If the report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General is sustained, Humana Inc. could face a record penalty for overcharges in a Medicare Advantage plan.
The pandemic has made it harder to exercise and easier to gain weight and delay routine checkups, bad habits that can prime your body for heart disease. These tips can help you get back on track.
In some of the world's biggest economies, people are having fewer children. But writer Wajahat Ali explains why investing in future generations is key to rejuvenating our societies...and our humanity.
Long-term care options are expensive and often out of reach for elders and people with disabilities. Part of the president's proposed infrastructure plan would help fund home-based health services.
Katie Engelhart explores the complexity of physician-assisted death in the book The Inevitable. She says patients seeking to end their own lives sometimes resort to veterinary drugs from overseas.
Adults don't generate as many new neurons as children or teenagers, but some growth is still happening. Neuroscientist Sandrine Thuret explains how we can encourage the production of more nerve cells.
In Southern California, pollutants from wildfire smoke caused up to a 10% increase in hospital admissions. Researchers say there's a need for better air monitoring and public health programs.
The third COVID-19 vaccine authorized for use in the U.S. requires one shot instead of two, and works a slightly different way from the others. Here's what we know about its safety and effectiveness.
If you've been delaying routine medical care in the past year, now's the time to catch up, doctors say. The consequences of missing some key screenings and health checkups can be lethal.
Nonwhite Americans looking for care for a loved one are much more likely than whites to encounter discrimination, language barriers, and providers who lack cultural competence, a new report finds.
As the country faces another wrenching milestone, there are signs of hope that we may be beating back the virus. But a brighter future won't bring back precious lives lost.
The group that suffered the largest drop in life expectancy was Black males — a decline of 3 years. Hispanic males also saw a large decrease, with a decline of 2.4 years.
After getting one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, some people are having trouble getting their second shot. Here's how to maximize the likelihood you'll get both doses, to be fully immunized.
Guidance from the CDC on who should be prioritized to get the COVID-19 vaccine was meant to be flexible and inclusive. But "the attempt to have equity created more inequity," says one researcher.
I haven't seen my mother in over a year. I was going to visit in April to celebrate her 90th birthday but the pandemic put that on hold. Now that she's been vaccinated is it time for the birthday hug?
With vaccine still scarce, and eligibility differing from place to place, some people have easier access to "extra" doses than others. Careful, ethicists warn. Going out of turn is a slippery slope.
The administration is in its early days, but the infectious disease expert says he's encouraged by the new president's attitude about the pandemic. Science, Fauci says, is "going to rule."
Glitchy websites, jammed phone lines and long lines outside clinics are complicating the vaccine rollout. And older Americans and those without caregivers and computer skills are at a disadvantage.
Supply shortages of oxygen for hospitals have plagued many countries, but the U.S. has averted the most dire — partly because the industry figured out new ways to share resources and anticipate needs.
The huge spending bill Congress passed last month included aid to rural hospitals, training for new doctors, new rules regarding mental health coverage and requirements for billing transparency.
Early in the pandemic, shortages of N95 respirators and other medical gear prompted panic across the world. A year later, the masks still aren't widely available to U.S. consumers.
Paleoanthropologist Daniel Lieberman says the concept of "getting exercise" is relatively new. His new book, Exercised, examines why we run, lift and walk for a workout when our ancestors didn't.
As states suddenly expand the categories of people eligible for the first scarce shipments of vaccine, who will be watching to make sure those hit hardest by the pandemic aren't left behind?
It takes time after vaccination for immunity to the virus to build up, and no vaccine is 100% effective. Plus, scientists don't yet know if the vaccine stops viral spread. Here's what's known so far.
Harvard University's Daniel Lieberman looks at exercise from an evolutionary point of view, concluding that we evolved to limit our physical activity where possible, saving it for survival activities.
