Richard Knox

Medicare Reverses Denial Of Costly Treatment For Hepatitis C Patient

KFF Health News Original

Walter Bianco, an Arizona man denied access to new drugs to cure his hepatitis C infection, will get the costly medications after all. After Kaiser Health News and NPR described his plight in a story that aired Monday, federal Medicare officials said they would look into the case. Bianco’s appeal of an earlier denial had […]

A Call For Pricey Treatment For Millions With Hepatitis C

KFF Health News Original

Authors of the first-ever global hepatitis C guidelines went big Tuesday, advocating for worldwide use of two of the most expensive specialty drugs in the world. The new guidelines, from the World Health Organization, give strong endorsement to the two newest medicines. Gilead Science’s Sovaldi costs $1,000 per pill/$84,000 for a 12-week course of treatment and […]

Cholesterol Guidelines Could Mean Statins For Half Of Adults Over 40

KFF Health News Original

This story was produced in collaboration with When sweeping new advice on preventing heart attacks and strokes came out last November, it wasn’t clear how many more Americans should be taking daily statin pills to lower their risk. A new analysis provides an answer: a whole lot. Nearly 13 million more, to be precise. If the […]

Poll: What It’s Like To Be Sick In America

KFF Health News Original

This story comes from our partner ‘s Shots blog. In the lull between the Supreme Court arguments over the federal health overhaul law and the decision expected in June, we thought we’d ask Americans who actually use the health system quite a bit how they view the quality of care and its cost. Most surveys […]