Latest KFF Health News Stories
Medicare To Cover Obesity Counseling Without Cost Sharing
Medicare officials announced Tuesday that this preventive service will cover screening and counseling in primary care providers’ offices.
UnitedHealth Forecasts Increased Membership, Earnings
The largest insurer in the U.S. says enrollment gains in Medicare and Medicaid plans will outpace declines in other parts of its business.
Lipitor Going Generic, Pfizer Making Deals To Keep Consumers
The popular cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor goes off-patent today. Manufacturer Pfizer planned ahead, making agreements with some insurers to keep covering the drug.
CMS Observers Say Tavenner Will Bring Changes In Style Not Substance
Although she might not share outgoing Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Chief Donald Berwick’s “visionary zeal,” she is expected to share in his agenda. And, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor terms her as “eminently qualified” to take on this role.
Fewer Uninsured Kids Even As Adult Numbers Rise
A new study by Georgetown University credits the health law as having a ‘key role’ in the increase in children’s health insurance coverage.
Ariz. Hospitals File Suit To Stop Cuts In Medicaid Reimbursements
The state plans to reduce payments by 5 percent and that follows a similar 5 percent cut earlier in the year.
House Committee Expected To Vote Wednesday To Repeal CLASS Act
The Energy and Commerce Committee is expected to approve, along party lines, a measure to repeal the long-term care insurance program. Meanwhile, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., is being pressed to lift his hold on legislation to fund children’s hospitals. He has been blocking the measure’s progress because he still hopes to add an amendment that would expand it to children’s psychiatric hospitals.
State Roundup: ‘Ambitious’ Baltimore HIV Initiative
State health policy news from California, Florida, Maryland, Wisconsin, Oregon, Kansas and Georgia.
In Super Committee Aftermath, Dems Attack GOP For Pushing Medicare Cuts
The Washington Post reports that Democrats will begin a campaign against Republican lawmakers for supporting cuts to the Medicare program during the recent round of budget talks.
New Poll Finds Public Support For Health Law Returns To Usual Split
The latest Kaiser Family Foundation tracking poll found that, after reaching an all-time low, support for the 2010 health law bounced back a bit to the levels shown in previous polls.
Viewpoints: Entrenchment On Capitol Hill; Medicaid’s Woes; Presidential Mistake On Berwick
A selection of editorials and opinions on health policy from around the country.
New Hospital Clinic In Michigan Seeks To Reduce Traffic To ER
The Grand Rapids clinic is reaching out to people who have been to the hospital’s emergency department at least 10 times in the past year.
First Edition: November 30, 2011
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports that more states — even some with Republican governors who oppose the health law — are taking federal grants for health insurance exchanges.
More States Taking Federal Funds For Insurance Exchanges
New grants totaling $220 million will help states meet a January 2014 deadline to launch the insurance marketplaces.
Study: Florida Leads Nation In Getting More Kids Insured
From 2008 to 2010, the rate of uninsured children in Florida dropped from 16.7 percent to 12.7 percent.
Global Fund Cancels Round 11 Grants, Approves New Strategy And Organization Plan
The Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria decided to cancel Round 11 grant approval during a two-day meeting in Accra, Ghana, that concluded on November 22. According to a press release from the Global Fund, the decision to cancel Round 11 was due to “a revised resource forecast presented to the Board [which] showed that substantial budget challenges in some donor countries, compounded by low interest rates, have significantly affected the resources available for new grant funding.”
HHS Rejects Two MLR Waiver Requests
The Department of Health and Human Services on Monday delivered the news that waiver requests from Indiana and Louisiana had been given the thumbs down, making these two states the third and fourth to have their applications for relief denied outright.
Mandatory Cuts: Winners And Losers In The Post-Super Committee Landscape
Many domestic programs will feel pain, but Medicaid appears to be part of the “protected” class. Meanwhile, news outlets continue to report on the pending Medicare physician pay cut and how fixing this scheduled reduction could trigger cuts in other parts of the health care sector.
Political Will, Strong Leadership From U.S. Needed To End AIDS Epidemic
“This Thursday’s commemoration of World AIDS Day marks a potential turning point in the fight against a global epidemic that has yet to be arrested,” a Detroit Free Press editorial states. “Over the past three decades, scientific discoveries about [HIV] and advances in treating it have brought the end of the AIDS epidemic within view. Accomplishing that, however, will take political will, additional resources and even stronger leadership by the United States,” it continues.
Cases Of Two AIDS Patients Renew Hope Of AIDS Cure For Many Scientists, New York Times Reports
The New York Times profiles two AIDS patients whose cases “suggest to many scientists that [curing AIDS] may be achievable,” according to the newspaper. “One man, the so-called Berlin patient, apparently has cleared his HIV infection, albeit by arduous bone marrow transplants,” and the other, “a 50-year-old man in Trenton, [N.J.,] underwent a far less difficult gene therapy procedure. While he was not cured, his body was able to briefly control the virus after he stopped taking the usual antiviral drugs, something that is highly unusual,” the newspaper writes.
