Inaccessible Medical Billing: KHN Wants to Hear From You
June 7, 2022
KFF Health News Original
People who are blind or use a screen reader or other assistive technology to access the web sometimes receive inaccessible medical bills or other health information. We at KHN, a nonprofit newsroom that covers health care, want to better understand the scope of the problem. We know that some people have had bills sent to […]
Rx For Clarity: Calif. Considers Bilingual Drug Labels
By April Dembosky, KQED
July 30, 2014
KFF Health News Original
Every Saturday morning, a steady stream of Chinese and Vietnamese patients line up at the Paul Hom Asian Clinic in Sacramento, Calif. Most of them speak little to no English. Patient assistance director Danny Tao says people come here to get free medical consultations and drug prescriptions. But, he says that when patients take those […]
Track Opioid Settlement Payouts — To the Cent — In Your Community
By Aneri Pattani and Lydia Zuraw and Holly K. Hacker
April 2, 2024
KFF Health News Original
Want to know how much opioid settlement money your city, county, or state has received so far? Or how much it’s expecting in the future? Use our new searchable database to find out.
After Public Push, CMS Curbs Health Insurance Agents’ Access to Consumer SSNs
By Julie Appleby
April 9, 2024
KFF Health News Original
Days after publication of a KFF Health News article about Obamacare enrollees being switched to different plans without their knowledge or consent, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services took steps to tighten insurance agents’ access to private consumer information on the federal marketplace.
Patients Expected Profemur Artificial Hips to Last. Then They Snapped in Half.
By Brett Kelman and Anna Werner, CBS News
December 5, 2023
KFF Health News Original
The FDA and the manufacturer were alerted to Profemur titanium hips breaking inside U.S. patients as of 2005. It took 15 years to recall the devices. Many fractures could have been avoided.
Joe Biden’s Skittish Support for Abortion Rights
By Julie Rovner
March 15, 2024
KFF Health News Original
President Biden spent much of his State of the Union speech last week talking about two subjects central to his reelection campaign while seemingly trying not to name them. One was Donald Trump, or as Biden called him, “my predecessor.” The other was abortion. It’s hardly news that Biden, an 81-year-old devout Catholic, is uncomfortable […]
Recovery From Addiction Is a Journey. There’s No One-and-Done Solution.
By Bernard J. Wolfson
June 6, 2023
KFF Health News Original
Drug use has become a major public health crisis, but effective treatment remains hard to find. It does exist though. Columnist Bernard J. Wolfson offers advice on finding help and says not to expect a quick solution.
Activist Misuses Federal Data to Make False Claim That Covid Vaccines Killed 676,000
By Tom Kertscher, PolitiFact
September 1, 2023
KFF Health News Original
Anti-vaccine tech entrepreneur Steve Kirsch, whose wild assertions have been repeatedly debunked, wrongly attributes deaths following vaccination to the vaccines themselves. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which runs the database, calls that inaccurate and irresponsible.
CDC to Reduce Funding for States’ Child Vaccination Programs
By Andy Miller
July 5, 2023
KFF Health News Original
Citing the recent debt ceiling deal, the CDC is trimming its funding to child vaccination programs that focus on communities vulnerable to disease outbreaks. The cuts come despite data showing the percentage of children getting vaccinated has dropped in recent years.
The Disability Tax: Medical Bills Remain Inaccessible for Many Blind Americans
By Lauren Weber and Hannah Recht
December 2, 2022
KFF Health News Original
Health insurers and health care systems across the country are violating disability rights laws by sending medical bills that blind and visually impaired people cannot read, a KHN investigation has found. By hindering the ability of blind Americans to know what they owe, some bills get sent to debt collections.
Ten Doctors on FDA Panel Reviewing Abbott Heart Device Had Financial Ties With Company
By David Hilzenrath and Holly K. Hacker
April 8, 2024
KFF Health News Original
Most of the doctors the FDA tapped to advise it on an Abbott medical device had financial ties to the company. The FDA didn’t disclose the payments.
NY Reaches Agreement With DOJ Over Vaccine Access for Blind People
By Lauren Weber and Hannah Recht
October 8, 2021
KFF Health News Original
Following a February KHN investigation into covid vaccine accessibility, the Department of Justice reached an agreement with five New York government agencies to make their websites accessible to people who are visually impaired.
Biden Cracks Down on Prior Authorization — But There Are Limits
By Lauren Sausser
January 18, 2024
KFF Health News Original
More than a year after it was initially proposed, the Biden administration announced a final rule yesterday that will change how insurers in federal programs such as Medicare Advantage use prior authorization — a long-standing system that prevents many patients from accessing doctor-recommended care. “When a doctor says a patient needs a procedure, it is […]
The Powerful Constraints on Medical Care in Catholic Hospitals Across America
By Rachana Pradhan and Hannah Recht
February 17, 2024
KFF Health News Original
The expansion of Catholic hospitals nationwide leaves patients at the mercy of the church’s religious directives, which are often at odds with accepted medical standards.
A Billing Expert Saved Big After Finding an Incorrect Charge in Her Husband’s ER Bill
By Bram Sable-Smith
October 25, 2022
KFF Health News Original
A medical billing specialist investigated her husband’s ER bill. Her sleuthing took over a year but knocked thousands of dollars off the hospital’s charges — and provides a playbook for other consumers.
Nikki Haley (And Her Opponents) Struggle With a Vaccine Message
By Darius Tahir
November 21, 2023
KFF Health News Original
Former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley portrays herself as a voice of reason in the Republican Party. “Let’s find consensus,” she said about abortion during the first GOP primary debate. “Let’s treat this like a respectful issue.” It’s talk like that — and strong polling in a hypothetical matchup against President Biden — that has […]
California’s Vaccine Appointment Website Has Glitches. No Surprise?
By Miranda Green
March 5, 2021
KFF Health News Original
Experts give poor usability ratings to My Turn, the new statewide sign-up app for covid vaccination. But with so many problems plaguing the vaccination effort, it seems unreasonable to have expected this one to work perfectly.
Centene Showers Politicians With Millions as It Courts Contracts and Settles Overbilling Allegations
By Samantha Young and Andy Miller and Rebecca Grapevine
November 4, 2022
KFF Health News Original
Centene, the largest Medicaid managed-care company in the U.S., has thrown more than $26.9 million at political campaigns across the country since 2015, especially focused on states where it is wooing Medicaid contracts and settling accusations that it overbilled taxpayers. Among its tactics: Centene is skirting contribution limits by giving to candidates through its many subsidiaries.
National Addiction Treatment Locator Has Outdated Data and Other Critical Flaws
By Aneri Pattani
May 9, 2022
KFF Health News Original
Three years after a government site launched to connect Americans to treatment, finding addiction care is still a struggle.
Hospitals and Doctors Are Fed up With Medicare Advantage
By Julie Appleby
November 29, 2023
KFF Health News Original
Medicare Advantage plans are pretty popular with both lawmakers and ordinary Americans — they now enroll about 31 million people, representing just over half of everyone in Medicare, by KFF’s count. But among doctors and hospitals, it’s a different story. Across the country, provider grumbling about claim denials and onerous preapproval requirements by Advantage plans […]