The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
For some, playing the high-risk gamble of paying the Obamacare penalty versus carrying health coverage they can’t afford pays off, for others who get sick, the wager leaves them with huge medical bills.
Only two states offer telemed abortions, in which a woman confers with a doctor through an Internet video connection before being prescribed drugs to terminate a pregnancy. Supporters say the practice improves early access to abortion, thus cutting down expenses and complications, but opponents say it is dangerous.
This video features specially trained paramedic Ryan Ramsdell, who is part of an ambitious plan in Reno, Nevada, to overhaul the 911 system to improve patient care and cut costs.
In Reno and around the country, community paramedics are providing more care themselves and taking non- emergency patients to facilities other than emergency rooms.
A quiet seven-bedroom facility is one of four publicly funded mental health centers in New York City that provide an alternative to hospital stays for people on the verge of a mental health crisis.
While the Washington Education Association health trust has won approval from the state, other groups providing health coverage for thousands of small-business employees are finding their plans in limbo or rejected.
In an announcement this week, federal officials made clear that insurers should not charge patients for the anesthesia used in a screening colonoscopy, but some other routine charges are still in dispute.
Most said they hope he gets the surgery and changes his political views.
Texas boasts the highest percentage of low-ranked nursing homes in the country, followed by Louisiana, Oklahoma, Georgia and West Virginia.
A Sacramento couple struggled to take advantage of subsidized health care coverage through Covered California in 2014 – facing one glitch after another. This year, they are more savvy about navigating the system.
A self-employed handyman chose not to buy health insurance. Now, with his savings exhausted and health problems that may lead to blindness, The Charlotte Observer blogs about how his case poses economic, as well as moral challenges.
A small consulting firm is disrupting hospitals’ business as usual by encouraging employers to pay much less than what hospitals bill — based on its analysis of what is reasonable.
Facing a shortfall of doctors — and a dearth of money — L.A. County, Calif., is using a web-based system called eConsult that allows primary care doctors and specialists to exchange patient medical records before sending them for referral appointments.
Medicaid expansion was a big deal in a handful of states’ legislatures this year. Wyoming said no, Tennessee said no. Montana said yes in last-minute maneuvering, and three more states are coming down to the wire, including Utah, Alaska and Florida.
The Nurse-Family Partnership is one of more than a dozen programs that are eligible for funding under the federal health law. Congress renewed the spending this year.
An interview with policy expert Linda Blumberg of the Urban Institute about the possible consequences of the latest health law case before the Supreme Court, King v. Burwell.
Meet three people from the Bayou State who would likely lose their insurance and their newfound sense of financial stability if the Supreme Court rules subsidies illegal in the King v. Burwell case.
The announcement says that the health law’s provision that insurers provide free contraceptives extends to all types of prescribed methods.
A stinging federal audit and complaints of long wait times give reluctant lawmakers a line of attack.
Faced with the possible loss of an important insurer, a large Orange County, Calif., hospital rapidly reduced excessive cesarean section rates in part by sharing each physician’s rate with everyone in the obstetrics department.
