Even When IVF Is Covered by Insurance, High Bills and Hassles Abound
Read More: Even When IVF Is Covered by Insurance, High Bills and Hassles AboundBy Phil Galewitz, Kaiser Health News After years of trying to have a baby without success, Brenna Kaminski and her husband, Joshua Pritt, decided to try in vitro fertilization. Only 15 states require insurance to cover fertility treatments, and Florida, where Kaminski and Pritt live, isn’t one of them. Still, the couple’s insurance, from Pritt’s…
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Antimicrobial Resistance Is Bad News for Everyone, but May Hurt Some Communities More Than Others
Read More: Antimicrobial Resistance Is Bad News for Everyone, but May Hurt Some Communities More Than OthersWhen Terry Bravo had a urinary tract infection in 2018, she took her mother’s unused antibiotics, left over from a prescription her mom had never finished four years before. Bravo said it was the only antibiotic she could get. Although Bravo has health insurance, she said it costs a lot and barely covers anything. “I…
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Health Insurance Coverage for Kids Through Medicaid and CHIP Helps Their Moms Too
Read More: Health Insurance Coverage for Kids Through Medicaid and CHIP Helps Their Moms TooBy Sebastian Tello-Trillo, University of Virginia The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work. The big idea When children get health insurance through Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program, known as CHIP, their families benefit too. That’s what I found through recent research conducted with two fellow health economists, Daniel S.…
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Transgender People of Color Face Unique Challenges as Gender Discrimination and Racism Intersect
Read More: Transgender People of Color Face Unique Challenges as Gender Discrimination and Racism IntersectBy Gabriel Lockett, University of Florida; Jules Sostre, University of Florida, and Roberto L. Abreu, University of Florida Throughout history, transgender people of color have had a place of honor in many indigenous cultures around the world. This changed in many places, however, as European colonizers began forcing indigenous people to follow white social norms.…
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What’s Sexual Orientation Got to Do With It? LGTBQ People Face Discrimination in Healthcare
Read More: What’s Sexual Orientation Got to Do With It? LGTBQ People Face Discrimination in HealthcareMarch 21 to March 25 is National LGBTQ Health Awareness Week. At age 28, Laura Silverstein tripped while running, dislocating her pinky finger trying to break her fall. Now 52, Silverstein said her experience at the emergency room that day still gives her “the heebie jeebies.” The doctor probed Silverstein about her birth control method,…
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It’s Illegal — but My Insurance Company Refused to Cover My Birth Control
Read More: It’s Illegal — but My Insurance Company Refused to Cover My Birth ControlAs told to Shannon Shelton Miller More than two years ago, I made an appointment with my physician to discuss the best contraceptive options for my healthcare needs. Together, we decided on a method and my physician submitted the prescription to my insurer. I was stunned when my insurer refused to cover my contraceptive of…
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Long Covid Leaves Newly Disabled People Facing Old Barriers — a Sociologist Explains
Read More: Long Covid Leaves Newly Disabled People Facing Old Barriers — a Sociologist ExplainsBy Laura Mauldin, University of Connecticut Up to one-third of COVID-19 survivors will acquire the condition known as long or long-haul COVID-19. The American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation estimates that long COVID will add as many as 22 million individuals to the U.S. population of disabled people. I am a sociologist and researcher…
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HIV Preventive Care Is Supposed to Be Free in the US. So, Why Are Some Patients Still Paying?
Read More: HIV Preventive Care Is Supposed to Be Free in the US. So, Why Are Some Patients Still Paying?By Sarah Varney, Kaiser Health News Anthony Cantu, 31, counsels patients at a San Antonio health clinic about a daily pill shown to prevent HIV infection. Last summer, he started taking the medication himself, an approach called preexposure prophylaxis, better known as PrEP. The regimen requires laboratory tests every three months to ensure the powerful…
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A Conversation With Janet McUlsky About Patient Advocacy
Read More: A Conversation With Janet McUlsky About Patient AdvocacyJanet McUlsky has been working in patient advocacy for more than four decades. She’s a nationally recognized expert and innovator in the field of stakeholder alliance development and programming and is the former senior director of National Alliance Development at Pfizer. McUlsky is this year’s recipient of the Pinnacle Award: Honoring a Career of Outstanding…
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Survey Says: How Women View Health Care and Access to Health Information
Read More: Survey Says: How Women View Health Care and Access to Health InformationThese days, health-related insight is a click away. Curious about the symptoms of depression? Google it. Need the definition of collagen? Ask Alexa. Want to know more about women’s reproductive rights? Pick a podcast. But how do women view health care and access to health information? Do age, race and ethnicity play a part? What…
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The ACA guarantees full contraceptive coverage. Why are women getting denied?
Read More: The ACA guarantees full contraceptive coverage. Why are women getting denied?As Whitney* approached the end of her medical residency more than two years ago, she discovered a new birth control device that seemed like a perfect fit for her needs. The contraceptive — a one-year vaginal ring — meant she’d only need one prescription annually instead of the monthly refills required for most hormonal rings.…
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Why Millions on Medicaid Are at Risk of Losing Coverage in the Months Ahead
Read More: Why Millions on Medicaid Are at Risk of Losing Coverage in the Months AheadBy Rachana Pradhan, Kaiser Health News The Biden administration and state officials are bracing for a great unwinding: millions of people losing their Medicaid benefits when the pandemic health emergency ends. Some might sign up for different insurance. Many others are bound to get lost in the transition. State Medicaid agencies for months have been…
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15 Minutes With Dr. Leana Wen
Read More: 15 Minutes With Dr. Leana WenDr. Leana Wen is an emergency physician and public health professor at George Washington University who previously served as the health commissioner in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Wen is a familiar face on CNN, where she serves as a medical analyst, writes a weekly column in The Washington Post and hosts the Post’s newsletter, The Checkup…
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HIV Prevention Pill PrEP Is Now Free Under Most Insurance Plans – but the Latest Challenge to the Affordable Care Act Puts This Benefit at Risk
Read More: HIV Prevention Pill PrEP Is Now Free Under Most Insurance Plans – but the Latest Challenge to the Affordable Care Act Puts This Benefit at RiskDecember 1 is World AIDS Day By Paul Shafer, Boston University and Kristefer Stojanovski, Tulane University Since the start of the HIV epidemic in 1981, over 700,000 Americans have lost their lives to AIDS. Being infected used to be a death sentence. But now, 40 years later, the U.S. is on the precipice of eradicating…
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Is Your Health Insurance Provider Tracking You Online?
Read More: Is Your Health Insurance Provider Tracking You Online?As a graduate student in digital marketing, Rachel Cipriano, 46, knows just how much of her data is likely being collected online. Consumers leave digital footprints with every online purchase, Google search, take-out order or streaming binge. Where we live, how much money we earn, and whether or how much we smoke, drink, exercise, eat,…
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Transgender Children’s Rights Are Under Attack
Read More: Transgender Children’s Rights Are Under AttackFive years ago, Lisa Stanton’s now 10-year-old daughter, Maya, socially transitioned to her affirmed gender. (A person’s affirmed gender is the one that reflects their gender identity, as opposed to the gender assigned to them at birth.) The duo has been fighting against laws challenging transgender rights within their home state of Texas, ever since.…
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How Rural Communities Are Losing Their Pharmacies
Read More: How Rural Communities Are Losing Their PharmaciesBy Markian Hawryluk, Kaiser Health News Batson’s Drug Store seems like a throwback to a simpler time. The independently owned pharmacy in Howard, Kansas, still runs an old-fashioned soda counter and hand-dips ice cream. But the drugstore, the only one in the entire county, teeters on the edge between nostalgia and extinction. Julie Perkins, pharmacist…
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A New, Lower Threshold for Lead Poisoning in Children Means More Kids Will Get Tested – but the Ultimate Solution Is Eliminating Lead Sources
Read More: A New, Lower Threshold for Lead Poisoning in Children Means More Kids Will Get Tested – but the Ultimate Solution Is Eliminating Lead SourcesGabriel Filippelli, IUPUI The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has updated its blood lead reference value – the level at which children ages 1-5 are considered to have high exposure to lead. Since 2012, this threshold had been set at 5 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood; children at or above this…
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Celebrating Every Body Requires Access to the Best Weight-Management Care
Read More: Celebrating Every Body Requires Access to the Best Weight-Management CareIf you’ve gained weight during the Covid-19 pandemic, you are not alone. A year into the pandemic, an American Psychological Association survey showed that 45% of women report undesired weight gain, with an average addition of 22 pounds. Gaining weight can make us feel insecure about our appearance or uncomfortable in pants we may have…
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Covid Is Killing Rural Americans at Twice the Rate of Urbanites
Read More: Covid Is Killing Rural Americans at Twice the Rate of UrbanitesBy Lauren Weber, Kaiser Health News Rural Americans are dying of covid at more than twice the rate of their urban counterparts — a divide that health experts say is likely to widen as access to medical care shrinks for a population that tends to be older, sicker, heavier, poorer and less vaccinated. While the…
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Your Wealth or Your Health?
Read More: Your Wealth or Your Health?Lisa Keller thought she was done with cancer. She’d already survived a rare sarcoma at age 12 and breast cancer at age 28, so she was unprepared mentally — and financially — when she was diagnosed with breast cancer again in December of 2017 at age 44. Earlier that year, Keller had filed for bankruptcy…
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Removing Barriers to Cervical Cancer Screening for the LGBTQ Community
Read More: Removing Barriers to Cervical Cancer Screening for the LGBTQ CommunityReviewed by Dr. Sue Yom As executive director of the National LGBT Cancer Network, Scout, who goes by only one name, knows better than most about the importance of staying up to date on cancer screenings. And yet, Scout admits he’s frequently put off his own screenings for human papillomavirus (HPV) and cervical cancer. Because…
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The Next Attack on the Affordable Care Act May Cost You Free Preventive Health Care
Read More: The Next Attack on the Affordable Care Act May Cost You Free Preventive Health CareBy Paul Shafer, Boston University and Alex Hoagland, Boston University Many Americans breathed a sigh of relief when the Supreme Court left the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in place following its third major legal challenge in June 2021. This decision left widely supported policies in place, like ensuring coverage regardless of preexisting conditions, coverage for…
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Can Health Insurance Companies Charge the Unvaccinated Higher Premiums? What About Life Insurers? 5 Questions Answered
Read More: Can Health Insurance Companies Charge the Unvaccinated Higher Premiums? What About Life Insurers? 5 Questions AnsweredBy Kosali Simon, Indiana University and Sharon Tennyson, Cornell University The current COVID-19 wave in the U.S. is mostly affecting unvaccinated Americans, who represent more than 95% of current cases of hospitalization and death. Given the average cost of a COVID-19 hospitalization in 2020 ran about US$42,200 per patient, will the unvaccinated be asked to…
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Women Say California Insurer Makes It Too Hard to Get Drug for Postpartum Depression
Read More: Women Say California Insurer Makes It Too Hard to Get Drug for Postpartum DepressionBy April Dembosky, KQED, Kaiser Health News When Miriam McDonald decided she wanted to have another baby at age 44, her doctor told her she had a better chance of winning the lottery. So when she got pregnant right away, she and her husband were thrilled. But within three days of giving birth to their…
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Contraception Is Free to Women, Except When It’s Not
Read More: Contraception Is Free to Women, Except When It’s NotBy Michelle Andrews, Kaiser Health News For Stephanie Force, finding a birth control method that she likes and can get without paying out-of-pocket has been a struggle, despite the Affordable Care Act’s promise of free contraceptives for women and adolescent girls in most health plans. The 27-year-old physician recruiter in Roanoke, Virginia, was perfectly happy…
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No Vacancy: How a Shortage of Mental Health Beds Keeps Kids Trapped Inside ERs
Read More: No Vacancy: How a Shortage of Mental Health Beds Keeps Kids Trapped Inside ERsMartha Bebinger, WBUR, Kaiser Health News One evening in late March, a mom called 911. Her daughter, she said, was threatening to kill herself. EMTs arrived at the home north of Boston, helped calm the 13-year-old, and took her to an emergency room. Melinda, like a growing number of children during the covid-19 pandemic, had…
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Hospital Prices Must Now Be Transparent. For Many Consumers, They’re Still Anyone’s Guess.
Read More: Hospital Prices Must Now Be Transparent. For Many Consumers, They’re Still Anyone’s Guess.Julie Appleby, Kaiser Health News A colonoscopy might cost you or your insurer a few hundred dollars — or several thousand, depending on which hospital or insurer you use. Long hidden, such price variations are supposed to be available in stark black and white under a Trump administration price transparency rule that took effect at…