Latest KFF Health News Stories
State Insurance Exchanges Launching TV Ads To Encourage Enrollment
A folk singer playing guitar in front of a mountain stream. A Disney-like animated video about how “a new day is coming.” An announcer talking about “change is here.” A woman jumping up and down in celebration in a baseball team locker room. These images are from the first television advertisements being aired by state-run health […]
Texas Health Care Providers Bracing for Medicaid Enrollment
The Lone Star State is not expanding its Medicaid program, but enrollment is still expected to surge as families seek coverage to comply with the individual insurance mandate.
Kentucky’s Rush Into Medicaid Managed Care: A Cautionary Tale For Other States
Doctors, hospitals, patients and their advocates complained about disruptions in care and payments after Kentucky moved more than half a million people on Medicaid into private plans.
‘Wildfire’ Growth Of Freestanding ERs Raises Concerns About Cost
Health experts and insurers predict the trend will boost insurance premiums for everyone.
7 States, Governors Team To Tackle Hospital ‘Frequent Flyers’ Problem
Seven states and the National Governors Association are teaming up to find ways to save money and better coordinate the care of Medicaid and uninsured patients who frequently use hospital emergency rooms and other costly health services. “There’s a handful of people who drive most of our spending,” said Dan Crippen, the executive director of […]
Can Humor Sell Health Insurance?
When the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance exchanges open for business in the fall, it will be a new game. Customers will be able to comparison shop in the new online marketplaces, and health insurers will have to sell themselves to the general public in a way they haven��t before. The law’s requirement that almost […]
Connecting Minnesota’s Latino Community To Health Care
One-in-eight Minnesota Latinos is uninsured. As the health law rolls out, community clinics in the state will be connecting Latinos to their new insurance options.
Republicans Ready To Try Obamacare Repeal – Again And Again
The House will vote next week on measures to delay the 2010 health law’s individual and employer mandates, House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday. The votes would be the 38th and 39th time House Republicans have voted to repeal all or part of the law. Congressional Republicans saw a new opportunity to kill or weaken President Obama’s signature […]
Some States Are Pushing ‘Employee Choice’ For Small Business Insurance
Small business workers in at least 15 states and the District of Columbia may have a menu of health insurance choices next year, something that didn’t seem likely a few months ago. Back in April, federal officials concerned about the potential for major glitches put off until 2015 a provision that would offer small businesses […]
Educating Florida About Health Care Reform Starts With Conversation
Enroll America kicks off campaign in Florida to get people signed up for health law’s insurance plans with a training session organizers.
Tax Break Can Help With Health Coverage, But There’s A Catch
There are two kinds of financial help for people planning to enroll in the online health insurance marketplaces that will open this fall. One could put people at risk of having to pay some of the money back, while the other won’t. That’s one big difference between tax credits and subsidies, both of which are intended to […]
On Health Care, GOP Has ‘Really Busy Month’ Ahead
KHN’s Mary Agnes Carey talks with Politico Pro’s Paige Winfield Cunningham about the latest Republican effort to delay or repeal Obamacare provisions, including postponing a mandate on individuals to carry health insurance.
Community Health Centers – In Every State – Get Obamacare Outreach Funds
The nation’s community health centers — which treat the poor and uninsured– apparently know a good deal when they see one. Nearly all 1,200 federally funded community health centers applied for and will be getting a piece of $150 million in federal health law money to enroll patients in new online health insurance marketplaces starting Oct.1. Federal health officials on […]
Small-Town Clinic Provides Care To A Farming Community’s Poor
Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center operates seven family clinics in four rural counties to fill the gap for rural patients.
How Oregon Is Getting ‘Frequent Flyers’ Out Of Hospital ERs
The state is trying to reduce health care costs by encouraging those who constantly turn up at the ER to get their health care from regular doctors instead.
Hospital In Rural Missouri Faces Tough Challenges
The Affordable Care Act’s success or failure will depend in large part on the efforts of rural hospitals such as Poplar Bluff to treat the poor.
Study: Competition, Not Need, Drives Hospital Cardiac Care Investment
U.S. hospitals spent up to $4 billion adding angioplasty services over a four year period, but the new services did little to improve access to timely medical care, says a study published Tuesday in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes. Between 2004 to 2008, some 251 hospitals added the invasive and often life-saving cardiac […]
Medicare Advantage Plans Cut Total Cardio Procedures, But Regional Variations Remain
Call them bundled payments, medical homes, capitation or accountable care, new versions of managed care (think HMOs in the 1990s) are health care’s great cost control hope. Researchers publishing in the latest JAMA tested that idea by counting procedures in one of the biggest managed care programs of all: Medicare Advantage plans for seniors. One […]
Current Medicaid Patients Will Miss Out on Better Preventive Care In 2014
Some of the nation’s unhealthiest people aren’t likely to receive those benefits, because the requirements in the law pertain only to private insurers, Medicare and Medicaid expansion programs.
Some Doctors Questioning Whether Shorter Shifts For Interns Are Endangering Patients
The work day for doctors in their first year out of medical school was cut to 16 hours to reduce fatigue and medical errors. But recent studies suggest it may be making the situation worse.