Latest KFF Health News Stories
Providers Search For New Ways To Diagnose, Treat Mental Illness
Health care providers are trying to find tests and create new smartphone and tablet apps to better diagnose and treat mental illness.
Exploring Abortion’s ‘Gray’ Areas; The Importance Of Personal Experiences
News outlets offer opinion pieces on abortion policies.
Clinics Focus On Helping Pregnant Women Deal With Prescription Drug Addictions
The Wall Street Journal examines the growing number of women addicted to pain killers and efforts to help them through pregnancies.
Viewpoints: Health Care’s Hidden Consensus; Examining The Fee-For-Service Payment System
A selection of editorials and opinions on health care from around the country.
Anti-Abortion Bills In Wisconsin, Texas, North Carolina Show GOP Muscle
Anti-abortion activists in Republican-dominated states have succeeded in pushing various bills that limit the procedure.
Advocates Raise Concerns About How States Handle Medicaid Managed Care
Patient advocates are urging greater oversight of the private programs. In other news, a Philadelphia couple details their struggle to get health insurance for their son.
HHS Awards Contract To British Company To Run Obamacare Exchanges
News outlets examined a variety of health law implementation issues over the holiday weekend.
A selection of health policy stories from Oregon, California, Massachusetts, Alaska, Kansas, North Carolina, Minnesota and Iowa.
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including news about a new ad campaign against the health law, more reaction to the administration’s delay of the employer mandate provision and states efforts to restrict abortions.
Democratic Senators Defend Delay Of Employer Mandate
Sens. Reed and Menendez say the decision will not stop other consumer changes in the health law and will allow officials to more carefully implement the overhaul. Meanwhile, a conservative group is planning an ad campaign against the law.
Employers Get Extra Year To Carry Out Health Law Coverage Mandate
The Obama administration’s surprise announcement will delay penalties for one year — until after the mid-term elections — and raises doubts about the implementation process at a crucial moment. Officials said the extension was a response to business requests for more time to navigate complex regulations.
Businesses Welcome Delay For The Health Overhaul’s Employer Mandate
Large employers, many of which already provide coverage to full-time workers, cheered the news because it would relieve them of complex new reporting requirements. Businesses with fewer than 50 employees are not subject to the coverage mandate.
Several outlets offer opinions on the Medicare system.
Announcement Of Delay In Health Law’s Employer Mandate Sparks Heated — And Contrary — Views
Among the range of perspectives offered by commentators: It is “the right thing to do” but the wrong way; “administration has undermined its sole claim to greatness;” “doesn’t have much effect.”
Employers Worry They’ll Pay Bill For Those Exempt From Contraceptive Mandate
Businesses are concerned that non-religious employers will end up covering the bill for religious groups that refuse to pay for contraception for their employees. Meanwhile, church leaders continue their push to broaden the exemption from the contraception coverage rule.
AMA President Says Docs Group Will Do ‘Whatever We Can’ On The Health Law
In an interview, Ardis Dee Hoven, the American Medical Association’s new president, says that there is no formal role, but that the organization has been in touch with the Obama administration about how physicians can help patients get the information they need. Meanwhile, The Hill reports on a consumer survey that finds the health overhaul is not a consistent topic of conversation between doctors and patients.
Short On Funds, HHS Failed To Investigate 1,200 Fraud Cases Last Year
HHS was unable to investigate 1,200 cases of suspected Medicare or Medicaid fraud last year because the watchdog agency inside the department is stretched so thin.
UnitedHealthcare To Again Review Tricare Specialty Care Referrals
The Department of Defense will once again allow UnitedHealthcare to review and authorize every specialty care referral in Tricare. The insurer also notified California that it will no longer sell individual insurance in that state.
Political Responses Swirl Around Administration’s Announcement
As GOP lawmakers and health law critics gloat, administration officials say they are listening to concerns from business and being flexible.
State Exchanges Largely Unaffected By Delay In Employer Mandate
Officials in California and Minnesota say that neither the timing, nor the content of insurance coverage offered in their new online insurance marketplaces will be affected by the administration’s decision to suspend enforcement of penalties on large employers until 2015.
