The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
Sweeping agreement with Georgia points to new Obama administration campaign to ensure people with mental illness and developmental disabilities get community services and are not forced into institutions.
One of the nation’s largest health insurers said today it is testing a new way to pay for some cancer treatments, aiming to identify the best medicines
Drug companies say they hire the most-respected doctors in their fields to teach about the benefits and risks of their drugs. But ProPublica uncovered hundreds of doctors on company payrolls who had been accused of professional misconduct, were disciplined by state boards or lacked credentials.
The debate that preceded passage of the health-care overhaul resumed as a heated issue in the midterm elections. Politicians and advocacy groups seeking repeal of the law are making dramatic claims about the its cost and effects. How valid are they? We evaluate some of the most common criticisms.
Some Democrats are talking about health care in their elections in a new way: send us to Washington to fix parts of the health care bill that you don’t like. Meanwhile, oral arguments in a Virginia court case challenging the law’s requirement that individuals purchase health care insurance are proceeding in court.
A new study finds that HHS’ Hospital Compare website isn’t helping Medicare beneficiaries, in need of certain high-risk surgeries, find better facilities.
Some Democrats are talking about health care in their elections in a new way: send us to Washington to fix parts of the health care bill that you don’t like. Meanwhile, oral arguments in a Virginia court case challenging the law’s requirement that individuals purchase health care insurance are proceeding in court.
Prominent hospitals and networks, especially those in the San Francisco Bay Area, can keep raising prices beyond inflation because their sizes or reputations give them clout in negotiating rates with insurers, researchers say. Yet high prices don’t always equate with superior care.
Kaiser Health News’ story on California’s Costliest Hospitals, months in the making, relied on data from a number of sources.
The Heritage Foundation’s analysis of the impact of health reform shows that different assumptions could put a tremendous amount of pressure on an already soaring national debt.
Hospitals play an enormous role in the health care system; they’re a crucial part of the public health safety net and an important community resource. But they are expensive. Hospital costs make up the largest portion of the health spending in this country.
Would the public like to see the new health overhaul law repealed? A lot of pollsters have been asking that question lately. And they’ve been getting a lot of different answers.
For the first time, the statisticians over at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention figured out how to estimate the life expectancy of Hispanics in this country.
When Democrats passed their health overhaul bill back in March, they hailed it as the biggest domestic achievement since Medicare. But seven months later, most of the noise about the new law on the campaign trail is coming from opponents
Come with me to the land of happy health reform. It is a place where Republicans and Democrats find common ground, a place where physicians, hospitals and health insurers sit together as partners, a place where criticism is respectful, not rancorous. It is the world of Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs).
Health insurers can’t have different rules for when individual policies for children with medical problems than for healthy kids are sold, the Department of Health and Human Services said today.
After years of steady progress, the percentage of 2 year olds in private health plans being immunized dropped last year, while it went up for Medicaid patients.
Planned Parenthood and other groups are launching a campaign to include prescription contraception as part of the preventive services required in the new health law.
The Obama administration has issued McDonald’s (among others) a waiver on some regulations in the health law. But that hasn’t stopped the McDonald’s story from becoming propaganda in the campaign to discredit and, eventually, repeal health care reform.
One in six doctors works for a hospital, and the number is quickly growing. Both sides benefit: hospitals get a steady stream of patients and doctors say they can practice medicine without worrying about the hassles of running a private practice.
