Patient

Federal regulators have approved the first new drug for Alzheimer’s disease in nearly 20 years, leaving patients waiting to see how insurers will handle the pricey new treatment.

Answer: The Food and Drug Administration said it granted approval to a drug from Biogen based on clinical research results that seemed “reasonably likely” to benefit Alzheimer’s patients.

Answer: They will likely request some documentation first that the patient needs the drug. Many plans will require doctors to submit records and other paperwork justifying the treatment before they agree to cover it.

Answer: That’s impossible to say broadly.

Answer: Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Biogen plans to begin shipping millions of doses within two weeks.

The non-profit Care New England health network opened the Kent Field Hospital on Nov. 30, just before Rhode Island's infection rate became the highest in the world. Kent Hospital was using all its beds for its sickest COVID-19 patients, and needed somewhere for the overflow. Now, other hospitals also occasionally send patients to the field hospital.

Only stable, non-intubated COVID-19 patients are transferred a few miles to the field hospital, and only if they consent. Some refuse. The idea of a field hospital can conjure up images of giant tents in a war zone, canvas sides flapping in the wind.

With low patient numbers, the medical staff pays close attention to each person: Helping them walk the corridors to improve lung capacity, stretching stiff feet, handing out ice pops, coloring pictures with an elderly man, cutting Singleton's hair.

In many ways, the field unit's quieter pace is a welcome relief for medical staff. Subrina Geer, 33, a nurse here on a temporary assignment, saw the disease ravage New York City last year.