Latest KFF Health News Stories
Today’s Headlines – January 18, 2012
Good morning! Here are your headlines to get you going: The Wall Street Journal: Nearly Half Of U.S. Lives In Household Receiving Government Benefits The pool of Americans relying on government benefits rose to record highs last year as an increasing share of families tapped aid in a weak economy. Some 48.6% of the population […]
Retail Labs Give Patients Information, But Needle Doctors
This story comes from our partner ‘s Shots blog. You could call Michael Brooks a supplement junkie. He pops exactly six pills a day, three times a day, not to mention powders and shakes and chews. “A multivitamin, vitamin C, omega-3s, alpha lipoic acid,” he says. “I’m taking a digestive enzyme.” Brooks is a personal […]
Alaska To Spend $200K A Year For Each High Risk Pool Member
Alaska has long been known as one of the most expensive places to live in the United States. Those higher costs extend to health care services as well. A high risk pool set up under the federal health overhaul to help the uninsured who have pre-existing medical conditions expects to spend $10 million this year […]
‘Tiered’ Insurance Confounds Consumers, Docs In Mass.
Tiered insurance is being offered by various companies in Massachusetts as a way to meet employers’ demands for cheaper insurance premiums.
Today’s Headlines – January 17, 2012
Good morning! Here are your early morning headlines! The Washington Post: Obama Hopes To Strike Balance In State Of Union Address The president has been using the refrain “Change is . . . ” to catalogue a list of actions — including rescuing the auto industry, enacting health-care reform and ending the war in Iraq — he […]
Are Politicians Playing Whac-A-Mole With Medicare?
Every week, reporter Jessica Marcy selects interesting reads from around the Web. The Washington Post Magazine: A Family Learns The True Meaning Of The Vow ‘In Sickness And In Health’ Seven years later Robert was still mentally impaired and his personality far different than before the accident, but he knew his family, knew he had […]
Today’s Headlines – January 13, 2012
Happy Friday! Here are your headlines: NPR: Biggest Bucks In Health Care Are Spent On A Very Few Researchers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality looked at the way people actually spend money on health care. They found that half the population spends practically nothing on health care in any given year, while […]
Considering Cost: Bloggers Reveal ‘Parsimonious’ Ponderings
Should doctors think about cost when they’re helping you make your health care decisions? Yesterday on the main KHN site we had a round robin of experts talking about the American College of Physicians’ latest update of its ethics manual. The manual encourages doctors to be “parsimonious” in doling out health care — that is, if you […]
HHS Calls Trustmark’s Rate Increases ‘Unreasonable’; Insurer Begs to Differ
The Department of Health and Human Services Thursday deemed a health insurer’s proposed premium increases in five states “unreasonable” and called on the company to rescind the rates, issue refunds or justify the increase. Trustmark Life Insurance Company proposed health insurance premium hikes of 13 percent for 10,000 residents in five states: Arizona, Alabama, Pennsylvania, […]
Panel Winnows Proposed Quality Measures For Medicare And Medicaid
Updated 12:25 p.m. A panel of health care experts and industry officials has winnowed down 368 quality measures the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is considering to use in evaluating nursing homes, hospitals, diabetes facilities and other providers. The panel said 45 percent of the potential measures it reviewed shouldn’t be used by the […]
Gingrich, Romney Go At It Over Abortion
This story comes from our partner ‘s Shots blog. The latest abortion battle doesn’t pit people on opposite sides of the issue against each other. Rather, it features two of the leading GOP candidates for president, each charging that the other is less than pure as the race heads to socially conservative South Carolina. Both […]
Today’s Headlines – January 12, 2012
Good morning! Here are your headlines to get your morning going: The Hill’s Healthwatch: Nearly 500 State Lawmakers To Press Supreme Court To Uphold Healthcare Mandate More than 480 state lawmakers plan to file a brief Thursday urging the Supreme Court to uphold President Obama’s healthcare law. The group includes at least one lawmaker from […]
Gym Memberships In Medicare Advantage Plans Cater To Healthy Seniors
Despite federal regulations that prohibit health insurance plans from cherry-picking their beneficiaries, some Medicare Advantage plans may be doing just that, only indirectly. A new study from the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that when Medicare Advantage plans alter their benefits to include perks like gym memberships, they tend to attract healthier seniors. That […]
Do No Harm – And Keep An Eye On Costs
Kaiser Health News staff reporters talked with physicians and health policy experts about the recent American College of Physicians’ ethics statement that focuses on the principle of cost-effectiveness in delivering health care.
Today’s Headlines – January 11, 2012
Good morning! Here are your morning headlines: The Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog: Tax Anti-Injunction Act? Whatevs… Just Sue The States Before the Supreme Court reviews the challenges to President Barack Obama’s health-care overhaul, it has to answer another question: Is the whole thing premature? Federal appellate judges in the Fourth Circuit and the D.C. […]
Measuring Quality: 368 New Ideas For 2012
How should Medicare and Medicaid measure doctors, hospitals, dialysis centers and other health care providers the government pays? There are 368 new ideas on the table this year, according to a list compiled by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. CMS estimates 60 will be adopted in 2012. Figuring out how to fairly and […]
Today’s Headlines – January 10, 2012
Good morning! Here are your headlines for the morning: The New York Times: Recession Holds Down Health Spending National health spending rose a slight 3.9 percent in 2010, as Americans delayed hospital care, doctor’s visits and prescription drug purchases for the second year in a row, the Obama administration reported Monday (Pear, 1/9). Los Angeles […]
N.Y. Lawmakers Tackle Exchange Bill. Again.
This story is part of a reporting partnership that includes , and Kaiser Health News. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says creating a health insurance exchange for the state is a priority for 2012. State-run exchanges are mandated by the federal health law. Exchanges would effectively allow states to play the role of insurance broker to help […]
The Income Penalty For Diabetes: $160,000
A young person with diabetes could earn an average of $160,000 less over their lifetime compared to someone without the disease, according to a study published in the most recent issue of the journal Health Affairs. Adolescents with diabetes are also more likely to drop out of high school than their peers — a more pronounced […]
Millions Find Walgreens No Longer In Their Rx Networks
This story is part of a reporting partnership that includes KQED, and Kaiser Health News. If you’re heading into a Walgreens to pick up a prescription, you may first want to check the back of your insurance card. If it says Express Scripts, you can no longer fill your prescription at Walgreens or affiliates like […]
