Latest KFF Health News Stories
Some Firms Save Money By Offering Employees Free Surgery
The idea is this: Negotiate a flat price with a few hospitals to cover surgery, physical therapy and certain other post-op treatments. Companies save money and hospitals gain patients.
Rise In Oncologists Working For Hospitals Spurs Higher Chemo Costs: Study
Researchers found that the facility fees hospitals and their clinics routinely add to the bill helps drive the price increases.
Health Care’s Hard Realities On The Reservation: A Photo Essay
For American Indians on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation in South Dakota, getting health care can be a weeks-long proposition, and it has some moving away from their homes and families seeking better access.
Prices And Health Care Quality: Many Consumers Don’t See A Link
A study in the journal Health Affairs found a majority of people don’t associate price and quality in health care services.
Study: More Collaboration Aids Health Care For At-Risk Populations
A new study from the National Academies of Sciences seeks best practices for health providers whose patients are disproportionately disadvantaged.
Major Employers Decry Sutter Health’s Tactics In Dispute Over Prices
Sutter Health, with dominant market share in Northern California, is insisting that employers sign arbitration agreements or face sharply higher out-of-network rates.
Hospital Software Often Doesn’t Flag Unsafe Drug Prescriptions, Report Finds
A survey conducted by the Leapfrog Group finds that though many hospitals have computer-based medication systems in place to protect against errors, many still fall short in highlighting possible problems.
Patients’ Assessment Of Their Health Is Gaining Importance In Treatment
As medicine moves to a patient-centered model, doctors and other health providers are slowly adding patients’ self-reports to the other tests and exams they use to determine care.
By Not Discussing Cost Issues, Doctors, Patients May Miss Chances To Lower Out-Of-Pocket Expenses
A study published in Health Affairs examines how physician-patient interactions often present missed opportunities to control patients’ health care spending.
UnitedHealth Tries Boutique-Style Health Plan
Harken Health, a new UnitedHealthcare subsidiary, offers members free unlimited doctor visits and health coaches at 10 clinics in Chicago and Atlanta.
Mortgages For Expensive Health Care? Some Experts Think It Can Work.
An MIT economist and Harvard oncologist propose offering loans to patients to cover the cost of expensive, curative drugs, financed by private sector investment in loan securities.
More Sickle Cell Patients Survive, But Care Is Hard To Find For Adults
For many years, most people with sickle cell died in childhood or adolescence, and the condition remained in the province of pediatrics. During the past two decades, advances in routine care have allowed many people to live into middle age and beyond, but barriers to care remain.
California Insurance Marketplace Wants To Kick Out Poor-Performing Hospitals
Providers and insurers are balking at a Covered California proposal to eject hospitals with inordinately high costs and low quality from its networks.
How Medicare Drug Plans Hope To Follow Private Sector Lead
The proposal that Medicare made this month to better control prescription drug costs involves testing strategies used with some success in the private sector.
Back From The Brink, A Rural Texas Hospital Shines
One family’s tragedy inspired a radical change at a struggling rural hospital in Texas.
N.H., Calif. Seek To Help Consumers Get Details On Health Care Prices
New Hampshire is expanding its website that lists the cost of specific medical procedures to include dental treatments and 65 prescription drugs. California is expanding its report cards on large medical groups to include cost of medical services by an average patient.
Using Data To Help Home Health Workers Manage Patients’ Conditions
A market is emerging for products that enlist data and technology to identify patients who might be at risk for hospitalization or readmission.
Can’t Get In To See Your Doctor? Many Patients Turn To Urgent Care
A recent poll shows 27 percent of Americans have visited an urgent care center in the past two years. Why? Most cite convenience.
Medicare Plans Score Higher Ratings And Millions In Bonuses
The share of Medicare Advantage members enrolled in plans with high star ratings has almost doubled since 2013, earning bonuses for private insurers who offer them.
Consumer Choices Have Limited Impact On U.S. Health Care Spending: Study
An analysis from the Health Care Cost Institute finds that less than half of health care costs are for services considered “shoppable,” and consumers’ out-of-pocket spending on that is just 7 percent of all spending.
