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88° F, Mostly Cloudy/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/A4JZIBZMJBAJ5CLPNK2IN52ELY.jpg "Medical debt has sunk Penny Wingard’s credit score so low that she has struggled to qualify for loans, and applying for jobs and apartments has become a harrowing experience. On Sept. 21, the Biden administration announced plans to develop federal rules barring unpaid medical bills from affecting patients’ credit scores. (ANERI PATTANI/KFF HEALTH NEWS)")
The three largest credit agencies — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion — said they would stop including some medical debt on credit reports as of last year
:format(webP)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/3BHIPGJH7JC4PEXLOKTUXI6XDE.jpg "Maya, Kyle and Jack Kowalski leave the South Coutny Courthouse in Venice, Florida on Thursday afternoon at the conclusion of the first day of their civil lawsuit against Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital.")
Opening statements in the civil jury trial against the St Petersburg hospital offered new medical evidence in the case documented in “Take Care of Maya.”
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/FDAVWNSXB5CZ7PIFUE7NLR4IVE.jpg "A year ago, Justina Worrell received a letter from the Social Security Administration saying it had overpaid her. Within 30 days, it said, she should mail the government a check or money order for $60,175.90. (Cox Media Group)")
The Social Security Administration is trying to reclaim billions of dollars from many of the nation’s poorest and most vulnerable — payments it now says they never should have received.
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/LCTZKSGIKAI6TGNIIBWI6S7HAY.jpg "If not working full-time with company benefits, then I would advise you and your husband to remain enrolled in Medicare and keep your Medicare Supplement plan, because you can never know what will happen to your health in the future.")
I’ve encountered other individuals who, upon moving overseas, stopped their Medicare Part B and then developed serious health issues
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/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/XBBRM7MHLNBGVHFKXVVBHU3YGU.JPG "Sheila Scolaro, 31, a community programs scientist for the Tampa Bay Estuary Program, holds a PVC pipe as she works to attach a temperature data logger in the Old Tampa Bay near Safety Harbor on Aug. 25. The estuary program has launched a five-year study to determine if warmer water temperatures are hurting seagrasses’ chance to recover.")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/YM2Q53EDIRCFDOUVRK6IRFASY4.JPG "Anna Paulina Luna, who represents Pinellas County in Congress, is questioning whether a loosening of food labeling requirements during the pandemic presents a risk to the public.")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/WLWVMV2NOXLLMETH6TA6L3FMCY.jpg "Republican presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition's fall banquet, Saturday, Sept. 16, 2023, in Des Moines, Iowa.")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/AVI2NNB52ZH7FLRUN5H2NBTEWM.png "Venice resident Maya Kowalski was sheltered in Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital for three months in 2016 after the hospital reported her mom to the state's abuse hotline. Her mom later took her own life. Maya's story is the subject of the Netflix documentary \"Take Care of Maya.\"")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/QN5Y7BHTOWBVHF73R2DQ5EL7VM.jpg "Kat Wilderness performs for guests during a drag brunch at R House Wynwood in Miami in April 2022.")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/BENU3XGJEUI6TAOPPAY4DVT77I.jpg "Mosaic's several facilities across Florida take mined phosphate, like this, and turn it into millions of tons of fertilizer a year. What's left behind is a mildly radioactive byproduct called phosphogypsum, which the company wants to use as a test ingredient in road construction. Several state lawmakers and local officials have signed a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency opposing the plan.")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/7HBFFXUVTYJBWABCPSVHXJYVWQ.jpg "A woman walks through a door with a sign asking shoppers to wear masks in New York on Feb. 9, 2022.")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/FOF24YTO2DMYV364MXRFBXVDLE.jpg "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican presidential candidate, shakes hands with fairgoers after taking part in a Fair-Side Chat with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds at the Iowa State Fair, Aug. 12 in Des Moines, Iowa. Republicans are responding to a late summer spike in COVID-19 by raising familiar fears that government-issued lockdowns and mask mandates are on the horizon. GOP presidential hopefuls including DeSantis, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and former President Donald Trump have spread this narrative.")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/HBXQBSIEHVBBFFVHCAT7NFTXXY.png "Maya Kowalski attends an April 2022 court hearing in Sarasota County over a motion for a jury trial in her family's lawsuit against Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital. Almost five years after the lawsuit was filed, the trial will begin Thursday.")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/BIAQJEZM5EBRMLAFF2EP4P2POE.jpg "People hold signs during a joint board meeting of the Florida Board of Medicine and the Florida Board of Osteopathic Medicine gather to establish new guidelines limiting gender-affirming care in Florida, on Nov. 4, 2022.")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/5NTMLU4S4PNEAS3IF5WA6QXPV4.jpg "Sudafed and other common nasal decongestants are on display behind the counter at Hospital Discount Pharmacy in Edmond, Okla., Jan. 11, 2005. Phenylephrine, the leading decongestant used by millions of Americans looking for relief from a stuffy nose, is likely no better than a dummy pill, according to government experts who reviewed the latest research on the long-questioned drug ingredient. Advisers to the Food and Drug Administration voted unanimously on Tuesday against the effectiveness of the ingredient found in popular versions of Sudafed, Allegra, Dayquil and other medications sold on store shelves. Phenylephrine replaced pseudoephedrine in many popular over-the-counter medications after a 2006 law required medicines containing pseudoephedrine to be moved behind pharmacy counters because the ingredient can be illegally processed into methamphetamine.")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/BNJTY56TG5CSLFHYVHMZSYSO5Q.JPG "The group Tampa Bay Students for a Democratic Society held a Defend LGBTQ+ Rights protest at the USF Library in 2022.")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/ZCKNXUD7RRFHZOAB7ECGQLAANI.jpg "Under Part A for a skilled nursing stay, Medicare will only cover semi-private rooms with meals, skilled nursing, and therapy services after a 3-day minimum medically necessary “inpatient” hospital stay.")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/77F55LAGUZMOARXCKHFAD7H5H4.jpg "The Food and Drug Administration decision opens the newest shots from Moderna and Pfizer and its partner BioNTech to most Americans even if they’ve never had a coronavirus vaccination. It’s part of a shift to treat fall updates of the COVID-19 vaccine much like getting a yearly flu shot.")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/W6GDDX4DKCLIF2GBYNJ5PL6Z4E.jpg "On Saturday, Sep. 9, sand sculptor Marianne van den Broek, left, puts the finishing touches on a sculpture memorializing Jimmy Buffett in Key West, who died Sept. 1.")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/47TBYYCKGAAAU6ZE2ZOCPSOXIU.jpg "Solicitor General Henry Whitaker presents his arguments in the Florida Supreme Court in regard to the 15-week abortion ban on Friday, Sept. 8, 2023, in Tallahassee.")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/QIFO6VB3BG2UPADVQVJRUFICTU.jpg "Hundreds of seized fentanyl pills that imitate Oxycodone M30 are kept as evidence at the Drug Enforcement Administration's Dallas Field Division lab on Aug. 1.")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/2HO7LTJO4KOAPFBE7R3QNBFDXI.jpg "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during a Republican presidential primary debate hosted by Fox News on Aug. 23 in Milwaukee. DeSantis on Thursday criticized recent efforts across the U.S. to tamp down a recent jump in COVID-19 cases through temporary restrictions or masking, and his state surgeon general warned against getting the latest COVID-19 vaccine, which is expected to be available this month.")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/NYIMDI4KYVHGNLPBGNULTRMUQM.JPG "Florida may be entering a new respiratory syncytial virus season as cases of the virus increase in the state and across the Southeast, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention health advisory.")
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