Latest KFF Health News Stories
Digital Dilemma For Medicine: How To Share Records
Most industries share complicated digital files to do business, but health care still leans hard on paper printouts and fax machines. Despite a $30 billion taxpayer investment in electronic health records since 2009, most of those systems are unable to talk to each other.
New Federal Rule Will Extend Medical Leave Rights To Same-Sex Couples In All States
The rule guarantees legally married same sex couples can take unpaid time off to care for a spouse or sick relatives, even if they live in a state that doesn’t recognize the marriage.
Slightly More Latinos and African Americans Sign Up On California Exchange
About 37 percent of subsidized Covered California enrollees are Latino, up six points compared with last year, and about 4 percent are African American, up one point.
South Florida Doctors Explain Co-Insurance, As Well As Cholesterol Counts
Doctors in South Florida are placed in the sometimes awkward position of explaining to thousands of newly insured patients that their coverage doesn’t cover everything.
Surprises And Standing: Breaking Down Today’s Supreme Court Arguments
Supreme Court justices heard oral arguments Wednesday in a case challenging some of the health law’s insurance subsidies, but not before considering whether the plaintiffs had standing in the case. KHN’s Mary Agnes Carey and Julie Rovner discuss surprises from the hearing.
Health Law Arguments Offer Few Clues About Supreme Court Decision
After hearing arguments Wednesday from both sides of a case challenging the health law’s subsidies to help people buy health coverage on federal exchanges, Supreme Court justices offered little insight into how they will rule.
Justices Raise Questions About Federal-State Balance, Plaintiffs’ Standing
Oral arguments in King v. Burwell, the challenge to the health law’s insurance subsidies, were completed this morning.
No Medicaid Expansion? No Problem For Many Safety-Net Hospital Profits
In some of the largest states that did not expand Medicaid, many safety-net hospitals turned in strong performances in 2014, according to financial documents.
Residents of a tiny rural town in northern California talk about the lack of access to mental health care.
Texas GOP Leaders Say They Won’t Expand Medicaid
Republican lawmakers asked the Obama administration for greater flexibility to administer the state-federal insurance program and reiterated their lack of interest in expanding eligibility under the federal health law.
HHS Shifts Money From Cancer, Global Health To Pay For Health Insurance Exchange
Some House Republicans question the transfer of funds, but HHS says the shifts are legal and necessary to operate a marketplace, which is relied upon by 37 states.
Some Dementia Can Be Treated, But My Mother Waited 10 Years For A Diagnosis
For many physicians, normal pressure hydrocephalus, or NPH, doesn’t come to mind when they see people with cognitive and gait problems, although it is one of the few treatable causes of dementia.
What’s At Stake As Health Law Lands At Supreme Court Again
With a $400 tax credit, Julia Raye of North Carolina has been able to afford health insurance and keep her diabetes under control. She is one of 8.2 million people who could lose that subsidy in a case that goes before the U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday.
Health On The Hill: ACA Heads Back To Supreme Court
Justices to decide if subsidies that help millions afford health insurance are available to residents of more than three dozen states.
Fate Of 500,000 North Carolinians Tied To High Court Case
The U.S. Supreme Court hears a challenge Wednesday to the insurance subsidies available through the federal health insurance exchange used by North Carolina residents.
When Health Care Is Far From Home
The biggest barrier to treatment for residents of a tiny town in the mountains of Northern California isn’t insurance coverage– it’s distance.
The Extra Cost Of Extra Weight For Older Adults
Obese people are far more likely to become disabled as they age, and researchers say this burgeoning demographic will strain hospitals and nursing homes.
More Than One In Four Foster Kids Miss Required Checkups
Although children in foster care have often suffered neglect or abuse, 29 percent failed to receive at least one required medical screening, according to an inspector general’s report.
High Costs Of HIV Drugs On Some Illinois Insurance Plans May Be Discriminatory, Say Advocates
The AIDS Foundation of Chicago has warned Coventry, Humana and two other insurers that their pricing of AIDS drugs may violate the health care law’s protections against discrimination.
Internists Get A Break From Controversial Efforts To Bolster Performance
The American Board of Internal Medicine, responding to complaints from doctors, steps back from plans for new standards for physicians’ board recertification, but consumer advocates stress that the board needs to keep focused on patients’ health.