The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
There is a hidden cost how we fund health insurance in the U.S.: insurers have more information about health care than the taxpayers that help fund it. The system’s opacity gives insurers the upper hand in debates over government payment rates.
Doctors who accept speaking fees, five-star meals and other compensation from pharmaceutical or medical device companies will soon see their names — and the value of the gifts they accept — revealed on the Web.
President Obama’s fiscal commission faces a daunting task in reducing the deficit.
The Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services confirms that some discounts states received from drugmakers will now be shifted to the federal government.
The first Kaiser Health Tracking Poll released since health overhaul became law shows that most people are confused — not angry.
CLASS takes a step towards moving long-term care financing from the welfare-like Medicaid program to an insurance-based system. But CLASS alone won’t get there. Private insurance, currently a niche product that covers only about seven million Americans, will have to play an important role as well.
Many African-Americans hope the health care overhaul will cut the high rates of chronic disease in their communities. But not everyone is convinced the bill will ease the health disparities they face.
Former physical education teacher Andrew Jones, who suffers from Multiple Sclerosis, spent five years in nursing homes in Georgia and Connecticut. The 56-year-old was able to move out of the nursing home system in 2009 with the help of a federally-funded state program, known as “Money Follows the Person.”
A program, known as “Money Follows the Person,” aims to help elderly and disabled people in nursing homes live on their own and save tens of millions of dollars for Medicaid. But many states are having trouble finding affordable housing, and fewer than 6,000 people have moved. The goal is 37,000 by 2013.
An analysis of lung cancer screening finds that 21 to 33 percent of the suspicious nodules found by CT scans are false alarms, resulting in extra scans and biopsies, which cost an average of an extra $1,100.
The new health care law could shift billions of dollars from cash-strapped states to the federal government by changing the way Medicaid prescription drug rebates are treated.
This year’s crop of college graduates may have trouble finding a job, given the state of the economy. But some of them will have a much easier time keeping health insurance while they look.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will hold a hearing this week to discuss how to protect consumers from unreasonable health insurance premium increases.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will hold a hearing this week to discuss how to protect consumers from unreasonable health insurance premium increases.
In Kansas, cuts to Medicaid in-home services for the elderly produce quick consequences for some people who have had to move out of their apartments and into nursing homes.
State officials leading the nullification campaign talk a lot about what their citizens stand to lose as the Affordable Care Act takes effect. But the real loss will be if, somehow, the opposite were to happen–and the people living in those states were left dealing with the same dysfunctional health care system that exists today.
Medicaid patients in traditional fee-for-service care get some services at two to three times the frequency of those who are in managed care, a preliminary state report suggests. What it doesn’t say: Is that good or bad?
The White House released a copy of the memo sent by President Barack Obama to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on hospital visitors’ rights, including those for same-sex partners of patients.
Hospitals that receive Medicare and Medicaid funding will be required to comply with the order.
Folks who say, “When I get that sick, unplug me, don’t let me suffer” have never learned how the end of life can be done better.
