The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
Although IUDs — a form of long-acting birth-control — are growing in popularity and recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics, some pediatricians face challenges in offering it to teenage patients who are sexually active.
The deadline for enrolling in coverage for 2015 is Sunday. Officials say people still have time to get through the process, but they should move quickly.
Medicaid managed care enrollees in Illinois are reporting difficulties seeing their doctors and getting prescriptions filled, which a state Medicaid official attributes to the speed and scope of the changes.
The request ran afoul of the official policy against allowing most insurers to join the statewide exchange for three years that didn’t choose to sell there when it opened in 2014. But officials last month also made some exceptions for insurers that want to operate in poorly served areas.
Health policy experts present a list of possible fixes to the health law, including changing how subsidies are calculated and eliminating the individual mandate.
Still, since October 2013, 2.6 million Latinos gained insurance through the health law, according to HHS. As of last June, the percentage of Latinos without health insurance dropped from 36 percent to 23 percent, but Latinos still face extra paperwork and language barriers.
While enrollment in the state’s Medicaid program has surged, the number of residents signing up for private plans is less than expected as the Feb. 15 deadline looms.
The health overhaul mandated that insurers cover all costs for FDA-approved methods of birth control, but advocates and consumers say some plans have placed certain generic birth control pills among classes of drugs that require cost sharing.
Emily Feinstein, the director of health law and policy at the substance abuse and addiction center CASAColumbia, discusses her expectations for a proposed mental health parity rule in Medicaid managed care, and outlines some of the issues in play regarding these proposed regulations.
Sens. Orrin Hatch and Richard Burr join with Rep. Fred Upton to renew a proposal to repeal the health law but preserve some tax credits for insurance and cuts to some Medicare providers.
Two California lawmakers have introduced a bill to eliminate a “personal belief exemption” used by parents to sidestep a school vaccination requirement.
Some advocates worry these changes could push Medicaid further away from its original purpose, which was to provide affordable health insurance for the needy.
The state’s largest insurer is the latest to pull back the veil of secrecy shrouding health care costs by publishing prices for more than 1,200 non-emergency procedures.
The health law was supposed to keep people from going broke, but despite limits on how much people will have to pay in the face of a medical catastrophe, many are still struggling to pay their health care bills.
The percentage of Americans experiencing pain in the last year of life increased between 1998 and 2010, despite the growth of palliative care programs and hospice use, according to a study released Monday.
A California child in remission from leukemia cannot be vaccinated because his immune system is rebuilding after chemotherapy. The family, which lives in a school district where 7 percent of the children are not vaccinated under a “personal belief exemption,” is asking school officials to have all kids be vaccinated or stay home from school during the measles outbreak.
About 400,000 beneficiaries have until the end of this month to reconsider their Medicare Part D plan choices after Aetna incorrectly identified some pharmacies as being in-network, dropped others and removed some from “preferred” network status.
With one in 12 residents estimated to suffer from diabetes, California spends less on prevention per person than any other state, according to a state audit.
More Floridians have signed up for private health exchange plans than in any other state thanks to online mapping tools, coordinated outreach efforts and insurers’ involvement — and in spite of Republican opposition.
Blue Shield of California stopped selling individual plans on the state health insurance exchange in about 250 zip codes, leaving nearly 30,000 residents with only one insurer to choose from on the exchange.
