Hospitals Divert Primary Care Patients to Health Center ‘Look-Alikes’ to Boost Finances
By Phil Galewitz
Photos by Heidi de Marco
September 9, 2022
KFF Health News Original
Medicare and Medicaid pay “look-alike” health centers significantly more than hospitals for treating patients, and converting or creating clinics can help hospitals reduce their expenses.
Walmart’s Closure Of Clinics Is Part Of Larger Retail Retreat From Health Care
May 1, 2024
Morning Briefing
Walmart will shut down all 51 of its health clinics and its virtual care services, citing costs and the challenges of reimbursements as the force behind its change of strategy.
Orange County Hospital Seeks Divorce From Large Catholic Health System
By Bernard J. Wolfson
April 13, 2021
KFF Health News Original
Frustration with the standardization of care across 51 hospitals, loss of local control and restrictions on reproductive health care have pitted Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian against the Providence chain.
Death and Redemption in an American Prison
By Markian Hawryluk
February 21, 2024
KFF Health News Original
More than a quarter century after an inmate helped start a hospice program in one of the nation’s most notorious prisons, he is trying to spread the idea.
51% Of People Alive In 2035 Will Be Obese Or Overweight: Report
March 3, 2023
Morning Briefing
A new World Obesity Federation report says the economic impact of this situation could hit $4 trillion a year. Separately, a survey finds the bulk of big food brands’ products are unhealthy.
No Vacancy: How a Shortage of Mental Health Beds Keeps Kids Trapped Inside ERs
By Martha Bebinger, WBUR
June 25, 2021
KFF Health News Original
What’s known as emergency room boarding of psychiatric patients has risen between 200% and 400% monthly in Massachusetts during the pandemic — and the problem is widespread. The CDC says emergency room visits after suicide attempts among teen girls were up 51% earlier this year as compared with 2019.
As Water Levels Drop, the Risk of Arsenic Rises
By Melissa Bailey
May 24, 2023
KFF Health News Original
As the West grapples with a megadrought, its driest spell in at least 1,200 years, rising levels of arsenic — a known carcinogen — in Colorado’s San Luis Valley offer clues to what the future may hold.
New Weight Loss Treatment Is Marked by Heavy Marketing and Modest Results
By Julie Appleby
June 22, 2022
KFF Health News Original
Approved as a device, not a drug, Plenity contains a plant-based gel that swells to fill 25% of a person’s stomach, to help people eat less. Results vary widely but are modest on average.
From Alabama to Utah, Efforts to Vaccinate Medicaid Enrollees Against Covid Run Into Obstacles
By Phil Galewitz
February 28, 2022
KFF Health News Original
Inoculation rates remain low despite massive outreach efforts and incentives from federal and state programs and Medicaid plan operators, leaving many low-income people vulnerable to the virus.
How Banks and Private Equity Cash In When Patients Can’t Pay Their Medical Bills
By Noam N. Levey Aneri Pattani
November 17, 2022
KFF Health News Original
Hospitals strike deals with financing companies, generating profits for lenders, and more debt for patients.
Walmart Ends Its Primary Care Effort, Will Shut All Clinics Friday
June 27, 2024
Morning Briefing
The retailer’s virtual care platform and all 51 clinics in five states will be shut down. In other news, CMS is proposing a net 1.7% Medicare pay cut to home health agencies for 2025 — a sum arrived at after a 3.6% spending cut is offset by other factors.
Community Health Centers’ Big Profits Raise Questions About Federal Oversight
By Phil Galewitz Bram Sable-Smith
August 15, 2022
KFF Health News Original
Nonprofit federally funded health centers are a linchpin in the nation’s health care safety net because they treat the medically underserved. The average profit margin is 5%, but some have recorded margins of 20% or more in three of the past four years.
$35 Insulin Cap Is Welcome, Popular, and Bipartisan. But Congress May Not Pass It Anyway.
By Michael McAuliff
March 4, 2022
KFF Health News Original
Spun off from the ailing but not-quite-dead Build Back Better legislation, a popular proposal to cap out-of-pocket insulin costs at $35 a month faces tough political realities that could kill it.
KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Health Programs Are at Risk as Debt Ceiling Cave-In Looms
May 4, 2023
Podcast
A warning from the Treasury Department that the U.S. could default on its debt as soon as June 1 has galvanized lawmakers to intervene. But there is still no obvious way to reconcile Republican demands to slash federal spending with President Joe Biden’s demand to raise the debt ceiling and save the spending fight for a later date. Meanwhile, efforts to pass abortion bans in conservative states are starting to stall as some Republicans rebel against the most severe bans. Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico, Rachel Cohrs of Stat, and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico join KFF Health News chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more.
Los hospitales derivan pacientes de atención primaria a centros de salud “semejantes” para mejorar las finanzas
By Phil Galewitz
Photos by Heidi de Marco
September 9, 2022
KFF Health News Original
Pero, a diferencia de los centros de salud comunitarios, los semejantes no reciben una subvención federal anual para cubrir los costos operativos. Tampoco obtienen la cobertura económica del gobierno federal para casos de negligencia médica.
IVF Bill Again Blocked By Republicans; Competing Senate Measure Fails, Too
September 18, 2024
Morning Briefing
The Democratic measure, which would have ensured federal protections to the fertility treatment, failed 51-44. The GOP bill, which focused on access to IVF, did not gain unanimous consent to pass. Meanwhile, AP and ProPublica report about pregnant women who have died since Roe v. Wade was overturned.
Por qué algunos estados quieren garantizar Medicaid para los niños desde que nacen hasta los 6 años
By Phil Galewitz
November 10, 2022
KFF Health News Original
La posibilidad de inscribir a los niños en Medicaid, desde que nacen hasta los 6 años, de manera continua y sin papeleo, ayudaría, entre otras cosas, a prevenir las brechas de cobertura.
Fire Closes Hospital and Displaces Staff as Colorado Battles Omicron
By Kate Ruder
January 11, 2022
KFF Health News Original
The most destructive fire in state history has knocked a hospital out of service and left health care workers homeless with omicron driving new covid hospitalizations.
States Were Sharing Covid Test Kits. Then Omicron Hit.
By Katheryn Houghton
January 31, 2022
KFF Health News Original
The omicron variant upended a system in which states shared rapid covid tests with those that needed them more. Cooperation has turned into competition as states run out of supplies, limit which organizations get them, or hold on to expired kits as a last resort.
After Medical Bills Broke the Bank, This Family Headed to Mexico for Care
By Paula Andalo
April 27, 2022
KFF Health News Original
The Fierro family owed a Yuma, Arizona, hospital more than $7,000 for care given to mom and dad, so when a son dislocated his shoulder, they headed to Mexicali. The care was quick, good, and affordable.
