Alexa Hornbeck
Alexa Hornbeck was a health care reporter for The Well News from March 2021 to August 2022. She has experience covering health and medicine topics. Her reporting focused on stories at the intersection of health, politics, social trends and science. She tracked health policy changes, women’s health and telemedicine news.
Prior to joining the TWN, Hornbeck worked for hyper local publications in San Francisco, California, and New York City. She attended the University of California, Berkeley, where she received graduate degrees in public health and journalism. Her undergraduate degree was completed in literary studies at The New School in New York City.
Recent Work
National Institutes of Health-funded research released on June 23 offers new insights into why aging rates vary when it comes to evolutionary... Read More
National Institutes of Health-funded research released on June 23 offers new insights into why aging rates vary when it comes to evolutionary tricks, such as having armor and venom. The research was led by Ronald Kohanski, who serves as a director of the National Institute on Aging at... Read More
In Kansas a harmful blue-green algae is blooming in local lakes. The Kansas Departments of Health and Environment and Wildlife... Read More
In Kansas a harmful blue-green algae is blooming in local lakes. The Kansas Departments of Health and Environment and Wildlife and Parks have issued June advisories warning residents about the risk of exposure. According to a revised KDHE response plan, the dense algal bloom tends to occur... Read More
The Chicago Department of Public Health and a number of other crisis assistance and response agencies launched a data dashboard on June... Read More
The Chicago Department of Public Health and a number of other crisis assistance and response agencies launched a data dashboard on June 23 as part of the city’s effort to expand their Crisis Assistance Response and Engagement program. The CARE program was launched by Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot... Read More
WASHINGTON —A series of reports have revealed continued issues with Medicare Advantage Plans, a private-plan alternative to traditional Medicare, and... Read More
WASHINGTON —A series of reports have revealed continued issues with Medicare Advantage Plans, a private-plan alternative to traditional Medicare, and now members from the House Committee on Energy and Commerce are focused on how to establish better protections for America’s seniors. “One of the promises of... Read More
WASHINGTON — Attendees at the 9th Annual Health Summit held by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce focused on the role... Read More
WASHINGTON — Attendees at the 9th Annual Health Summit held by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce focused on the role of putting the consumer at the center when it comes to the business of health care. “At this point it's a public and private partnership with... Read More
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden signed the Keep Kids Fed Act into law on June 25 to support school meal... Read More
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden signed the Keep Kids Fed Act into law on June 25 to support school meal programs ahead of the expiration of pandemic-era waivers, but to expedite the bill’s passage before the expiration on June 30, Congress tossed a key provision to... Read More
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gave the greenlight last week to... Read More
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gave the greenlight last week to Moderna and Pfizer regarding the emergency use authorization for COVID-19 vaccines for children under 5. The latest EUAs make vaccines available for an additional 19 million... Read More
Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, moved Wednesday to cap the monthly price of insulin at $35 for... Read More
Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, moved Wednesday to cap the monthly price of insulin at $35 for those privately insured and those on Medicare, as outlined in this discussion draft. Shaheen and Collins serve as co-chairs of the Diabetes Caucus. They previously led the... Read More
A health and well-being program for wildland firefighters is being created by the U.S. Department of the Interior, said Secretary... Read More
A health and well-being program for wildland firefighters is being created by the U.S. Department of the Interior, said Secretary Deb Haaland Friday. Haaland also announced the allocation of $103 million in fiscal year 2022 for wildfire risk reduction efforts throughout the country through the bipartisan infrastructure law. ... Read More
In The News
Health
Voting
More From The Well
NEW YORK — One of former President Donald Trump’s closest staff members said during testimony in a New York court... Read More
NEW YORK — One of former President Donald Trump’s closest staff members said during testimony in a New York court Friday that the former president admitted to her that he paid hush money to women with whom he had extramarital... Read More
WASHINGTON — Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, and his wife were indicted on charges related to allegedly accepting nearly $600,000 in... Read More
WASHINGTON — Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, and his wife were indicted on charges related to allegedly accepting nearly $600,000 in bribes and laundered funds from an oil company owned by the Azerbaijan government as well as a Mexican bank. The... Read More
WASHINGTON — A bipartisan Senate bill would provide $275 million to advance federal research and enhance medical services for women... Read More
WASHINGTON — A bipartisan Senate bill would provide $275 million to advance federal research and enhance medical services for women experiencing menopause. The bill, the Advancing Menopause Care and Mid-Life Women’s Health Act, was introduced Thursday by Sen. Patty Murray,... Read More
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Friday expanded access to Affordable Care Act coverage to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals... Read More
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Friday expanded access to Affordable Care Act coverage to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients. Starting in November, DACA recipients — individuals who were brought into the U.S. illegally as children by a parent... Read More
Approaches to quantifying the value of novel medicines evolved rapidly in the past few decades due to improved methods and... Read More
Approaches to quantifying the value of novel medicines evolved rapidly in the past few decades due to improved methods and available data. But how do we estimate how much a medicine is worth? Strangely enough, that answer depends on where... Read More
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Elissa Slotkin had less than half an hour to reckon with a retirement announcement that would... Read More
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Elissa Slotkin had less than half an hour to reckon with a retirement announcement that would reshape Michigan’s political landscape. The state's senior senator and the third-ranking Democrat in the chamber, Debbie Stabenow, was about to... Read More