Latest KFF Health News Stories
At Hospitals You May Not Get What You Are Charged For
It’s well known that the listed charges hospitals set for surgeries and other procedures — recently spotlighted by Medicare — bear little resemblance to the actual prices most patients end up paying. An analysis by Castlight, a San Francisco company that helps employers and workers compare provider prices, also finds that the hospital charges bear little relationship to […]
9 Pioneer ACOs Jump Ship After First Year
Nearly a third of the health systems chosen for the ambitious Pioneer accountable care organization program with Medicare are leaving after the first year of the three-year program. The goal of accountable care is for hospitals and doctors to save money while lowering costs. The 32 organizations selected to be Pioneers a year and a half […]
Health Law Fosters A New Kind Of Business Partnership In Georgia
Medical equipment manufacturers operate largely on a “supply and demand” model: Hospitals buy their multi-million dollar machines, use them for a few years, and then the process starts again. But Philips Healthcare and a hospital system in Georgia are betting on a new business model, one that has risks and rewards for both the hospital […]
Few Medicaid Docs Have Seen 2013 Pay Raise
Most primary care doctors are still waiting for that Medicaid pay raise that was scheduled to begin in January under the Affordable Care Act, but a federal official says the government has now approved applications from 48 states to begin paying the higher rates. A spokeswoman for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services says with those approvals in […]
Electronic Health Records Help Cut Costs For Mass. Community Docs: Study
The adoption of electronic health records by community doctors helped drive down health costs, a study published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine reported. Previous studies, many dealing with academic teaching hospitals, have yielded mixed results about the effects electronic health records (EHRs) have had and have drawn concerns over the adoption of health […]
State Insurance Exchanges Launching TV Ads To Encourage Enrollment
A folk singer playing guitar in front of a mountain stream. A Disney-like animated video about how “a new day is coming.” An announcer talking about “change is here.” A woman jumping up and down in celebration in a baseball team locker room. These images are from the first television advertisements being aired by state-run health […]
7 States, Governors Team To Tackle Hospital ‘Frequent Flyers’ Problem
Seven states and the National Governors Association are teaming up to find ways to save money and better coordinate the care of Medicaid and uninsured patients who frequently use hospital emergency rooms and other costly health services. “There’s a handful of people who drive most of our spending,” said Dan Crippen, the executive director of […]
Can Humor Sell Health Insurance?
When the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance exchanges open for business in the fall, it will be a new game. Customers will be able to comparison shop in the new online marketplaces, and health insurers will have to sell themselves to the general public in a way they haven��t before. The law’s requirement that almost […]
Republicans Ready To Try Obamacare Repeal – Again And Again
The House will vote next week on measures to delay the 2010 health law’s individual and employer mandates, House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday. The votes would be the 38th and 39th time House Republicans have voted to repeal all or part of the law. Congressional Republicans saw a new opportunity to kill or weaken President Obama’s signature […]
Some States Are Pushing ‘Employee Choice’ For Small Business Insurance
Small business workers in at least 15 states and the District of Columbia may have a menu of health insurance choices next year, something that didn’t seem likely a few months ago. Back in April, federal officials concerned about the potential for major glitches put off until 2015 a provision that would offer small businesses […]
Tax Break Can Help With Health Coverage, But There’s A Catch
There are two kinds of financial help for people planning to enroll in the online health insurance marketplaces that will open this fall. One could put people at risk of having to pay some of the money back, while the other won’t. That’s one big difference between tax credits and subsidies, both of which are intended to […]
Community Health Centers – In Every State – Get Obamacare Outreach Funds
The nation’s community health centers — which treat the poor and uninsured– apparently know a good deal when they see one. Nearly all 1,200 federally funded community health centers applied for and will be getting a piece of $150 million in federal health law money to enroll patients in new online health insurance marketplaces starting Oct.1. Federal health officials on […]
Study: Competition, Not Need, Drives Hospital Cardiac Care Investment
U.S. hospitals spent up to $4 billion adding angioplasty services over a four year period, but the new services did little to improve access to timely medical care, says a study published Tuesday in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes. Between 2004 to 2008, some 251 hospitals added the invasive and often life-saving cardiac […]
Medicare Advantage Plans Cut Total Cardio Procedures, But Regional Variations Remain
Call them bundled payments, medical homes, capitation or accountable care, new versions of managed care (think HMOs in the 1990s) are health care’s great cost control hope. Researchers publishing in the latest JAMA tested that idea by counting procedures in one of the biggest managed care programs of all: Medicare Advantage plans for seniors. One […]
Researchers Look At Why Poor Patients Prefer Hospital Care
Long wait times, jammed schedules, confusing insurance plans – there’s no shortage of obstacles between a patient and her doctor. That is, if she has a doctor. But a Health Affairs study published Monday says the barriers for poor people looking to get care are even higher, and it’s leading them away from preventive doctor […]
Video: New AMA President On Implementing The Health Law
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/videoLibrary/assets/swf/CSPANPlayer.swf?pid=313701-1 KHN’s Mary Agnes Carey and The Washington Post’s Sarah Kliff interviewed Dr. Ardis Hoven, the new American Medical Association president, for an episode of the C-SPAN program “Newsmakers” that aired Sunday. The three talked about implementation of the health care law, a shortage of primary care practitioners, as well as the AMA’s decision to […]
AMA To Do ‘Whatever We Can’ To Help Carry Out Health Law
The American Medical Association will do “whatever we can in our power” to help implement the 2010 health care law, the group’s president said Tuesday. In an interview taped for C-SPAN’s Newsmakers, Ardis Dee Hoven, who became the AMA’s 168th president last month, said the White House has not approached her or the AMA directly […]
Federal Rule Extends Subsidies For College Students
Beginning in 2014, most people, including students, will have to have health insurance, whether or not they are claimed as a dependent on their parents’ tax returns. The federal health law says if they don’t, they or their parents will face penalties. While expansion of coverage under the health law has helped about 3 million young […]
Iowa, South Dakota Blues Skip Obamacare Exchange Next Year
Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans, with a long history of selling medical insurance directly to consumers, are expected to provide much of the subsidized coverage sold through the health law’s online marketplaces, or exchanges. “We expect Blue Cross Blue Shield plans will have a strong, reliable presence in the new exchanges,” Alissa Fox, a senior […]
Turning To The Web To Help Pay Medical Bills
Online fundraising sites are growing in popularity, even among patients who have insurance.
