Latest KFF Health News Stories
New Law’s Health Insurance Regulations Could Mean Rebates For Consumers
Millions of Americans might be eligible for rebates starting in 2012 under regulations released Monday detailing the health care law’s requirement that insurers spend at least 80 percent of their revenue on direct medical care.
Rep. Paul Ryan, R- Wis., took the courageous step of going first with a bold plan — his Roadmap — to fundamentally restructure the tax and entitlement policies that threaten to push the federal budget past the breaking point. Now others, even some from the other side of the aisle, are joining him in sponsoring similar plans.
Health Industry Cool To Complete Repeal Of Reform Law
Republicans in Congress say their priority for next year is to build momentum for an eventual repeal of the new health law. But they could be in for a surprise: While repeal may be popular with Republican voters, the GOP could face pushback from some allies in the health care industry.
Insurers’ Payments To Hospitals Vary Significantly By Region
A study of four major insurers’ payments to hospitals finds great differences among different parts of the country. San Francisco is the most expensive city among the eight areas in the study.
The Medicare Doc Fix: Physicians Again Are Staring Into The Abyss
At the end of November, the most recent “doc fix” will expires. Without congressional action, physicians who see Medicare patients will face an across-the-board 23% reduction in their fees. If nothing happens by January, physicians would face an additional 7 percent reduction.
New Deficit Report Recommends Seniors Pay More For Medicare
A blue-ribbon bipartisan panel of experts, chaired by former budget director Alice Rivlin and former Sen. Pete Domenici, recommends major changes to the way the government pays for health care.
Hospice Or Hospital? Where You Die Depends On Where You Live
An analysis of Medicare data finds many cancer patients are getting aggressive end-of-life care. The intensive approach might not be best for them and adds to the drain on Medicare’s budget.
Dr. Donald Berwick – A Resource Guide
Dr. Donald Berwick, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, is well-liked and known as a passionate advocate for improving the health care system. Some Republicans accuse him of favoring health care rationing – a charge Democrats dismiss as nonsense.
Text: Berwick’s Prepared Testimony – ‘I Pledge To Be Open And Transparent’
Tomorrow, Dr. Donald Berwick, the adminstrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is scheduled to testify before the Senate Committee on Finance. Here is an advance copy of his prepared statement.
Many Individual Health Policies Do Not Cover Pregnancy
Families buying insurance on their own often find that the plans do not cover any of the usual expenses associated with having a baby.
Health Care — Tell Us The Truth Before You Tell Us Why You Are Right
We need more proposals like those being made by the President’s deficit reduction commission, and the Medicare reform proposal authored by Republican House members Ryan, Cantor, and McCarthy. Irrespective of whether they are the best proposals, their authors started from a place where they told the truth.
For Health Overhaul, Implementation Is Now Job One
Despite the outcomes of the mid-term elections, the health overhaul is the law, and it’s up to HHS to make the “vital protections” it put into a place a reality.
Health Law Expected To Boost Medicaid Enrollees In Managed Care
But states’ increasing use of the private plans is raising questions about whether low-income residents are getting adequate care.
In Dialysis, Life-Saving Care at Great Risk and Cost
An untold number of dialysis patients are injured or die as a result of needle dislodgements, but Medicare rules don’t require clinics to report such adverse incidents to outside authorities.
Health Law Or No, Most Businesses Likely To Keep Offering Insurance
A new survey of more than 2,800 employers found no big reason for workers to worry.
OTC Medicines Cut From 2011 Flexible Spending Accounts
Beginning in 2011, the new health law bars payments for over items such as aspirin, vitamins and cough medicine from the popular accounts set up with pretax dollars. Consumers can still get the coverage with a prescription.
Families Fight To Care For Disabled Kids At Home
In states like Illinois, parents can provide at-home care for children with severe illnesses and Medicaid foots the bill. But the funding disappears the minute they turn 21, forcing families to make a painful choice: Find the money to pay for sometimes exorbitant health care costs or send their children to a nursing home.
Attacking The Health Law: The GOP’s Confusing And Incompatible Arguments
The Republicans and their allies spent a lot of time – and a lot of money – attacking the new health law and promising to undo it. And they did so with such a fury that almost nobody seemed to notice they were making a pair of arguments that were fundamentally incompatible.
Health Care Cost Control Is Hard, And Humbling
Though lots of different approaches to controlling health care costs have been discussed, it’s hard to know which of them will really work.
Bending The Health Care Cost Curve: Pay-For-Results Insurance
Though it seems like an idea that can be easily attacked as a way to ration care, so-called value-based insurance design couples GOP principles of market-based incentives and consumer choice with the Democratic reformers’ goal of eliminating costly and unnecessary care.
