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Latest KFF Health News Stories

The Price Is Right There In Front Of You, In Colorado At Least

KFF Health News Original

The price of a knee MRI in Colorado varies from $350 to $2,336. It’s a huge gap, but it’s also remarkable that the prices themselves are known at all. Prices for health care aren’t public in most states, making shopping for the best deal nearly impossible. Different patients pay different prices for the same procedures […]

Today’s Headlines – Nov. 2, 2012

KFF Health News Original

Los Angeles Times: Romney Resumes Criticizing Obama On The Stump With five days to go until election day, Romney said voters faced a clear choice, and painted a dim picture of the nation’s future if Obama were reelected – seniors unable to find doctors who were taking additional Medicare patients, middle-aged Americans seeing stagnant wages, […]

OB/GYNs And ER Docs Excluded From Health Law’s Medicaid Pay Hike

KFF Health News Original

Obstetricians, gynecologists and emergency room physicians won’t be eligible for higher Medicaid pay rates for primary care doctors that start in January under the Affordable Care Act, the Obama administration ruled late Thursday. Instead, the higher Medicaid rates, which will be in effect for two years, are reserved for family doctors, internists and pediatricians, because those specialties are specifically listed in […]

How The Health Law Might Be Changed By The Next President

KFF Health News Original

Obama has pledged to carry out the law, but fiscal concerns and political pressure could drive him to alter some provisions. Meanwhile, Romney’s vow to repeal the law is unlikely to be realized, but he could still have a strong impact on it.

Today’s Headlines – Nov. 1, 2012

KFF Health News Original

Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including highlights from the campaign trail, from the top of the ticket to some of the attention-grabbing Senate races across the country, as well as a report that the Obama administration will not oppose efforts to reopen the religious challenge to the health law. The Wall […]

Employers, Unions Jointly Demand Health Care Price Transparency

KFF Health News Original

Employees who feel completely mystified by the prices they’re charged for medical procedures might be surprised to know their employers feel the same way. On Thursday, a consortium of major companies and labor unions, including GE, Wal-Mart, Boeing and the AFL-CIO issued a manifesto demanding price transparency from both health care providers and insurance companies. Consumers […]

Physicians Swap Traditional Practices For New Models

KFF Health News Original

Last Thursday Dr. L. Markham McHenry, a family physician, held a meeting with some patients to tell them about changes he was planning. After 15 years of working in a private practice, the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based doctor is in the process of transitioning to a subscription-based model. His patients, who he said come from a range […]

Today’s Headlines – Oct. 31, 2012

KFF Health News Original

Happy Halloween! Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including that latest about how health policies are playing on the campaign trail as well as how Mega-Storm Sandy took its toll on New York hospitals. Los Angeles Times: Romney Says He’ll Undo Obama Healthcare Reform On Day 1. Can He? Mitt Romney has […]

Romney Narrows Gap With Obama On Voters’ Trust To Manage Medicare

KFF Health News Original

As the race for the White House has tightened, President Barack Obama has seen his advantage on several key health issues narrow significantly among likely voters, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll released Wednesday. (KHN is an editorially independent program of the foundation). Most troublesome for Obama is that, among likely voters, GOP candidate Mitt Romney has pulled nearly […]

At New York University Medical Center, A Dramatic, Critical Evacuation

KFF Health News Original

This story comes from our partner ‘s Shots blog. One of the most dramatic stories to come out of New York last night is the critical evacuation of New York University Langone Medical Center. As CNN reports it, around 7:45 p.m. Monday, the hospital’s basement started taking on water. At one point, the “lower floors and […]

How the Election Will Affect Health Care in Texas

KFF Health News Original

This story comes from The Texas Tribune. If President Obama wins a second term and the Affordable Care Act stays in place, the debate will likely turn to whether Texas will join an expansion of Medicaid. Gov. Rick Perry says Texas will opt-out of that expansion. But Anne Dunkelberg of the Center for Public Policy Priorities, a liberal state […]

Those Who Like The Health Law And Those Who Understand The Health Law

KFF Health News Original

Sure there are those who support the health care law, and those who want to repeal it. But how many people in the U.S. actually understand the Affordable Care Act? That’s what a Stanford University professor asked in a nationwide survey in collaboration with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, GfK and the Associated Press. The […]

Today’s Headlines – Oct. 30, 2012

KFF Health News Original

Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports about the campaign landscape as well as issues related to the implementation of the health law. Los Angeles Times: Poll Finds 2012 Race Dead Even, Forsees Relatively High Turnout With only one week left in the 2012 campaign, a major new Pew Research Center […]