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Hospitals nationwide face growing scrutiny over how they secure payment from patients, but at one community hospital, the debt collection machine has been quietly humming along for decades.
The cyberattack on a unit of UnitedHealth Group’s Optum division is the worst on the health care industry in U.S. history, hospitals say. Providers struggling to get paid for care say the response by the insurer and the Biden administration has been inadequate.
In many places, victims of the opioid epidemic are silenced in decision-making about how to use opioid settlement money, a first-of-its-kind survey conducted by KFF Health News and Spotlight PA found.
Kaiser Health News gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories.
In this episode of “An Arm and a Leg,” host Dan Weissmann tells a horror story. Instead of monsters and aliens, it’s about private health insurance companies and algorithms that call the shots on patient care.
As open enrollment ends, many people are tuning out. They could wind up with a surprise next year: higher costs and less access to health care providers.
For the second time in as many months, the Supreme Court heard arguments in an abortion case. This time, the justices are being asked to decide whether a federal law that requires emergency care in hospitals can trump Idaho’s near-total abortion ban. Meanwhile, the federal government, for the first time, will require minimum staffing standards for nursing homes. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Tami Luhby of CNN, and Joanne Kenen of Johns Hopkins University and Politico Magazine join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more. Plus, for “extra credit,” the panelists suggest health policy stories they read this week they think you should read, too.
Democratic presidential candidates disagreed on how to fix health care in their first debate Wednesday, although they all called for boosting insurance coverage and lowering prices. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is keeping health care in the news, too, with a new plan to make medical prices more available to the public. Stephanie Armour of The Wall Street Journal, Rebecca Adams of CQ Roll Call and Anna Edney of Bloomberg News join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss this, plus the latest in news about bipartisan progress on catch-all legislation to address “surprise” medical bills. Plus, Rovner interviews NPR’s Jon Hamilton about the latest KHN-NPR “Bill of the Month” installment.
The new Montana law contains a couple of significant differences from the measure voters rebuffed last fall.
After the U.S. Supreme Court ended the federal right to an abortion and many states banned the procedure, reproductive health care organizations hired dozens of people to help patients arrange travel and pay for care.
Disputes between hospitals and Medicare Advantage plans are leading to entire hospital systems suddenly leaving insurance networks. Patients are left stuck in the middle, choosing between their doctors and their insurance plan. There’s a way out.
Tennessee company’s Medicare billings for urine tests were examined by Kaiser Health News in 2017.
A service called neuromonitoring can cut the risk of nerve damage during delicate surgery. But some patients are receiving unexpected and large bills for the service.
Treatments that don’t help patients, and may even harm them, are difficult to eliminate because they can be big sources of revenue.
As money flows to abortion rights initiatives in states, some donors focus on where anger over the "Dobbs" ruling could propel voter turnout and spur Democratic victories up and down the ballot, including in key Senate races and the White House.
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.
Doulas, independent workers who act as advocates for birthing parents, have been shown to help prevent pregnancy complications and improve the health of both mothers and babies. California’s Medicaid program started covering their services this year, but some doulas say bureaucratic obstacles and inadequate pay prevent their effective use.
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