The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
How do older adults know when the potential benefits from surgery are worth the risks? And what questions should they ask as they try to figure this out? Our columnist asks experts for guidance.
Another effort to make upfront cost comparisons possible in an industry known for its opaqueness: an online tool for consumers to get some idea of what they may pay for medical care.
The editorial team of “An Arm and a Leg” looks back on the reporting that hit close to home over the past year, including insulin pricing and prenatal testing.
Readers and listeners shared more than 1,000 personal stories of medical billing problems with KHN-NPR’s “Bill of the Month” investigative series this year, helping us illuminate the financial decisions patients are pressed to make in their most vulnerable moments.
In El Paso County, where five people were killed in a mass shooting at a nightclub in November, officials have filed relatively few emergency petitions to temporarily remove a person’s guns, with scant approvals.
As teens, these three women lived amid street gangs around East St Louis, Illinois. Now, as adults, they support the families who have lost loved ones to gun violence. And because of their past, some residents trust them more than they do the police.
KHN and California Healthline staff made the rounds on national and local media this week to discuss their stories. Here’s a collection of their appearances.
Two “nutrition ambassadors” from Oldways, an organization that makes tradition and pride centerpiece ingredients in food education, invite KHN into their kitchens for a peek at A Taste of African Heritage dishes to accompany holiday celebrations.
In this special episode of KHN’s “What the Health?” Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, talks with host Julie Rovner, KHN’s chief Washington correspondent, about where we are in the pandemic and how we should transition out of the public health emergency. This episode was taped on Dec. 20.
Covid remains a threat for the roughly 30,000 people in the country’s network of immigration facilities. But ICE continues to flout its own pandemic protocols, an extension of the facilities’ poor history of medical care.
Doctors, consumer advocates, and some lawmakers are looking forward to a California lawsuit against private equity-backed Envision Healthcare. The case is part of a multistate effort to enforce rules banning corporate ownership of physician practices.
A car crash left a woman in need of oral surgery, but her health insurance wouldn’t cover it. Her ongoing fight shows podcast host Dan Weissmann the weird way insurance treats teeth and reveals a big problem in the Obamacare marketplace.
A nine-minute public hearing gave the U.S. insurance giant a foothold in Britain’s prized National Health Service. One doctor called it “privatization of NHS by stealth.” And critics worry that business efficiencies will degrade the quality of care.
A health system charged a woman for a shoulder replacement at a hospital across the country that she had not visited for years. She didn’t receive the care, but she did receive the bill — and the medical records of a stranger.
Emergency room care left Samaria Bradford with $5,000 in medical bills. Now she has to track down and pay that debt before she can hope to enlist in the military.
When Penelope Wingard’s cancer went into remission, she lost her Medicaid coverage in North Carolina. Without insurance, the debts piled up for her follow-up care. She doesn’t think she’ll ever get ahead of it.
In 2020, diabetes and covid-19 landed David Zipprich in the hospital three times. Even with insurance, he was inundated with bills, debt notices, and calls from collectors.
Monica Reed was the first in her family to own a home and has lived “a frugal kind of life.” Cancer treatment left her with almost $10,000 in debt, pushing her to the edge financially.
Jeff and Kareen King joined a medical cost-sharing plan advertised as a “refreshing non-insurance approach” to paying for health care. It had a big proviso: Preexisting conditions like Jeff’s heart condition were not fully covered for the first two years. He needed heart surgery after just 16 months.
An examination of billing policies and practices at more than 500 hospitals across the country shows widespread reliance on aggressive collection tactics.
