Latest KFF Health News Stories
Medicare Punishes 2,499 Hospitals for High Readmissions
The federal government’s hospital penalty program finishes its first decade by lowering payments to nearly half the nation’s hospitals for readmitting too many Medicare patients within a month. Penalties, though often small, are credited with helping reduce the number of patients returning for another Medicare stay within 30 days.
How Billing Turns a Routine Birth Into a High-Cost Emergency
“Obstetrical emergency departments” are a new feature in some hospitals that can inflate medical bills for even the easiest, healthiest births. Just ask the parents of Baby Gus.
Understaffed State Psychiatric Facilities Leave Mental Health Patients in Limbo
The pandemic has so seriously strained already tight state psychiatric hospitals in Georgia, Virginia, Texas and elsewhere that these facilities for the poorest and most vulnerable people with mental illness struggle to admit new patients.
Analysis: A Procedure That Cost $1,775 in New York Was $350 in Maryland. Here’s Why.
The state’s unique health system controls what hospitals can charge for services.
Worn-Out Nurses Hit the Road for Better Pay, Stressing Hospital Budgets — And Morale
Managers are trapped in a pricey hiring cycle, competing for critical care nurses who can monitor covid patients on life support. Some hospitals are looking abroad to replace staffers who quit to become travel nurses or leave the profession.
Journalists Tell How Covid Complicates Organ Transplants and the Health of Rural America
KHN and California Healthline staff made the rounds on national and local media this week to discuss their stories. Here’s a collection of their appearances.
Cómo hacer desaparecer una deuda médica: 5 consejos para usar la asistencia caritativa del hospital
La Ley de Cuidado de Salud a Bajo Precio (ACA), también conocida como Obamacare, requiere que los hospitales sin fines de lucro pongan a disposición de los pacientes de bajos ingresos asistencia financiera, y que publiquen esas políticas en línea.
How to Crush Medical Debt: 5 Tips for Using Hospital Charity Care
The law says nonprofit hospitals are supposed to offer low-income patients financial assistance. But the average person doesn’t know about it. Here’s how to get help.
6 Months to Live or Die: How Long Should an Alcoholic Liver Disease Patient Wait for a Transplant?
In a practice dating to the 1980s, many hospitals require people with alcohol-related liver disease to complete a period of sobriety before they can be added to the waiting list for a liver. But this thinking may be changing.
Trabajadores de salud alertan sobre el aumento de la violencia en hospitales
Trabajadores de salud piden una legislación federal que los proteja de los crecientes episodios de violencia, que aumentaron durante la pandemia de covid-19.
En todo el país, un número creciente de programas de trasplantes ha optado por excluir a los pacientes que se niegan a recibir las ampliamente disponibles vacunas contra covid, o darles una prioridad menor en las abarrotadas listas de espera de órganos.
‘Are You Going to Keep Me Safe?’ Hospital Workers Sound Alarm on Rising Violence
Health care workers already bore the brunt of workplace violence in the U.S. Now, tensions from an exhausting pandemic are spilling over into hospitals.
Organ Centers to Transplant Patients: Get a Covid Shot or Move Down on Waitlist
At issue is whether transplant patients who refuse the shots are not only putting themselves at greater risk for serious illness and death from covid-19, but also squandering scarce organs that could benefit others.
‘An Arm and a Leg’: How One State Protects Patients From Hospital Lawsuits
In Maryland, it’s now illegal for a hospital to sue a patient who qualifies for charity care. But in many other states, that’s still a thing.
Major Insurers Running Billions of Dollars Behind on Payments to Hospitals and Doctors
Patients are caught in the middle as insurers clamp down on paying for treatments or force prior authorizations for care.
Student Nurses Who Refuse Vaccination Struggle to Complete Degrees
The Biden administration is requiring workers at health care facilities that accept Medicare and Medicaid payments to be vaccinated. For the minority of nursing students who have refused a shot, the new policy could mean they can’t get the training they need in a hospital or other health care venue.
A Colorado Town Is About as Vaccinated as It Can Get. Covid Still Isn’t Over There.
San Juan County, Colorado, is one of the most vaccinated counties in the U.S. Leaders across the country continue to expound on the vaccine as the path forward in the pandemic. But San Juan’s experience the past few weeks with its first covid hospitalizations shows that, even with an extremely vaccinated population, masks are still necessary.
Hospitals Confront Climate Change as Patients Sick From Floods and Fires Crowd ERs
Patients sickened in heat waves, flooding and wildfire have raised awareness of climate change’s impact on health. Now, some hospitals are building solar panels and cutting waste to reduce their own carbon footprints, with support from a new office at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. But the industry is moving slowly.
Readers and Tweeters Feel Americans’ Pain
KHN gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories.
La parte del drama de Britney Spears que miles de personas están sufriendo
Hay poca información, pero se estima que aproximadamente 2 millones de pacientes psiquiátricos son hospitalizados cada año en los Estados Unidos, casi la mitad contra su voluntad.
