Insurance, Coverage, and Costs: July 7, 2023

The Hospital Bills Didn’t Find Her, but a Lawsuit Did — Plus Interest
By Bram Sable-Smith Recovering from emergency gallbladder surgery, a Tennessee woman said she spent months without a permanent mailing address and never got a bill. She was sued by the health system two years later.

Drugmakers Are Abandoning Cheap Generics, and Now US Cancer Patients Can’t Get Meds
By Arthur Allen A quality-control crisis at an Indian pharmaceutical factory has left doctors and their patients with impossible choices as cheap, effective, generic cancer drugs go out of stock.

Localize This: Public Reporting of Opioid Settlement Cash
By Aneri Pattani KFF Health News’ recent investigation offers a great opportunity for reporters to investigate an important issue of government accountability from a state or local angle.

International Rights Group Calls Out US for Allowing Hospitals to Push Millions Into Debt
By Noam N. Levey In a new report, Human Rights Watch urges stronger federal and state action to hold hospitals to account for a medical debt crisis that now burdens more than 100 million Americans.

Montana Clinics Chip Away at Refugees’ Obstacles to Dental Care
By Erica Zurek As the number of refugees entering the U.S. grows, those arriving in Montana and other rural areas find limited dental care options.

Dental Therapists Help Patients in Need of Care Avoid the Brush-Off
By Christina Saint Louis Dental therapists are licensed providers who offer basic care traditionally provided by dentists, including fillings and simple tooth extractions. But opposition from interest groups and the profession’s relative newness mean more than two-thirds of states don’t yet have them.

Medical Exiles: Families Flee States Amid Crackdown on Transgender Care
By Bram Sable-Smith and Daniel Chang and Jazmin Orozco Rodriguez and Sandy West As more states restrict gender-affirming care for transgender people, some are relocating to more welcoming destinations, such as California, Illinois, Maryland, and Nevada, where they don't have to worry about being locked out of medical care.

Opioid Settlement Payouts to Localities Made Public for First Time
By Aneri Pattani KFF Health News obtained documents showing the exact dollar amounts — down to the cent — that local governments have been allocated in 2022 and 2023 to battle the ongoing opioid crisis.

Find Out How Much Opioid Settlement Cash Your Locality Received
By Aneri Pattani You can use documents obtained by KFF Health News to see the exact dollar amounts that local governments in your state have been allocated in 2022 and 2023.

Dementia Can Take a Toll on Financial Health, as Some Families Learn the Hard Way
By Sarah Boden, WESA People with dementia and their families often find themselves with few legal rights when dealing with financial scams or the mismanagement of their assets. Research reveals financial troubles can be both an early sign and a painful symptom of cognitive decline.

What One Hospital’s Slow Recovery From a Cyberattack Means for Patients
By Farah Yousry, Side Effects Public Media U.S. hospitals have seen a record number of cyberattacks over the past few years. Getting hacked can cost a hospital millions of dollars, expose patient data, and even jeopardize patient care.

What You Need to Know About the Opioid Settlement Funds
By Aneri Pattani and Hannah Norman and Oona Zenda States and localities are receiving more than $54 billion over nearly two decades.

Patients Squeezed in Fight Over Who Gets to Bill for Pricey Infusion Drugs
By Samantha Liss To drive down costs, insurers are bypassing hospital system pharmacies and delivering high-priced infusion drugs, including some used in chemotherapy, via third-party pharmacies. Smarting from losing out on billing for those drugs, hospitals and clinics are trying to convince states to limit this practice, known as "white bagging."

‘We’re Not Doing That’: Why a Black Couple Wouldn’t Crowdfund to Pay Off Medical Debts
By Noam N. Levey Kristie Fields, a cancer patient in Virginia, was urged to go public to seek financial help. She worried about feeding hurtful stereotypes.

Journalists Discuss Floridians Being Dropped From Medicaid and Tips for Telemedicine Visits
KFF Health News 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.

At Least 1.7M Americans Use Health Sharing Arrangements, Despite Lack of Protections
By Markian Hawryluk A new report boosts the estimated number of people enrolled in plans whose members — usually brought together by shared religious beliefs — pay one another’s health costs.

More States Drop Sales Tax on Disposable Diapers to Boost Affordability
By Hannah Critchfield, Tampa Bay Times Last month, Florida joined a growing number of states in banning sales taxes on diapers to make them more affordable for older adults and families with young children. Though diapers are essential for many, they are not covered by food stamps. Nor are incontinence products for older adults typically covered by Medicare. The cost can easily add up on a fixed income.

Misinformation Obscures Standards Guiding Gender-Affirming Care for Trans Youth
By Helen Santoro Many state legislatures have passed or are considering restrictions on gender-affirming care for trans minors. Yet much of the discussion is based on misconceptions about what that care entails.

Fraudsters Are Duping Homeless People Into Signing Up for ACA Plans They Can’t Afford
By Daniel Chang Homeless people are being fraudulently enrolled in health plans on the Affordable Care Act’s marketplace, induced with cash payments from insurance agents and brokers. Those who sign up for an ACA plan are disqualified from other forms of free and low-cost care and risk disruption in treatment.

On the Brink of Homelessness, San Diego Woman Wins the Medi-Cal Lottery
By Angela Hart Annie Malloy, of San Diego, is among the first to receive a new housing move-in benefit from Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program. It’s an effort to help homeless and near-homeless people who might otherwise rack up huge medical bills.

KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Debt Deal Leaves Health Programs (Mostly) Intact
The bipartisan deal to extend the U.S. government’s borrowing authority includes future cuts to federal health agencies, but they are smaller than many expected and do not touch Medicare and Medicaid. Meanwhile, Merck & Co. becomes the first drugmaker to sue Medicare officials over the federal health insurance program’s new authority to negotiate drug prices. Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico, Lauren Weber of The Washington Post, and Jessie Hellmann of CQ Roll Call join KFF Health News’ chief Washington correspondent, Julie Rovner, to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews KFF Health News senior correspondent Sarah Jane Tribble, who reported the latest KFF Health News-NPR “Bill of the Month” feature, about the perils of visiting the U.S. with European health insurance.