HHS

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., and other members of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus could force a federal government shutdown Oct. 1. The National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and prevention would be affected.

What happens to health programs if the federal government shuts down?

10:26pm September 27, 2023

by Julie Rovner

Medicare and Medicaid are mandatory spending programs and that keeps them relatively safe in the early days of the shutdown, but 42% of the Department of Health's staff will be furloughed.

The California company iHealth is one of 12 U.S. manufacturers getting an investment from the federal government to provide free tests by mail to people ahead of the winter COVID season.

Health & Safety

Free COVID tests by mail are back, starting Monday

11:34am September 21, 2023

by Selena Simmons-Duffin

People will be able to go to COVIDTests.gov and get four free tests per household, starting next week. The Biden administration says it is trying to prepare for the fall and winter COVID season.

Daisy Hohman was separated from her three children for 20 months when they were placed in foster care. When Hohman was reunited with her children, she received a bill of nearly $20,000 for foster care from her Minnesota county.

States send kids to foster care and their parents the bill — often one too big to pay

4:35pm December 27, 2021

In every state, governments charge parents for the cost of foster care when children are taken away. When that happens, NPR found, poor parents can't make ends meet, so families are kept apart longer.

HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra says doctors who are balking at the rules of the No Surprises Act aren't looking out for patients. "I don't think when someone is overcharging that it's going to hurt the overcharger to now have to [accept] a fair price," Bece

Doctors are mad about surprise billing rules. Becerra says stop gouging patients

2:57pm November 22, 2021

by Michael McAuliff

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra says health providers who have exploited a complicated system to charge exorbitant rates will have to bear their share of the cost — or close.

A doctor stands at a walk-up coronavirus testing site at West County Health Center in San Pablo, Calif., in April 2020. Pandemic burnout has affected thousands of health care workers.

Health & Safety

The federal government pledges $100 million to address health care worker shortages

12:47pm October 15, 2021

by Deepa Shivaram

As health care workers face increased levels of pandemic burnout, the Biden administration is looking to help states recruit and retain clinicians in underserved areas.

Xavier Becerra, then nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services, puts on his protective mask at his Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing in February.

Nearly 300,000 More Federal Health Workers Are Ordered To Be Vaccinated

2:33pm August 12, 2021

by Deepa Shivaram

The Department of Health and Human Services will require nearly a third of its employees to get the COVID-19 vaccine, while the Department of Veterans Affairs has expanded its vaccination mandate.

Dr. Rachel Levine testifies last month at the Senate confirmation hearing for her nomination as assistant secretary for health. Levine previously was Pennsylvania's secretary of health.

Rachel Levine Makes History As 1st Openly Trans Federal Official Confirmed By Senate

6:23pm March 24, 2021

by Laurel Wamsley

Levine, a doctor who was previously Pennsylvania's secretary of health, is the first openly transgender federal official to win Senate confirmation. She's the new assistant secretary for health.

Lawsuit Argues 'Ticking Time Bomb' Could Invalidate Thousands Of Health Rules

4:53pm March 09, 2021

by Selena Simmons-Duffin

In its final days, the Trump administration created a rule that could eliminate thousands of regulations created by the Department of Health and Human Services. A lawsuit is challenging the rule.

Queue Listen Now

Hospitals must now post on their websites, in a consumer-friendly format, the specific costs for 300 common and "shoppable" services, such as having a baby, getting a joint replacement, having a hernia repaired or undergoing a diagnostic brain scan.

Hospitals Forced To Be More Transparent About Pricing. Will That Save You Money?

11:02am January 05, 2021

by Julie Appleby

Under a rule that kicked in Jan. 1, hospitals must now make public the prices they negotiate with health insurers. But health policy experts have divergent views on what that will mean for patients.

A vial of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech that was used at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, U.K., on Tuesday.

Health & Safety

U.S. Government May Find It Hard To Get More Doses Of Pfizer's COVID-19 Vaccine

9:31am December 10, 2020

by Sydney Lupkin

A Pfizer board member says the government declined to buy more doses beyond the initial 100 million already agreed upon. Demand from other countries could complicate future purchases.