GANN VALLEY, S.D. — Rural medics who rescued rancher Jim Lutter after he was gored by a bison didn’t have much experience handling such severe wounds.

But the medics did have a doctor looking over their shoulders inside the ambulance as they rushed Lutter to a hospital.

The emergency medicine physician sat 140 miles away in a Sioux Falls, ...Read more

It’s a good day when Frank Lee, a retired chef, can slip out to the hardware store, fairly confident that his wife, Robin, is in the hands of reliable help. He spends nearly every hour of every day anxiously overseeing her care at their home on the Isle of Palms, a barrier island near Charleston, South Carolina.

Robin Lee, 67, has had ...Read more

Most older Americans want to live at home as long as they can, but finding and affording the help they need often isn’t easy. There are severe shortages of home health aides in many parts of the country. Hiring them is costly. And most middle-class people will have to pay for home care themselves if it’s needed for the long haul.

Here’s ...Read more

Colorado officials say their plan to import cheaper medicines from Canada has been stymied by opposition from drugmakers and inaction by the Biden administration, according to a state report obtained by KFF Health News.

The Dec. 1 report, prepared for the state legislature by Colorado’s Department of Health Care Policy & Financing, says that ...Read more

The federal government is fixing a mistake that excluded members of the U.S. armed services who worked at Sept. 11 crash sites and came down with a 9/11 illness from getting pivotal health coverage, the New York Daily News has learned.

Additions to the bipartisan National Defense Authorization Act will now allow soldiers and sailors, other ...Read more

It's especially important that you get a flu shot if you have cancer.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Mayo Clinic recommend a yearly flu vaccination for everyone 6 months and older, with rare exceptions. Vaccination is your best defense against flu. If you haven't gotten your flu shot yet, now's the time.

For most people, ...Read more

DEAR MAYO CLINIC: My neighbor recently retired, and I've been trying to convince her to volunteer at the library with me. She's not swayed by my stories of feeling good from helping others. Can you share some other benefits of dedicating her time and energy to a cause?

ANSWER: Thank you for volunteering in your community and for trying to ...Read more

CHICAGO -- More than 70 kidney transplants were performed every day in the United States last year. Rachel Watson wanted to be one of the donors, but was told she didn’t qualify — at first.

Watson, a 27-year-old digital marketer living in Warrenville, Illinois, had been moved by a news story about a local politician in need of a kidney. In ...Read more

Regular urine color varies but usually ranges from clear to pale yellow. The exact hue depends on how much water you drink. Fluids dilute the yellow pigments in urine. So the more you drink, the clearer your urine looks. When you drink less, the yellow color becomes stronger.

Some foods and medications can change the color of urine. For example...Read more

Many people from racial and ethnic minority groups brace themselves for insults and judgments before medical appointments, according to a new survey of patients that reaffirms the prevalence of racial discrimination in the U.S. health system.

The KFF survey of nearly 6,300 patients who have had care in the past three years found that about 55% ...Read more

COVID-19 infection can lead to preterm birth, a study published last week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows, but getting vaccinated protects against it.

Researchers found a serious adverse effect on preterm birth from COVID infection during pregnancy, a risk that had plummeted to zero by fall 2022, following ...Read more

The Biden administration plans to push states to boost oversight of the number of doctors, hospitals and other health providers insurers cover in Obamacare plans, under rules proposed in November.

The annual regulatory proposal, known as the payment parameters rule, also seeks to expand access to adult dental coverage in Affordable Care Act ...Read more

Vitamin D is a nutrient your body needs to keep your bones healthy and strong. It also has properties that support your immune system and neuromuscular health.

Dr. Jesse Bracamonte, a Mayo Clinic family medicine physician, says one of the main ways your body gets vitamin D is through direct sunlight on the skin. And during winter in the ...Read more

Bill Eisenman has always fished.

“Growing up, we ate whatever we caught — catfish, carp, freshwater drum,” he said. “That was the only real source of fish in our diet as a family, and we ate a lot of it.”

Today, a branch of the Rouge River runs through Eisenman’s property in a suburb north of Detroit. But in recent years, he has ...Read more

A recent Federal Trade Commission civil lawsuit accusing one of the nation’s largest anesthesiology groups of monopolistic practices that sharply drove up prices is a warning to private equity investors that could temper their big push to snap up physician groups.

Over the past three years, FTC and Department of Justice officials have ...Read more

Bradley Little, a physical education teacher in Arizona, was leading his class through a school hallway in 2017 when he collapsed. Little feared he was having a stroke. Or, in a sign of the times, that he’d been shot. He tried to stand, but his leg wouldn’t move.

A student ran for help. Firefighters arrived and hoisted Little onto a gurney....Read more

Whether it's work parties, social gatherings or family get-togethers, December joins people for holidays and social events centered around plenty of food and drinks. But overindulging during the holiday season can bring unwelcome consequences.

Andrea Delgado, a Mayo Clinic dietitian, shares three tips to help manage holiday indulgences this ...Read more

In the year since the Supreme Court outlawed the national right to an abortion, 18 states have implemented abortion bans that specify that mental health or suicidality do not qualify as a health-related exception for the woman — a deviation that’s occurring despite growing national momentum to treat physical and mental health equally.

...Read more