UnitedHealth Wins Ruling Over $2B in Alleged Medicare Advantage Overpayments
By Fred Schulte
March 4, 2025
KFF Health News Original
A special master found the Justice Department failed to prove wrongdoing by the giant health insurer.
Calif. Ballot Measure Targets Drug Discount Program Spending
By Angela Hart
October 8, 2024
KFF Health News Original
Californians in November will weigh in on a ballot initiative to increase scrutiny over the use of health-care dollars — particularly money from a federal drug discount program — meant to support patient care largely for low-income or indigent people. The revenue is sometimes used to address housing instability and homelessness among vulnerable patient populations. Voters […]
An Obscure Drug Discount Program Stifles Use of Federal Lifeline by Rural Hospitals
By Sarah Jane Tribble
May 30, 2024
KFF Health News Original
A disconnect between two federal programs meant to help keep hospitals afloat discourages struggling rural facilities from accepting the aid.
Without Medicare Part B’s Shield, Patient’s Family Owes $81,000 for a Single Air-Ambulance Flight
By Tony Leys
February 27, 2024
KFF Health News Original
Sky-high bills from air-ambulance providers have sparked complaints and federal action in recent years. But a rural Tennessee resident fell through the cracks of billing protections — and a single helicopter ride could cost much of her estate’s value.
Silence in Sikeston
September 9, 2024
Page
Listen | Watch | Read The Podcast “Silence in Sikeston” explores what it means to live with racism and violence, then charts the toll on our health — from hives, high blood pressure, inflammation and heart disease to struggles with mental health. In 1942, Cleo Wright was removed from a Sikeston, Missouri, jail and lynched […]
Copycat Weight-Loss Drugs Are Major Players With Consumers
By Arthur Allen
July 31, 2024
KFF Health News Original
As many as 1 in 8 American adults has tried one of the GLP-1 anti-obesity drugs, but a surprising number aren’t getting their supplies from pharma giants Novo Nordisk or Eli Lilly. Up to 30 percent of the market, by some estimates, is made up of copycat versions from compounding pharmacies. Compounding is legal, though […]
Biden Said Medicare Drug Price Negotiations Cut the Deficit by $160B. That’s Years Away.
By Amy Sherman, PolitiFact
March 21, 2024
KFF Health News Original
Savings estimated by the Congressional Budget Office from allowing the federal government to negotiate Medicare drug prices are based on a 10-year cumulative projection.
Why Millions Are Trying FDA-Authorized Alternatives to Big Pharma’s Weight Loss Drugs
By Arthur Allen
Illustration by Oona Zenda
July 23, 2024
KFF Health News Original
Although Novo Nordisk and Lilly lump together the pharmacies that compound semaglutide and tirzepatide with internet cowboys selling fake drugs, there is a distinction. The FDA has offered Americans little clarity about the vast gray and black markets for the drugs.
New Social Security Report Shows Growing Overpayment Problem Tops $23B
By Jodie Fleischer, Cox Media Group KFF Health News Staff
November 17, 2023
KFF Health News Original
Social Security has been overpaying recipients for years, then demanding the money back, leaving people with bills for up to tens of thousands of dollars or more.
Qué son los medicamentos compuestos que millones de personas usan para bajar de peso
By Arthur Allen
July 23, 2024
KFF Health News Original
La FDA permite e incluso fomenta que las farmacias de compuestos produzcan y vendan copias cuando un medicamento está en escasez, como es el caso de las drogas para combatir el sobrepeso y la obesidad.
Need to Get Plan B or an HIV Test Online? Facebook May Know About It
By Darius Tahir Simon Fondrie-Teitler, The Markup
Illustration by Oona Zenda
June 30, 2023
KFF Health News Original
Twelve of the largest drugstores in the U.S. sent shoppers’ sensitive health information to Facebook or other platforms, according to an investigation by The Markup and KFF Health News.
Abortion Clinics — And Patients — Are on the Move, as State Laws Keep Shifting
By Bram Sable-Smith
Illustration by Oona Zenda
September 19, 2024
KFF Health News Original
Clinics in states where most abortions are legal, such as Kansas and Illinois, are reporting an influx of inquiries from patients hundreds of miles away — and are expanding in response. Despite the Supreme Court’s overturning of federal protections in 2022, abortions are now at their highest numbers in a decade.
Can Medicaid’s Popularity Shield It From the Budget Ax?
By Renuka Rayasam
February 21, 2025
KFF Health News Original
Republicans in Congress have suggested big cuts to Medicaid, the state-federal health insurance program for people with low incomes or disabilities. The complex, multifaceted program touches millions of Americans and has become deeply woven into state budgets and the U.S. health care system.
Harris Correct That Trump Fell Short on Promise To Negotiate Medicare Drug Prices
By Jacob Gardenswartz
October 3, 2024
KFF Health News Original
The former president instead favored a temporary model that could’ve brought down prices of some prescription drugs, but it was blocked by the courts.
Watch: New Documentary Film Explores a Lynching and a Police Killing 78 Years Apart
By Cara Anthony
September 17, 2024
KFF Health News Original
The “Silence in Sikeston” documentary film explores how the nation’s first federally investigated lynching and a police killing 78 years apart haunt the same rural Missouri community. The film from KFF Health News and Retro Report explores the lasting impact of such trauma — and what it means to speak out about it.
Small-Town Patients Face Big Hurdles as Rural Hospitals Cut Cancer Care
By Charlotte Huff
August 7, 2024
KFF Health News Original
For rural patients, getting cancer treatment close to home has always been difficult. And now chemotherapy deserts are expanding across the United States as hospitals winnow services to save money, creating financial and logistical hurdles for people seeking lifesaving care.
An Arm and a Leg: The Medicare Episode
By Dan Weissmann
March 11, 2024
Podcast
On this episode of “An Arm and a Leg,” host Dan Weissmann breaks down the complicated and expensive world of Medicare with practical tips to pick the right plan and avoid penalties.
Proposed PFAS Rule Would Cost Companies Estimated $1B; Lacks Limits and Cleanup Requirement
By Michael Scaturro
July 10, 2023
KFF Health News Original
A proposed Environmental Protection Agency rule calls for companies to disclose PFAS manufactured or imported since 2011. The chemical industry is upset because such compliance would cost an estimated $1 billion, while environmental health advocates worry because the rule wouldn’t ban the chemicals outright.
Patients Squeezed in Fight Over Who Gets to Bill for Pricey Infusion Drugs
By Samantha Liss
July 5, 2023
KFF Health News Original
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.”
