Latest KFF Health News Stories
Health Care Spending In America, In Two Graphs
This story comes from our partner . Spending on health care has, of course, been rising in the U.S. for decades. Health care now accounts for 18 cents of every dollar Americans spend, up from 7 cents in 1970. But where, exactly, is all that money going? And, for that matter, where is the money coming […]
Research Finds Link Between Poor Health And Seniors Switching Out Of Private Medicare Plans
Some advocates are concerned that the Medicare Advantage plans have incentives to skim off the lowest-maintenance customers and leave the expensive patients to the traditional program.
Feds Help States Qualify For More Medicaid Dollars
The Obama administration on Friday released guidance to states on how they can increase their Medicaid funding by eliminating copays for certain preventive services, including immunizations. The provision of the Affordable Care Act was slated to take effect Jan. 1. States that implement the changes can apply for the funding retroactive to that date. The specified preventive services […]
Six Questions And Answers About The Obama Administration’s Birth Control Rule
The new regulations lay out a plan that will keep organizations that self-insure from having to pay for the coverage.
Religious Nonprofits Won’t Pay For Birth Control Under Proposal
After a year of controversy, the Obama administration proposes a way for women who work at nonprofit religious institutions to get free birth control without requiring their employers to pay for it.
State Action Needed To Guarantee Health Law Protections, Says Report
Lawmakers in most states better get busy if they want authority to enforce key provisions of the federal health law that go into effect next year. That’s the takeaway message from a report by the Commonwealth Fund showing that only 11 states and the District of Columbia have passed rules needed to implement the law. […]
Post-Sandy, NYU Langone Has Reopened, But Can It Regain Market Share?
Some 500 NYU doctors found refuge at other hospitals while NYU was closed following Hurricane Sandy. Now, the question looms whether all of the patients and doctors will return.
Tick, Tock: Administration Misses Some Health Law Deadlines
Programs to increase fees to Medicaid primary care doctors and to entice states to eliminate some Medicaid copays are delayed as feds focus on insurance markets.
If you could make one change to Medicare, what would it be? Ask three former directors of the program and you’ll get plenty of ideas. Bruce Vladeck, who was head of what was then known as the Health Care Financing Administration, or HCFA, for former President Bill Clinton, wants more market-based competition and less pricing […]
Fed Economist Steps Into Dispute On Geographic Differences In Health Spending
A new analysis concludes that things like the prevalence of smoking, obesity and diabetes best explain why Medicare spending in some regions of the country is higher, instead of how medicine is practiced, as other researchers believe.
Some Families Will Be Ineligible For Insurance Subsidies Under Final Rule
Some families with costly job-based health coverage may be ineligible for federal subsidies to help them buy less expensive coverage through new online insurance markets, under final rules released Wednesday by the IRS. The two rules, published by the Treasury Department here and here, uphold earlier proposals outlining what is considered affordable, employer-sponsored coverage. Under the federal health law, low […]
Manhattan’s Bellevue Hospital Is Back, But Changed After Sandy
Doctors, staff and administrators at the large urban institution have had to improvise as they restore partial service to the community and repair the historic hospital’s damaged infrastructure at the same time.
Q&A: Contraception Coverage Under The Health Law
Consumer columnist Michelle Andrews answers a reader question about the health law’s provision on no-cost birth control.
For Medicare Innovations – Think Locally
Reforming Medicare – from changing the way doctors are paid to streamlining patient care – could benefit from a grassroots approach, according to experts and physicians at a policy summit held by National Journal Live in Washington, D.C., Tuesday. “We need to focus more on responding to and joining local initiatives,” said Len Nichols, director […]
Patient Loads Often At Unsafe Levels, Hospitalist Survey Finds
Nearly forty percent of hospital-based general practitioners who are responsible for overseeing patients’ care say they juggle unsafe patient workloads at least once a week, according to a study published Monday as a research letter in JAMA Internal Medicine. In the study, researchers at Johns Hopkins University invited nearly 900 attending physicians, known as hospitalists, to […]
Long Waits For Consumers When Medicare Is ‘Secondary Payer’
A new law sets schedules for providing details about medical claims in cases where a beneficiary suffers a personal injury due to someone else’s negligence.
Kidney Sharing System May Change To Better Accomodate Older Patients
The United Network for Organ Sharing system for allocating kidneys is considering ranking the ages of donors and potential recipients. Kidneys with the lowest expected survival would be distributed more widely across the country, a move that would help older patients whose life expectancy is limited.
Kidney Donation Over Age 70? Desperate Patients Saying, ‘Yes, Please’
While most of the nation’s kidney transplant centers don’t have an upper age limit for recipients, more than three-quarters don’t accept the organs from people older than 70. Some doctors and patients are pushing to change that.
Nursing Moms Get Free Breast Pumps From Health Law
This story comes from our partner . Health insurance plans now have to cover the full cost of breast pumps for nursing mothers. This is the result of a provision in the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare), and the new rule took effect for many people at the start of this year. It’s led to a […]
Retiring Medicare Actuary Reflects On The Politics Of Health Care Spending And Why He Almost Quit
Richard Foster talks about the travails of trying to provide objective information to Congress and the White House.