The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
Patients soon will not have to worry about the prospect of these often-costly unexpected bills, a federal law promises. Some experts say the new policy could also slow the growth of health insurance premiums.
California Assembly member Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, who authored legislation to create and fund the state’s new 988 phone line for mental health emergencies, spoke with KHN about the effort and what more will be needed to create a full-fledged response network for people experiencing mental health crises.
The availability of covid testing and turnaround times for results still vary widely around the country, some 19 months since the pandemic was declared a national crisis. A jumbled testing system, technician burnout and squirrely spikes in demand are all part of the problem.
Hundreds of towns, cities and states across the U.S. have ignored part of the Americans With Disabilities Act, and now it’s costing them billions of dollars to comply.
Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to regulate out-of-control health care spending in California. The effort is being shaped by the very health industry players that would be regulated.
In a practice dating to the 1980s, many hospitals require people with alcohol-related liver disease to complete a period of sobriety before they can be added to the waiting list for a liver. But this thinking may be changing.
Long-term relationships between patients and doctors often enrich the quality of care and create deep emotional bonds. When the doctors retire or move on, saying goodbye can be hard.
But Americans generally have little confidence that the White House or Congress will recommend the right thing, a new poll shows.
Health care workers already bore the brunt of workplace violence in the U.S. Now, tensions from an exhausting pandemic are spilling over into hospitals.
Federally qualified health centers from California to Michigan are mired in a bureaucratic mess over how they should be paid under Medicaid for each dose of covid vaccine given. In California alone, clinics await reimbursement for at least 1 million shots, causing a “massive cash flow problem.”
KHN and California Healthline staff made the rounds on national and local media this week to discuss their stories. Here’s a collection of their appearances.
Effective immediately, it will be a misdemeanor in California to harass people on their way to get a covid, or any other, vaccine. But First Amendment experts say the new law violates free speech protections and could face a constitutional battle.
The American Rescue Plan Act, passed by Congress in March, provides $130 billion to cities, counties and tribes — with few restrictions on how the money can be spent.
As scientists argue whether a previous bout of covid offers the same amount of protection as vaccinations, people turn to the courts to decide.
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.
At issue is whether transplant patients who refuse the shots are not only putting themselves at greater risk for serious illness and death from covid-19, but also squandering scarce organs that could benefit others.
The polarizing abortion issue threatens to tie up Congress, the Supreme Court and the states for the coming year. Meanwhile, Congress kicks the can down the road to December on settling its spending priorities. Joanne Kenen of Politico and the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Yasmeen Abutaleb of The Washington Post and Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more.
Also this week, Rovner interviews KHN’s Aneri Pattani, who delivered the latest KHN-NPR “Bill of the Month” episode about a covid test that cost as much as a luxury car.
After experiencing multiple quarantines and school closures in less than two months, covid vaccine approvals for 5- to 11-year-olds can’t come soon enough for a KHN editor in Montana.
In Maryland, it’s now illegal for a hospital to sue a patient who qualifies for charity care. But in many other states, that’s still a thing.
Dr. Francis Collins, who announced he is stepping down as chief of the National Institutes of Health, used his communication skills and political insights to help protect the highly acclaimed federal research institutes through difficult times.
