Latest KFF Health News Stories
What The Hobby Lobby Decision Means For Employers
KHN’s Mary Agnes Carey and legal analyst Stuart Taylor discuss Monday’s ruling on the health law’s contraception mandate, examining what the decision could mean for future challenges to the law.
Supreme Court Limits Contraceptive Mandate For Certain Employers
Critics of the 5-4 decision argued it curbs women’s freedom to make appropriate contraceptive decisions.
Washington And Other States See New Insurers On Exchanges
This story is part of a partnership that includes Capital Public Radio, NPR and Kaiser Health News. It can be republished for free. (details) SEATTLE — Washington State’s health insurance exchange is looking to be an attractive marketplace for new health insurance carriers, according to an early analysis of insurer premium rate filings by McKinsey […]
Retooling Hospitals, One Data Point At A Time
The University of Utah improved quality and reduced costs by tracking each patient’s care.
Medicare Penalties For Hospital Infections Will Hit Alaska Hard
The four largest hospitals in Alaska are facing Medicare payment penalties for the quality of their care. Providence, Alaska Regional, Alaska Native Medical Center and Fairbanks Memorial are all in the bottom 25 percent nationally for the number of infections and serious complications patients get in their hospitals, according to data analyzed by Kaiser Health […]
Colorado’s 2015 Premiums: Up, Down And Holding The Line
Health insurance companies in Colorado are starting to talk about their proposed premiums for 2015. State regulators on Monday released the draft prices, which the state now has 60 days to approve or deny. Carriers generally aren’t proposing big changes in premiums for 2015, nothing that’s dramatically out of line with trends of the last […]
Getting Rural Patients Psychiatric Help Fast
Patients in rural hospitals often have to wait days to see a psychiatrist. South Carolina is a leader in turning that around.
A Reader Asks: Can New Employees Be Forced To Wait 90 Days For Coverage?
KHN’s consumer columnist says a 90-day delay is allowed by the health law, but employees have other options to get through that time.
Premiums For Many In The Individual Market May Change Next Year
Health insurance premiums for people with subsidies could increase substantially in some markets – but consumers who shop around may not end up paying more, a new report out Thursday says. Shopping around may not be as likely, however, under proposed rules also released Thursday by the Obama administration which will automatically re-enroll the vast majority […]
Health Care System Needs To Prepare For Global Warming
Dr. Al Sommer, the former dean of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who helped produce a new report on climate change, says changes expected this century could lead to many deaths and a strain on hospitals.
Penalizing Hospitals For Being Unsafe: Why Adverse Events Are A Big Problem
A Kaiser Health News article published Sunday about upcoming hospital penalties included an analysis of Medicare data by Dr. Ashish K. Jha, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health. This week, Jha also wrote up his own take on the data. Originally posted on his Harvard blog, Dr. Jha’s copyrighted assessment is republished below, […]
Shortage Of Saline Solution Has Hospitals On Edge
Manufacturers of the essential fluid say they won’t be able to catch up with demand until next year.
‘Right-To-Try’ Laws On Experimental Drugs Stir Debate
KHN’s Julie Rovner participated in a Google Hangout with PBS NewsHour on state “right-to-try” laws, first approved in Colorado, which allow terminally ill patients to try potentially life-saving, but unapproved drugs to treat their conditions. Watch the discussion below:
ACA Hasn’t Boosted Use Of Mental-Health Care Services In Philly Region
Caregivers blame Pennsylvania’s decision not to expand Medicaid, as well as the continued stigma of seeking such care.
Employer Health Costs Forecast To Accelerate In 2015
Health costs will accelerate next year, but changes in how people buy care will help keep them from attaining the speed of several years ago, PricewaterhouseCoopers says in a new report. The prediction, based on interviews and modeling, splits the difference between hopes that costs will stay tame and fears that they’re off to the […]
Ohio Amish Reconsider Vaccines Amid Measles Outbreak
County health officials are scrambling to set up immunization clinics for thousands after 341 cases in Ohio have swept through the Amish communities in the central part of the state.
Advocates Worry Conn. Decision Could Undermine Autism Coverage
That state has defined autism behavioral therapy as a type of medical benefit not subject to the mental health parity law, a move that allows insurers more latitude to limit the benefits they offer.
Drug Discount Program Has Drugmakers Crying Foul
Hospitals and drug makers are waging a pitched battle over the program — known as 340B — that requires drug manufacturers to give steep discounts to hospitals that treat a large percentage of poor patients.
Talking Medicare’s Hospital Fines For Too Many Patient Injuries
KHN’s Jordan Rau was on NPR and C-SPAN Monday to talk about coming Medicare penalties for about a quarter of the nation’s hospitals as detailed in his story More Than 750 Hospitals Face Medicare Crackdown On Patient Injuries. The penalties will ding hospitals up to 1 percent of their Medicare pay for having higher rates of […]
Drug Discount Policy For Hospitals, Clinics Under Scrutiny
Critics argue that some facilities using the program should not be eligible and that the money they receive from the sale of the discounted drugs is not always being plowed back into patient care.