The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
Oklahoma is seeking $17 billion in damages from Johnson & Johnson, the pharmaceutical giant. After a seven-week trial, a judge will decide if the opioid drugmaker is liable and if so, for how much.
Banking on new cost estimates, a bipartisan coalition in Congress is poised to try — once again — to end a three-year limit on coverage for lifesaving medication required to keep the organs functioning.
Check the fine print. When you get a prescription for expensive medical equipment, you may need to follow the doctor’s orders — to the letter — to get your health insurance company to pay up.
Over the past decade, more than 350 workers nationwide have died from heat-related illness, and tens of thousands have had heat-related problems serious enough that they missed at least one day of work. Proposed federal legislation, modeled on California regulations, would create the first national standards for protecting workers from heat-related stress.
An enhanced government effort to catch insurers that overcharge Medicare faces resistance from the insurance industry.
Most patients don’t argue when their health insurance won’t cover treatment or medication, but they should: Consumers win about half of their appeals. The process can sometimes be overwhelming, but there are ways to prepare and get help.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommended that people who are at high risk of contracting HIV take PrEP, a preventive treatment. The decision means most health plans will be required to cover the drugs without charging patients. But the recommendation doesn’t apply to the other clinical and lab services people need.
Newsletter editor Brianna Labuskes wades through hundreds of health care policy stories each week, so you don’t have to.
Under federal law, people who have been raped don’t have to pay for medical forensic exams, yet many get billed and have trouble getting the hospitals or collection agencies to stop dunning them for payment.
California is the first in the nation to expand Medicaid to young adults living there without legal permission.
KHN consulted legal experts about some of the arguments advanced by Trump administration lawyers during the most recent round of oral arguments in the legal challenge brought by 18 “red” states to overturn the Affordable Care Act.
Is the entire Affordable Care Act unconstitutional? That was the question before a federal appeals court in New Orleans this week. Two of the three judges on the panel seemed inclined to agree with a lower court that the elimination of the tax penalty for failure to maintain coverage could mean the entire health law should fall. Also this week, President Donald Trump wants to improve care for people with kidney disease. Joanne Kenen of Politico, Kimberly Leonard of the Washington Examiner and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss this, plus courts blocking efforts to require drug prices in TV ads and to kick Planned Parenthood out of the federal family planning program. Plus, Rovner interviews University of Michigan law professor Nicholas Bagley about the latest legal threat to the ACA.
California lawmakers on Wednesday pulled legislation that would have protected some patients from surprise medical bills for emergency care, citing opposition from hospitals. They vowed to resurrect the bill next year.
Did the Affordable Care Act create equal coverage of mental and physical health? Seems true on paper but not always in practice.
Only about 12% of dialysis patients get their treatment at home and the initiative aims to dramatically increase that number and move patients out of costly dialysis centers. It would also add provisions to boost the annual number of kidneys available for transplants.
A new report by the inspector general for HHS shows prescriptions to treat opioid addiction are way up in recent years, while prescriptions for the painkillers have fallen.
Skipping meals. Rationing medicine to make it last. The high cost of insulin has pushed some people with diabetes to make hard choices. Hear about insulin’s backstory and the hacks that might make it affordable.
A pricing tool embedded in their electronic health record and prescribing system lets doctors see how much patients will pay out-of-pocket based on their insurance and the pharmacy. But doctors have been slow to adopt the technology, which has limitations.
KHN, in collaboration with PBS NewsHour, reports on the skyrocketing cost of insulin — and the trend’s deadly consequences. The price in the U.S. nearly doubled from 2012 to 2016, prompting some patients and activists to travel to Canada, where insulin can be 90% cheaper.
Premiums will grow by an average of 0.8% next year on the state health insurance exchange. Officials cite two new policies for the relatively low rate hike: a new state tax penalty on Californians who don’t have health insurance coupled with state-based tax credits to help enrollees afford their premiums, including middle-income people who make too much money to qualify for federal financial aid.
