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Hospitals and other medical providers are increasingly asking for payment before providing care, collecting more of what patients might owe as rising insurance deductibles add to Americans' financial pressures.
Drug test strips are credited with saving lives, but a new policy will limit how funds can be used for them. Advocates of harm reduction strategies who responded to a mass overdose in Baltimore say distributing them will get harder. Federal officials say the strips enable drug use.
The city wants to stop health crises before they happen and is creating a new service to do that when people call 911.
When surgery became unavoidable, a man with no insurance shopped around for the best price for a hernia repair — and saved thousands by traveling out of state.
The government will cap how much graduate students may borrow in federal loans. The new policy could leave many at the mercy of private lenders with higher interest rates. The borrowing limits will affect students pursuing expensive healthcare careers, and some worry they may impede efforts to diversify the healthcare workforce.
KFF Health News is working to collect and post approved plans as more states respond to emails and public records requests for their documents.
From screwworm to flesh-eating bacteria, mounting public health risks are emerging in the wake of deep cuts to federal health agencies and programs.
Starting in July, the government will cap what graduate students may borrow in federal loans, forcing many toward private lenders with higher interest rates. The borrowing limits will affect students pursuing healthcare degrees, and some clinicians and student loan experts worry they may impede efforts to diversify the healthcare workforce.
Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s new autism panel is championing a controversial communication method popular among parents of severely autistic people. Critics warn of abuse — and fake “telepathy.”
Big cuts to healthcare programs in the 2025 GOP budget law are creating an affordability crunch for many Americans: Higher health insurance premiums. Confusion about who Medicaid will cover under the new rules. KFF Health News chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner explains how the changes could leave nearly 2 million children uninsured.
To collect and scrutinize millions of Americans’ health data, U.S. health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. aims to work with state organizations that help health systems share medical records. In Nebraska, millions in federal dollars has flowed into one nonprofit cooperating with Kennedy’s project.
Patients’ experiences encapsulate breakdowns in a healthcare system that traps patients in debt. The industry’s key players blame one another.
Several rural communities were thrust into a charged national debate over the Trump administration’s mass deportation strategy when federal officials sought to place new detention centers in them. In Social Circle, Georgia, locals fear the effort will overburden its modest healthcare infrastructure.
For years, the Department of Health and Human Services built standards to make sure electronic health records were user-friendly and offered transparent advice to doctors. Now they’re relaxing those standards, and doctors and critics in the hospital industry are worried.
A Minnesota Star Tribune-KFF Health News investigation of hospital data and charity care programs shows most Minnesota hospitals provide little financial aid to patients and often make assistance difficult to get.
A KFF survey of state Medicaid officials offers insight into lingering uncertainty and differing plans for work requirement implementation as the Jan. 1 deadline approaches.
As artificial intelligence embeds itself into health care, some physicians and patient advocates worry it could be used by insurance companies to refuse payment for care. Maryland passed one law banning AI from acting alone on a denial. Meanwhile, Virginia’s then-governor vetoed that state’s attempt at regulating AI in health insurance.
As President Donald Trump’s heightened immigration enforcement continues across the country, some states are updating temporary guardianship laws to keep the children of detained and deported immigrants out of state custody.
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Government data shows the National Institutes of Health lost about 4,400 people — more than 20% of its staff — as the Trump administration slashed the federal workforce. Hear from six scientists on why they walked out the door and the work they left behind.
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