Author Archive

Fred Schulte

Fred Schulte is the John A. Hartford Senior Correspondent on the Kaiser Health News enterprise team.
Digital Government

Huge gaps in vaccine data make it next to impossible to know who got the shots

There are 64 immunization registries in the United States that gather information for states, territories and a handful of large cities, and they aren’t connected. Meanwhile, real-time data in the U.S. public health system is virtually nonexistent.

  • By Fred Schulte, Kaiser Health News and Rachana Pradhan
Digital Government

As coronavirus strikes, crucial data in electronic health records hard to harvest

Pooling data from the digital records systems in thousands of hospitals has proved a technical nightmare, largely because software built by rival technology firms often cannot retrieve and share information to help doctors judge which coronavirus treatments are helping patients recover.

  • By Fred Schulte and Kaiser Health News
Cybersecurity

Coronavirus fuels explosive growth in telehealth -- and concern about fraud

The administration’s lifting of telehealth restrictions could inadvertently unleash a wave of billing fraud and abuse and risk patient safety -- especially if officials yield to industry pressure to make many of the emergency policy changes permanent.

  • By Fred Schulte and Kaiser Health News
Management

Some states are reporting incomplete COVID-19 results, blurring the full picture

Several states are reporting only positive COVID-19 test results from private labs, a practice that paints a misleading picture of how fast the disease is spreading.

  • By Fred Schulte and Kaiser Health News
Digital Government

New federal rules will let patients put medical records on smartphones

Patients will be able to download their electronic health records and other health care data onto their smartphones, giving them a greater say in health care decisions.

  • By Fred Schulte, Erika Fry, Fortune and Kaiser Health News