Latest KFF Health News Stories
Shifts In Earnings For Consumers Near Medicaid Line Can Threaten Coverage
Marketplaces face challenges ensuring that low-income customers continue to get coverage if their incomes change to put them above or below the Medicaid eligibility line.
Battle For Mental Health Parity Produces Mixed Results
Some of the obvious problems, such as separate deductibles for mental health care, have been eliminated. But advocates are concerned about more subtle insurance processes, such as reviews of medical necessity, that could be hampering coverage.
High-Deductible Health Plans Can Ruin Finances
While coverage that requires enrollees to have ‘skin in the game’ is supposed to spur smarter consumer choices, the costs can be staggering for some.
Ritual, Not Science, Keeps The Annual Physical Alive
While most Americans believe it is important to have a physical every year, the evidence suggests otherwise.
Medicare Is Stingy In First Year Of Doctor Bonuses
More than 300 large medical groups are being penalized because they did not score well on quality measures or didn’t report their efforts to the government. The incentives will soon expand to all doctors who treat Medicare patients.
Cancer Survivor Worries About Supreme Court Ruling On Obamacare Subsidies
A Philadelphia-area caterer who had been uninsured for five years before the ACA frets about her future if the Supreme Court strikes down federal exchange subsidies.
Consumers Contributing Less To Health Savings Accounts, Study Finds
The accounts are designed to provide a way for people with high-deductible insurance plans to save money tax free to use on health expenses.
KHN Video: Tax Deadline Meets The Health Law
As April 15 approaches, most of the consumers who didn’t get insurance coverage face penalties while others who used federal subsidies to buy their plans must reconcile their actual earnings with the estimates that they made last year.
Premera Negligent In Data Breach, 5 Lawsuits Claim
The breach at the Washington state-based health insurer continues to reverberate as officials answer questions about what happened.
Cleveland Clinic Reports 40% Drop In Charity Care After Medicaid Expansion
HHS says the improvement reflects what is happening to hospitals in states that increased the number of low-income people eligible for the health care program.
The Red State Solution On Medicaid: Georgia’s Not Part Of It
The final piece in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s series on Arkansas’ privatized Medicaid expansion looks at how several red states are considering such a model as a politically palatable way to extend coverage to the poor.
Whether in the movies or real life, even celebrities have had to struggle with the indignities of hospital gowns, also known as Johnnies. Here is what we are sure they were thinking in some of these memorable moments:
To Avoid Extra Payments, Notify Your Marketplace Plan When You Move
KHN’s consumer columnist answers readers’ questions about what happens to your plan when you move out of state, smoking cessation expenses and sending workers to the exchange to buy policies.
Research Plan Could Drive ‘Culture Change’ In How Mental Illness Is Diagnosed, Treated
The National Institute of Mental Health released a five-year strategic plan that prioritizes the genetics of mental illness, the development of treatments based on those findings and the discovery of brain patterns related to a range of mental health disorders.
In Pursuit Of Patient Satisfaction, Hospitals Update The Hated Hospital Gown
Redesigning and replacing hospital gowns is one example of efforts by hospitals and health systems to enhance the patient experience.
Kairis Chiaji from Sacramento, California, says it was difficult to afford health insurance before the Affordable Care Act on her self-employed income as a birth coach. The 43-year-old experienced a mix up with her application through Covered California that delayed her enrollment.
Hoping To Live, These Doctors Want A Choice In How They Die
In a California lawsuit seeking to allow doctors to prescribe lethal medications at patients’ request, two plaintiffs are physicians with serious illnesses. Both want the option of choosing to end their lives.
Policy Shift By Nation’s Largest Insurer Could Leave Some With Unexpected Bills
UnitedHealthcare is no longer routinely paying for out-of-network emergency room physicians and other specialists even when they work for hospitals in the insurer’s network.
Health On The Hill: No Senate ‘Doc Fix’ Vote Before Recess. Will Break Hurt Chances?
After a decade of short term fixes, the House passed legislation to replace Medicare’s troubled Sustainable Growth Rate, or SGR, and replace it with an alternative doctor payment formula. Kaiser Health News’ Mary Agnes Carey and Politico Pro’s Jennifer Haberkorn discuss what’s next for the bill when the Senate returns from recess next month.
Many People Entitled To Hefty Subsidies Still Opt Against Coverage
A study by health consultant Avalere finds that three-quarters of those eligible for the highest levels of premium help enrolled in marketplace plans, but many others with only slightly higher incomes did not.