Latest KFF Health News Stories
Today’s headlines – May 31, 2012
Good morning, here are your headlines for this Thursday! The Washington Post: Medical Device Tax Repeal Bill Gains Some Ground Makers of medical devices are gaining some momentum in a vigorous campaign to persuade Congress to scrap a tax imposed on their industry by the 2010 health-care law. A bill to void the tax sponsored […]
Poll: 42% Of Women Take Action In Response To Contraception Debates
More than four in 10 women have taken action, such as donating money or trying to change a friend’s opinion, in response to recent controversies over women’s reproductive health issues, according to a new survey. Debates over the Obama administration’s decision to implement the health law’s requirement that health plans cover birth control, state and federal disputes […]
Psychiatric Patients Languish In Emergency Rooms
Competition to reduce ER wait times has spurred one Denver hospital chain to add a 40-bed psychiatric ward.
Need Help Navigating Patient Data Laws? New Website Offers One-Stop Shop
As more patient information goes digital, health providers, insurers and government officials are having a tougher time navigating the patchwork of state and federal laws that dictate what information can be shared without violating patient confidentiality. “Frankly there’s a lot of confusion out there about what types of information can be shared, what parties can […]
Health Savings Account Membership Up 18 Percent
Enrollment in health savings accounts grew 18 percent last year as employers continued to steer workers into high-deductible medical plans, an insurance group said this morning. HSA membership rose from 11.4 million in January 2011 to 13.5 million in January 2012, with most of the growth occurring in plans offered by large employers, according to an annual census by America’s […]
Oregon’s $2 Billion Medicaid Bet
Gov. John Kitzhaber, a former emergency room doctor, has convinced the federal government that he has a way to make Medicaid treatment better, and cheaper, by completely changing the way the sickest people in the state get health care.
Today’s headlines – May 30, 2012
Good morning! Here are your headlines to get your Wednesday started: The Associated Press/Washington Post: Few Takers For Obama’s Small-Business Health Care Tax Credit; Congress Unlikely To Fix Flaws Time-consuming to apply for and lacking enough financial reward to make it attractive, the credit was claimed by only 170,300 businesses out of a pool of […]
Romney Clinches Nomination, Promises Health Law Rollback On ‘Day One’
Now the presumptive GOP nominee, the former Mass. governor warns in a Las Vegas speech that health law will “make it harder for small businesses to hire and grow.”
Some Patients Can Choose To Be Hospitalized At Home
These innovative programs — available in only a few areas — allow some chronically ill patients to skip the hospital and opt instead for similar care at home.
Psychiatric Manual May Soon Include ‘Gambling Disorder’
Can someone actually be hooked on a behavior, like gambling? Problem gambling isn’t considered a true addiction in medical circles. But that may change as psychiatrists revise the diagnostic manual that spells out criteria for more than a dozen varieties of mental disorders. The proposed revisions to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, […]
Today’s Headlines – May 29, 2012
Los Angeles Times: Insurers Forcing Patients To Pay More For Costly Specialty Drugs Thousands of patients in California and across the nation who take expensive prescription drugs every month for cancer, rheumatoid arthritis and other ailments are facing sticker shock at the pharmacy. Until recently, most of these patients typically paid modest co-pays for the […]
Proposed Changes To Psychiatric Manual Could Impact Addiction Diagnosis
Supporters say the new guidelines will make it easier to address drug or alcohol problems before they become serious. But others worry that one of the tools to evaluate such problems falsely suggests there is a natural escalation from non-use to occasional use to risky use to addiction.
Louisville’s Strategy For The Future: Stick With The Old Folks
The Kentucky city hosts the largest concentration of nursing-home and extended-care companies in the world.
When Is A Life Too Long?; The Rising Cost Of Children’s Health Care
Every week, KHN reporter Shefali S. Kulkarni selects interesting reading from around the Web. New York Magazine: A Life Worth Ending I will tell you, what I feel most intensely when I sit by my mother’s bed is a crushing sense of guilt for keeping her alive. Who can accept such suffering—who can so conscientiously […]
Today’s Headlines – May 25, 2012
Memorial Day weekend. Enjoy, but first, here are your Friday headlines … Politico: FDA User Fee Bill Passed By Senate With little bickering and no effort to repeal the Obama administration’s health reform law, the Senate passed the massive Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act on Thursday well ahead of schedule. … The […]
Veterans Would Benefit Under Health Law, Study Says
If the 2010 health law is upheld by the Supreme Court, it would extend health coverage to thousands of the nation’s veterans, a new study says. The study, released Thursday, said about 630,000 uninsured veterans would likely qualify for Medicaid, the state-federal health insurance program for the poor, which would be expanded under the law. In addition, 520,000 […]
States Encounter Obstacles Moving Elderly And Disabled Into Community
Some states are moving faster than others in getting people out of nursing homes and institutions as part of an ambitious federal program.
Mass. Senate Skirts End-Of-Life Counseling Controversy
Updated at 11:00 a.m. on May 24. With no debate, and a quick call of the ayes and nays, the Massachusetts Senate approved a requirement last week that all doctors and nurses talk to dying patients about their end-of-life options. The measure was included in a sweeping health care costs bill that the House expects […]
Today’s Headlines – May 24, 2012
Good morning! Here are your headlines … The New York Times: For Hospitals And Insurers, New Fervor To Cut Costs Giselle Fernandez is only 17 but she has had more than 50 operations since she was born with a rare genetic condition. She regularly sees a host of pediatric specialists. … Her care has cost […]
Is The U.S. Military Too Soft On Fat?
It’s not just military retirees and veterans who are packing on the pounds. At a policy summit Wednesday, health and military experts said the obesity epidemic has become a significant threat to national security as the waistlines of military enlistees are expanding. Overweight and obese enlistees and soldiers are making it harder for recruiters to find physically […]