Latest KFF Health News Stories
Hospitals’ Purchase Of Doctors Leads To Higher Prices, Spending, Study Finds
A new study gives ammunition to what health economists and health insurers have argued for years: When hospitals buy physician practices, the result is usually higher hospital prices and increased spending by privately insured patients. The study, published Monday in the journal Health Affairs, was based on an analysis of 2.1 million hospital claims from workers […]
Study: Illegal Immigration Doesn’t Cause Overuse Of Health Care
Even before the Affordable Care Act was close to passing, it was clear that immigrants illegally living in the country would not be part of many of the law’s benefits. They are not allowed to buy health insurance from the online marketplaces, at least in part because opponents argued that these immigrants overburden emergency rooms and hospitals. But a study released […]
Who Should Get Pricey Hepatitis C Drugs?
Is it right to ask patients with early stage liver disease to wait for treatments that could cure them?
Even With Obamacare, Many Latinos Still Seek Treatment In Mexico
Patients say they drive across the border because costs are lower, waits are shorter and doctors speak their language.
Telemedicine Policy Draws Opposition From Patient Advocates, Health Care Providers
A policy statement issued by the Federation of State Medical Boards updates the group’s views on telehealth, and is leading to questions about whether it could restrict rather than expand patient access to care.
Doctors Think Others Often Prescribe Unnecessary Care
Three out of four physicians believe that fellow doctors prescribe an unnecessary test or procedure at least once a week, a survey released Thursday finds. The most frequent reasons that physicians order extraneous—and costly—medical care are fears of being sued, impulses to be extra careful and desires to reassure their own assessments of the patient, […]
Healthcare.gov Finished Strong Despite Rocky Start, Enrollment Data Show
Obama administration officials on Thursday predicted health insurance premiums would be stable next year despite concerns that not enough young and healthy people signed up through the online insurance exchanges. “The risk pool is fundamentally large and varied to support that kind of pricing…in every state,” said Mike Hash, director of the office of health […]
Medicare Seeks To Stop Overpayments For Hospice Patients’ Drugs
Studies have found that the government often pays insurance plans and hospice organizations for the same prescriptions, so Medicare is directing insurers to confirm that prescriptions are not covered by hospice before paying for them.
WellPoint Softens Forecast For Obamacare Rate Hikes
Welcoming a surge of young, last-minute enrollees, the biggest player in the health law’s insurance marketplaces on Wednesday tempered its prediction for substantial 2015 rate increases. Five weeks ago WellPoint executive Ken Goulet told analysts that premium increases for 2015 plans “will probably be in double-digit plus.” On Wednesday’s conference call to discuss first-quarter results, […]
Missouri Medicaid Bill Wins Symbolic Committee Vote
Despite the procedural victory, even a GOP supporter of the bill does not expect passage of the Medicaid expansion plan during this legislative session.
Once Opposed To The Health Law, Now A Convert
One man’s opposition to the health law turned after the self-employed, self-reliant man bought a plan available through the law, which helped him pay his hospital bills when faced with a heart condition.
Who Really Pays For Health Care Might Surprise You
Implementation of the health law has renewed discussions of who wins, loses and gains access to health insurance. But questions persist. Here’s a corrective to common misconceptions about who pays for health care.
Some Obamacare Enrollees Emboldened To Leave Jobs, Start Businesses
A study says that up to 1.5 million people — no longer tied to their jobs because of the affordability of the health insurance that comes with it — may use the health law to leave their current jobs and start new businesses.
Illinois Medicaid Moves To Managed Care
Hundreds of thousands of Medicaid recipients are being shifted into some kind of managed care this year as part of a sweeping overhaul.
Health Law Presents Options, Challenges For Colorado Small Businesses
About half of small businesses in Colorado are seeing double-digit premium increases under the ACA.
Public Overwhelmingly Supports Law’s Contraceptive Mandate, Poll Finds
By a nearly two-to-one margin, the public supports the health law’s requirement that private health plans cover prescription birth control without cost-sharing, according to a poll released Tuesday. The provision, which is at the heart of a case being weighed by the Supreme Court, was endorsed 61 to 32 percent and was most popular among women, younger […]
Emanuel: Although ‘Not A Perfect Law,’ ACA Is Protecting Patients
The former White House adviser talks about his new book and some of his surprising predictions about health care in the next decade and beyond.
From Zero To 3.3 Million Sign-Ups: How California ‘Won’ The Obamacare Race
No state signed more people up for health law coverage in the first health law enrollment period, but a sometimes faulty website and spotty customer service often frustrated the process.
Study: Costly Breast Cancer Treatment More Common At For-Profit Hospitals
Older breast cancer patients who received radiation treatment after surgery were more likely to undergo a more expensive and somewhat controversial type of radiation called brachytherapy if they got their care at for-profit rather than nonprofit hospitals, a new study reports. Among the oldest group studied — women in their 80s and early 90s who are […]
Oregon Raises White Flag Over Its Health Exchange
Oregon has been “all in” on health reform. Its embrace of the Affordable Care Act includes a very successful Medicaid expansion, a $2 billion federal experiment to show the state can save money by managing patients’ care better, and, of course, the state’s own online marketplace to sell Obamacare insurance. But that last point has been […]