A new government report released Thursday found health insurance companies had combed through patient charts to obtain billions of dollars of additional payments from the federal Medicare program. The report, from the federal inspector general’s office, examined payments billed by insurers for those covered by private Medicare Advantage plans, which are increasingly popular and heavily…
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Everyone dies, but almost nobody expects to die today. Yet, accidents do happen. In 2017, accidents and unintentional injuries were the third-most-common cause of death of Americans. Although we live in a remarkably safe world by historical standards, many of us needlessly increase our risk of sickness, injury and even death without realizing it. Let’s…
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A recent article about a highly unconventional experiment involving a man who had received a bone marrow transplant has raised some questions for readers of The New York Times. Four years after the lifesaving procedure, all the DNA in the patient’s semen had been replaced by that of his donor. This came as a surprise…
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On one plate lie cuts of steak, black-edged and blushing, alongside potatoes dauphinoise, and on another, crimson-stained rice suffused with the deep, thrilling funk of guedj, fermented dried fish, and yete, sea snails buried in sand and then dried in the sun, tasting of brine, smoke and musk. Each meal at Le Succulent, a modest…
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WASHINGTON — Although the courts have so far blocked President Trump’s attempts to impose work requirements on Medicaid recipients, his administration announced on Thursday that it would allow a 10th state, South Carolina, to condition Medicaid eligibility for many poor adults on proving that they work or engage in other activities, like volunteering. It is…
DetailsHepatitis C is a viral liver infection that can become chronic. Some people have antibodies associated with the virus in their blood but do not have an active hepatitis C infection. These antibodies can lead to false-positive results on blood tests for the infection. A person can have hepatitis C for a number of years,…
DetailsThe kidneys filter the blood and remove extra water and waste from the body. When something causes the kidneys to work less efficiently, it can lead to kidney failure. Various conditions can cause the kidneys to work less efficiently. This prevents the removal of waste, and when this happens, it can give rise to kidney…
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The Senate voted 72 to 18 to confirm Dr. Stephen Hahn as commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, as the agency faces pressure to reduce teenage vaping and weighs competing interests on a long-delayed proposal to ban flavored e-cigarettes. Dr. Hahn, chief medical executive at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, was…
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It was chest pain that brought the 34-year-old woman to the emergency room at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. She’d been coughing for days, but that morning the pain was so bad she was worried that it had turned into pneumonia. She tried to tough it out, but when it was no better by…
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“Is this the greatest concert any of us have ever heard?” Robert Downey Jr. asked from the stage of the Beacon Theater in Manhattan on Monday night. The crowd roared in agreement. The lineup already featured Deborah Harry, Darryl McDaniels (of Run D.M.C.), James Taylor, Shaggy and Ricky Martin. Yet to come were Bruce Springsteen…
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