Latest KFF Health News Stories
Health Insurance Actuaries In the Hot Seat On ‘Rate Shock’
Supporters of the health law are questioning the actuarial profession’s close ties to the insurance industry and its predictions that rates are going to soar next year.
Patient Satisfaction May Not Be A Good Indicator Of Surgical Quality, Study Finds
You may have found your doctor to be a great communicator, your hospital room clean and quiet and your pain well controlled. Yet a study finds these opinions are not barometers of whether your hospital’s surgical care is any good. The study, led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins University medical and public health schools, […]
Sebelius Gets Grilling In Senate Committee Hearing
Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus, a key architect of the health law, was “visibly angry and frustrated” as he questioned HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius Wednesday about progress implementing the law. Mary Agnes Carey discusses the details with Jackie Judd.
Innovators Preach Health Care Change At TEDMED
There was a buzz in The Hive yesterday. That’s what TEDMED, a health care and medical technology summit, calls the chic tent of 50 health care innovators who gave hands-on tours of their mobile apps and medical technology. Some of the 1,800 conference attendees lined up Tuesday for a Smartphone Physical, or to add their ideas […]
Mississippi’s Lone Abortion Clinic Is Still Open And Still Controversial
Protesters clashed Tuesday outside the Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the only abortion clinic in Mississippi, which won a victory in federal court that allows the facility to continue to operate, at least for now. The legal victory for the clinic came Monday when U.S. District Judge Daniel Jordan III temporarily blocked a state law that […]
Hospitals Press States To Expand Medicaid
With billions at stake, hospitals are lobbying hard for Medicaid expansion in Columbus, Tallahassee and other state capitals where state legislators oppose the extension of the program.
As Refugees Settle In, Health Care Becomes A Hurdle
Dr. Ashenafi Waktola relies on his own experience as a refugee from Ethiopia to shape his practice in Silver Spring, Md. where almost 50 percent of his patients are refugees. The 76,000 new arrivals from troubled countries who come to the U.S. each year qualify for government health care for eight months, but they often face language barriers and a confounding system when that special status elapses.
Democratic Lawmakers Seek To Restore Drugmaker Rebates For ‘Dual Eligibles’
Updated at 5:25 p.m. Senate and House lawmakers unveiled legislation Tuesday that would require brand-name drugmakers to pay rebates to Medicare for drugs used by some of the program’s low-income and disabled beneficiaries. Photo by Karl Eisenhower/KHN The legislation would require drug companies to provide rebates to the federal government for drugs used by a […]
Auditors: Medicare Could Save Millions By Limiting Advance Payments To Insurers
Medicare could earn up to $111 million annually if it limited insurers’ ability to retain investment earnings on the billions they are paid through the prescription drug program, according to a government reportout today. That’s because Medicare prepays the private insurers approximately 20 days before the insurers pay their pharmacy bills and does not require them to return […]
Questions About Colon Screening Coverage Still Vex Consumers
Although the federal government has tried to clarify the preventive care provisions that mandate no out-of-pocket expenses for patients on screening exams, there is still a good bit of confusion.
Alicia Keys Shines Light On Women And HIV
One in 32 African American women in the United States is likely to be diagnosed with HIV in her lifetime. “One in 32, think about that,” said singer-songwriter Alicia Keys, citing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statistic at an event Monday. “Thirty years after we first heard of AIDS, it is really a […]
Got alarm fatigue? Some doctors and nurses do, according to The Joint Commission, a nonprofit hospital accrediting organization. In their latest Sentinel Event Alert, issued April 8, the commission highlighted the dangers that result when doctors and other health professionals develop “alarm fatigue” or become desensitized and immune to alarm sounds set off by medical […]
Programs Help Independent Artists Access Health Care
Updated at 10:50 a.m. When Corynn Stoltenberg, then 31, found out she was at high risk for cancer at a health fair in Minnesota, she hadn’t been to the doctor in 10 years. As a dancer and theater artist who supported herself by working at coffee shops and cleaning houses, she often was without health […]
Five Ways The President’s Budget Would Change Medicare
President Obama’s 2014 budget plan includes a number of money-saving changes to Medicare, some of which have triggered concern from patient and provider groups.
Doctor-Owned Hospitals Prosper Under Health Law
Even though the 2010 health law stymies their growth, these hospitals are gaining under Medicare’s quality payments programs.
Wait For Obamacare Price Tags Could Be Months
Last week Vermont became the first state to provide a glimpse of how expensive individual health insurance might be under the Affordable Care Act. Proposed rates there, while of questionable relevance to the rest of the country because of the state’s unusual insurance market, showed little change from current prices and reassured health law supporters […]
Is My Retiree Insurance Coverage Subject To The Health Law?
Michelle Andrews answers a reader’s question about whether retiree health plans must comply with new rules under the ACA.
Harkin Accuses Administration Of ‘Robbing Peter To Pay Paul’
A Democratic senator chastised the White House Thursday for raiding the health law’s Prevention and Public Health Fund to pay for a program to help the uninsured sign up for coverage in new insurance marketplaces. “This is robbing Peter to pay Paul,” Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions […]
Minnesota Hospital Merger Talks Derail
Minneapolis-based Fairview Health Services says it will focus on finding a permanent CEO now that rural health care giant Sanford announced Wednesday that it felt “unwelcome” and was cutting off merger discussions with Fairview. Fairview is one of Minnesota’s largest health systems and owns the University of Minnesota’s main teaching hospital. Sanford runs clinics in […]
Groups Seek To Fast-Track Efforts To Curb Costs, Boost Quality
Five veteran health care leaders representing insurers, hospitals, employers and consumers on Thursday outlined an ambitious set of recommendations aimed at slowing rising costs, focused mainly on changing the way America pays for health care. Many of the ideas draw on existing efforts, such as accelerating Medicare’s efforts to pay for quality rather than just […]