Latest KFF Health News Stories
Penalizing Hospitals For Being Unsafe: Why Adverse Events Are A Big Problem
A Kaiser Health News article published Sunday about upcoming hospital penalties included an analysis of Medicare data by Dr. Ashish K. Jha, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health. This week, Jha also wrote up his own take on the data. Originally posted on his Harvard blog, Dr. Jha’s copyrighted assessment is republished below, […]
‘Right-To-Try’ Laws On Experimental Drugs Stir Debate
KHN’s Julie Rovner participated in a Google Hangout with PBS NewsHour on state “right-to-try” laws, first approved in Colorado, which allow terminally ill patients to try potentially life-saving, but unapproved drugs to treat their conditions. Watch the discussion below:
Employer Health Costs Forecast To Accelerate In 2015
Health costs will accelerate next year, but changes in how people buy care will help keep them from attaining the speed of several years ago, PricewaterhouseCoopers says in a new report. The prediction, based on interviews and modeling, splits the difference between hopes that costs will stay tame and fears that they’re off to the […]
Talking Medicare’s Hospital Fines For Too Many Patient Injuries
KHN’s Jordan Rau was on NPR and C-SPAN Monday to talk about coming Medicare penalties for about a quarter of the nation’s hospitals as detailed in his story More Than 750 Hospitals Face Medicare Crackdown On Patient Injuries. The penalties will ding hospitals up to 1 percent of their Medicare pay for having higher rates of […]
Senators Offer Bill To Ease Readmission Penalties On Some Hospitals
A bipartisan group of senators introduced legislation on Thursday to make Medicare take the financial status of hospital patients into account when deciding whether to punish a hospital for too many readmissions. The bill attempts to address one of the main complaints about the readmissions program: that hospitals serving large numbers of low-income patients are […]
How Your State Rates In Terms Of Long-Term Care
This copyrighted story comes from ‘s Shots blog. All rights reserved. In just 12 years, the oldest members of the huge baby-boom generation will turn 80. Many will need some kind of long-term care. A new study from AARP says that care could vary dramatically in cost and quality depending on where they live. The […]
Consumer Group Urges Hospitals To Stop Promoting Questionable Screenings
Consumer advocacy group Public Citizen on Thursday called on 20 hospital systems to stop partnering with companies that offer low-cost screenings for heart disease and stroke risk, saying the promotions are “unethical” and the exams are more likely to do harm than good. In recent years, more hospitals have paired with firms offering such testing packages, partly to […]
Future Uncertain For VA Rural Health Pilot Program
TOPEKA — Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., said a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs pilot program offering timely, quality health care to rural veterans is being allowed to expire in a few months, even as major legislation moves through both houses of Congress that would have similar goals as the pilot program. The pilot program is called […]
HHS Releases New Details About 2014 Marketplace Premiums, Subsidies
Federal officials on Wednesday released new data about who enrolled in the federal health marketplace plans for 2014, how much the law’s subsidies helped offset the cost and how many plans people from could choose from, among other details. “What we’re finding is that the marketplace is working. Consumers have more choices and they’re paying […]
Enroll America Pushes Ahead To Second Enrollment Period
Enroll America convened a national conference this week in Washington to review the strategies that proved successful during the inaugural Affordable Care Act open enrollment period and to gear up for the next one, which will start Nov. 15. Organizers also want to ensure that the navigators and organizations working toward enrollment maintain their energy […]
Insurer Begins Huge Palliative Care Program
“Person-centered care” is the buzz phrase floating around the health care industry, and a Pacific Northwest-based giant insurer thinks it has hit the mark with a new palliative care program coming this summer. Cambia Health Solutions, which includes Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield,will offer training to providers and additional benefits for policyholders: more than 2.2 million […]
High Court Rules Anti-Abortion Group Can Sue Over Election ‘Truth-Telling’ Law
A group challenging an Ohio election law that makes it a crime to make “false statements” about a candidate’s record during a campaign has standing to challenge the constitutionality of that law, according to today’s unanimous Supreme Court decision. The opinion, written by Justice Clarence Thomas, did NOT strike down Ohio’s false statement law. But […]
Obamacare Credited For Big Drop In Minnesota’s Uninsured Rate
This story is part of a partnership that includes MPR, NPR and Kaiser Health News. It can be republished for free. (details) The website malfunctioned. The exchange chief was fired. And many people had to sign up the old fashioned way: pen, paper, with a person. So, Minnesota’s launch of the Affordable Care Act was […]
PhRMA, Advocates: Specialty Drug Costs For Patients Too High
Here’s the next salvo in the back and forth between insurers and the drug industry over drug prices: the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America are pushing the Department of Health and Human Services to take action to protect consumers who have gained insurance via the health law’s online marketplaces from high, out-of-pocket costs for specialty drugs. Specialty drugs are most often […]
Obamacare Health Spending Surge? Not So Fast
A growing economy and an Obamacare spending surge, many suspected, had ended five years of moderate health-spending growth. Early government figures showed medical-cost acceleration at the beginning of the year. “Health care spending rose at the fastest pace since 1980 in the first quarter as the new health insurance law prompted many more Americans to […]
Some Costly Hospital Complications Not Tracked by Medicare, Analysis Finds
An analysis released Thursday identified dozens of potentially avoidable hospital complications that are not being tracked by the government even though some occur frequently and are expensive to treat. Premier, Inc., a consulting company that works with hospitals on improving quality, analyzed 5.5 million patient records to identify 86 common complications that occurred in the […]
The Continuing Drama Over Medicaid Expansion
With Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe throwing in the towel in his effort to push a Medicaid expansion through the state’s General Assembly, KHN’s Julie Rovner joined Judy Woodruff on PBS NewsHour to discuss where Medicaid expansion stands in states across the country. Watch that conversation in the video below.
Study: Health Law Boosts Hospital Psych Care For Young Adults
Expanded coverage for young adults under the Affordable Care Act substantially raised inpatient hospital visits related to mental health, finds a new study by researchers at Indiana and Purdue universities. That looks like good news: Better access to care for a population with higher-than-average levels of mental illness that too often endangers them and people […]
Study Puts A Price Tag On Autism
Autism exacts a heavy toll on families across the country, but what is the financial cost of the disorder? Now we have an actual price tag: the lifetime cost of supporting a person with autism ranges from $1.4 million to $2.4 million in the United States, depending on whether the person also has an intellectual […]
What’s A Surgeon’s Role In An ACO? Not Much So Far, Survey Says
Accountable Care Organizations have given little attention to surgery in the early years of the Medicare program, choosing to focus instead on managing chronic conditions and reducing hospital readmissions. That’s according to a case study and survey published this week in the journal Health Affairs. The authors conducted case studies at four ACOs in 2012 […]
