The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
Two-thirds of Americans worry about unexpectedly large bills from doctors, hospitals or other medical providers, a poll shows. Four in 10 have received one in the past year.
A Health Affairs study quantifies the financial effects of such mergers on consumers and their insurers. The hospital industry and doctor practices say the consolidation leads to better coordination of care.
On Wednesday, a federal judge in Fort Worth, Texas, is set to hear arguments from Republican attorneys general who want him to strike down the federal health law and from Democratic counterparts who say the law is constitutional and should remain.
Death and its companion, grief, are often ignored at nursing homes and assisted living centers. Yet ignoring the loss can lead to depression, staff burnout and other problems.
California legislators approved some significant health care proposals in their rush to meet the Friday end-of-session deadline. They tackled controversial topics, such as making abortion pills available on college campuses, and adopted measures countering Trump administration attacks on the Affordable Care Act.
People living near highways and agricultural and industrial zones get hit with a “double whammy” when smoke blows into their neighborhoods, where the air is often polluted already.
The Golden State, with the rare support of the Trump administration, is seeking to circumvent a court order that would require cancer warnings in every establishment that sells a hot cup of Joe.
Researchers, using federal survey data, note a significant increase in diagnosis and also find a rise in the rates among girls and minorities.
Newsletter editor Brianna Labuskes wades through hundreds of health articles from the week so you don’t have to.
“I don’t feel any consumer should have to go through this,” says Drew Calver, who faced a life-changing surprise bill from an Austin hospital after a heart attack last year. After attention as a “Bill of the Month” patient, he paid the hospital $332. But he worries about other patients with surprise bills.
In this episode of KHN’s “What the Health?” Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times and Joanne Kenen of Politico answer listeners’ questions about health policy and politics.
The study follows a Kaiser Health News and New York Times investigation that found nearly 1,400 nursing homes have reported fewer registered nurses on duty than Medicare requires or failed to provide reliable staffing information to the government.
As more parents turn to medical marijuana to treat their sick children, a handful of states have changed the rules to allow them to administer the drug on campus. California is considering it — at the possible risk of losing federal funding.
A new study from the University of California-Davis shows a significant increase in five-year survival rates for more than 20 types of cancer, but with significant disparities by race, ethnicity and economic status. That is in line with the national trend.
The story of a Texas teacher who faced a surprise “balance bill” of almost twice his annual salary gets a surprise happy ending.
A new study of 6,000 older patients shows little gain from surgeries for breast cancer.
A report, commissioned by officials in the American territory, finds initial estimates were far too low, and mortality rates in the six months after the storm were 20 percent higher than normal.
The Group Insurance Board reversed a decision made last year to bar coverage of transgender hormone therapy and surgery for public workers.
Up to two-thirds of residents in nursing homes may have impacted earwax, which can worsen hearing loss, falls and cognitive decline.
Educators and researchers say that as vaping becomes more common among young people, some are putting pot in their pods.
