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Hospitals and other medical providers are increasingly asking for payment before providing care, collecting more of what patients might owe as rising insurance deductibles add to Americans' financial pressures.
A federal disclosure rule is offering new insight on the effect of healthcare monopolies on pricing, following a wave of U.S. mergers.
KFF Health News is working to collect and post approved plans as more states respond to emails and public records requests for their documents.
A growing network of home-sharing programs is helping people find compatible housemates. And demand is rising, driven by housing shortages, rising rents, and sales prices that affect both the old and the young.
Prisoners with severe medical conditions can be granted compassionate release, but without a long-term care facility willing to accept them, many continue to wait in prison as their conditions worsen.
With the federal Medicaid work requirements looming in January, Democrats are considering state legislation to call out big companies that employ workers enrolled in the safety net health program. Business giants such as Amazon and Walmart said the figures are misleading.
Republicans say California’s use of Medicaid money for social services amounts to waste, fraud, and abuse. But even as Gov. Gavin Newsom voices concern about losing funding, he says he’s proud of the state’s holistic approach to caring for its sickest and most expensive patients.
Over the past 70 years, the number of inpatient psychiatric beds has dropped dramatically, leaving many without critical care when they experience mental health crises. I was one of the lucky ones to get a bed — after 21 hours of waiting.
Drugmakers provide financial assistance to help patients afford increasingly expensive medications. But some insurers do not count those payments toward a plan’s deductible or out-of-pocket maximum and make patients pay instead.
Massachusetts passed laws and joined lawsuits to protect access to gender-affirming care for minors. But faced with the Trump administration’s threats, some hospitals voluntarily stopped care. Families are outraged.
“Government has to intervene, because healthcare is run like an unregulated utility,” Indiana’s GOP governor says of the state’s effort to regulate hospital prices.
Mehmet Oz, head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, framed the $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program as “bold, creative plans” led by states. But as states have started to roll out their plans, federal officials control where and how the money is spent.
Despite widespread support in polls for legalizing aid in dying, the number of people who go through with the practice remains very small.
Immigrant detainees have told courts across the nation that detention officials have failed to treat or stabilize their conditions, from pregnancy to prostate cancer, suggesting that systemic lapses in care extend well beyond record deaths in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.
Congress' decision not to extend enhanced marketplace tax credits has boosted the appeal of alternative health coverage with lower monthly premiums. Consumer advocates dismiss the plans as "junk insurance,” while proponents say patients need alternatives to pricey marketplace options.
Doctors, lawmakers, and other advocates are joining forces to promote recommended childhood vaccines.
The data behind alcohol-related traffic deaths is well studied. Less understood is the toll of vehicle deaths involving drugs or a combination of drugs and alcohol. Attempts to fix that have been stymied by federal budget and staffing cuts.
Some children are healthy enough to leave the hospital after a medical stay but have no place to go. Across the country, the practice of allowing children to remain hospitalized “beyond medical necessity” has become a costly problem, and states have struggled to address the issue.
A $50 billion federal fund is supposed to modernize rural health with electronic health records, AI, telehealth, and more. But community clinics and rural health advocates fear that the contractors administering the money for states will bite off a big chunk before it reaches rural patients.
The costs of posttreatment care are forcing cancer survivors to make tough choices. GOP proposals to bring down health insurance costs won’t help people who need constant care and monitoring, health policy researchers and patient advocates say.
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