Andy Miller - KFF Health News

Criticism of prescription drug middlemen has intensified recently in the wake of a federal agency’s actions and legislative reform attempts.

Often a last resort for low-income families, hotel living can lead to — or exacerbate — various physical and mental issues for children, say advocates for families and researchers who study homelessness.

“Certificate of need” laws, largely supported by the hospital industry, limit health facility construction in 35 states and Washington, D.C. Georgia lawmakers decided its law was complicating the reviving of two hospitals critical to their communities.

The EPA is tightening regulation of ethylene oxide, a carcinogenic gas used to sterilize medical devices. The agency is trying to balance the interests of the health care industry supply chain with those of communities where the gas creates airborne health risks.

While many Republican state lawmakers remain firmly against Medicaid expansion, some key leaders in holdout states are showing a willingness to reconsider.

The suicide rate for Hispanics in the US has increased significantly over the past decade. The reasons are varied, citing factors such as language barriers, poverty and a lack of bilingual mental health professionals.

To contain the opioid crisis, agencies have turned to technology to monitor prescription data. Experts have raised questions about how these systems work and worry about their accuracy and potential biases.

Nonprofit hospitals avoid paying taxes if they provide community benefits such as charity care. More states are examining that trade-off, scrutinizing the extent of hospitals’ spending on their communities.

Citing the recent debt ceiling deal, the CDC is trimming its funding to child vaccination programs that focus on communities vulnerable to disease outbreaks.

Georgia is among 35-plus states that have used an under-the-radar federal funding mechanism to boost payments for hospitals and other providers under Medicaid. But oversight makes it hard to tell if the “directed payments” program is meeting its goals.