Latest KFF Health News Stories
Study: Costly Breast Cancer Treatment More Common At For-Profit Hospitals
Older breast cancer patients who received radiation treatment after surgery were more likely to undergo a more expensive and somewhat controversial type of radiation called brachytherapy if they got their care at for-profit rather than nonprofit hospitals, a new study reports. Among the oldest group studied — women in their 80s and early 90s who are […]
Oregon Raises White Flag Over Its Health Exchange
Oregon has been “all in” on health reform. Its embrace of the Affordable Care Act includes a very successful Medicaid expansion, a $2 billion federal experiment to show the state can save money by managing patients’ care better, and, of course, the state’s own online marketplace to sell Obamacare insurance. But that last point has been […]
First-Aid Training For Mental Health Could Aid At-Risk Veterans
When done right, first aid quickly identifies a problem and triages patients so the more urgent cases get treated first and followed up on. Now, with federal aid, that same strategy will apply to the pressing problem of veterans’ mental health. A push for new funding — and the use of existing funds — may soon make […]
Some Surprising Findings About Young Adults And Health Care
Insured or uninsured, young adults seem to spend about the same out-of-pocket for health care over the course of a year. With 2009 federal data on patient spending, researchers examined how often adults up to age 25 used and paid for health care. While an awful lot has changed since then – the Affordable Care […]
Consumers In Federal High-Risk Pools Get Special Enrollment Option For Marketplace
Participants in the federal high-risk health insurance pool who haven’t yet signed up for other coverage can qualify for a 60-day special enrollment period that begins May 1, the Obama administration announced late Thursday. In a notice posted on the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan website, officials said that participants in the high-risk program who have not […]
RAND: Medicare Should Weigh Cost In Coverage Decisions
The agency that oversees the Medicare program should be able to consider the cost effectiveness of drugs and medical devices when making coverage determinations, according to a new report by the RAND Corporation. But study authors acknowledge that this recommendation — a significant change from current practice in which the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is barred from […]
How Are Insurers Responding To New Health Law Enrollees?
KHN’s Jay Hancock was on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal Monday morning to talk about how insurers are responding to the health law. Hancock said the 8 million new customers have insurers pondering who they, how sick they are and how the new enrollees may affect insurance rates in 2015.
Incomplete Face-To-Face Doctor Exams Put Home Health Agencies In Tight Spot
Medicare is paying billions of dollars to home-health providers without adequate documentation of patients’ needs by doctors, according to a new report by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General. The cost of caring for homebound patients is rising, and the government is trying to get a better grip on spending by […]
Biggest Insurer Shocked With Hepatitis C Costs
UnitedHealth Group spent $100 million on hepatitis C drugs in the first three months of the year, much more than expected, the company said Thursday. The news helped drive down the biggest insurance company’s stock and underscores the challenge for all health care payers in covering Sovaldi, an expensive new pill for hepatitis C. “We’ve […]
Hospitals Get Into Doctor Rating Business
After some doctors at University of Utah Health Care noticed scathing online reviews about themselves in 2012, the hospital system decided the best way to respond was by posting its patients’ ratings of physicians on the hospital’s own website. The hospital was already randomly surveying patients about their experiences with physicians. Now, when potential patients […]
Hospital Visits Fell When Seniors Got Drug Coverage
Eleven years ago Bob Bennett, then a Republican senator from Utah, made a fiscal sales pitch for including prescription drugs in Medicare coverage for seniors. “Medicare says if you go to the hospital and run up a bill of however many tens of thousands of dollars to stay that many days, we will pay for […]
Health Law Push Brings Thousands Into Colo. Medicaid Who Were Already Eligible
The big marketing push to get people enrolled in health coverage between October and March resulted in 3 million people signing up for Medicaid. Hundreds of thousands of those people were children who were already eligible and could have signed up even before the Affordable Care Act made coverage much more generous. They came “out of the woodwork” to […]
Survey: Health Insurance Enrollment In California More Complex Than Anticipated
Newly insured Californians felt relieved after signing up for health coverage but encountered numerous obstacles with technology and communication during the enrollment process, according to a report released Monday by the California HealthCare Foundation. Surveyed in interviews and focus groups, consumers said they had trouble getting through to the call center, choosing a health plan […]
State Exchange Directors Offer Enrollment Snapshots
This post was corrected and updated at 4:50 pm, April 11. The Obama administration is touting the success of the health law’s open enrollment, which signed up at least 7.5 million Americans for health coverage through the online insurance marketplaces. But the experience varied according to states and Families USA brought together five state exchange […]
Letters to the Editor is a periodic KHN feature.
What Consumers Can Learn From Medicare Payment Data
Wednesday the federal government published details on Medicare’s $77 billion in payments to physicians, drug testing companies and other medical practitioners during 2012. KHN’s Jordan Rau, who reported on what can be learned from the newly-released data, discussed Medicare payments to providers with NPR’s Melissa Block on “All Things Considered” Wednesday night. Audio of that conversation […]
A Call For Pricey Treatment For Millions With Hepatitis C
Authors of the first-ever global hepatitis C guidelines went big Tuesday, advocating for worldwide use of two of the most expensive specialty drugs in the world. The new guidelines, from the World Health Organization, give strong endorsement to the two newest medicines. Gilead Science’s Sovaldi costs $1,000 per pill/$84,000 for a 12-week course of treatment and […]
Primary Care Shortage? Not For The Insured, Study Shows
Researchers posing as nonelderly adult patients made nearly 13,000 calls to primary care practices across Pennsylvania, New Jersey and eight other states between fall 2012 and spring of last year. What they found may provide some comfort amid growing concerns of doctor shortages, especially as more people gain coverage through the Affordable Care Act, potentially […]
Medicaid Enrollment Increased By 3 Million From October To February
The number of low-income people enrolled in Medicaid rose by 3 million to 62.3 million from October through February as more Americans joined the state-federal insurance program through state and federal online insurance marketplaces, according to a report released Friday by the Department of Health and Human Services. States that expanded Medicaid eligibility under the […]
Why Some Don’t Pay Their Obamacare Premium: It’s Not What You Think
A new analysis finds that many people who signed up for a Covered California health insurance exchange plan are likely to drop the coverage for a good reason: They found insurance elsewhere. Researchers at the U.C. Berkeley Labor Center released estimates Wednesday showing that about 20 percent of Covered California enrollees are expected to leave […]
