Latest KFF Health News Stories
Transcript: Donald Berwick on Medicare, Medicaid, ‘Rationing’ and Who Decides
Edited selections from KHN’s interview with former CMS Administrator Donald Berwick.
Today’s Headlines – December 12, 2011
Good morning! Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, reports about Congress’ efforts to inch toward the finish line on a spending deal, a payroll tax bill and a way to avert a scheduled deep cut in Medicare reimbursement rates for doctors. The Washington Post: Congress Edges Toward A Compromise On Spending It appears […]
GOP Candidates Dispute Gingrich, Romney Records On Individual Mandate
At Saturday night’s debate in Des Moines, the GOP presidential candidates spent a considerable amount of time discussing the 2010 health law. In the debate’s most talked-about moment, Mitt Romney offered to bet Rick Perry $10,000 that what Perry was saying about Romney’s book wasn’t correct.
Document: GOP Payroll Tax Bill – Summary, Text Of Health Care Sections
On Friday, Dec. 9, House Republicans unveiled the “Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act,” which avoid the scheduled cut to Medicare reimbursement rates for physicians – the “doc fix.”
Fund To Help Cover Early Retirees Nearly Out of Money
A $5 billion fund that helped cover health insurance for more than five million early retirees will stop taking claims for expenses incurred after Dec. 31 because it is running out of money, according to a notice Friday in the Federal Register. The funds were used to reimburse employers who subsidize health insurance for early retirees, ages 55 to […]
Every week, reporter Jessica Marcy selects interesting reads from around the Web. The New York Times Magazine: A Drug That Wakes The Near Dead The heart attacks never came. Four days later, Chris woke up. It was not the awakening of Hollywood movies in which the patient comes to, just as he was, speaking full […]
Florida Eyeing Cuts To Medicaid
The response of Gov. Rick Scott’s administration to the soaring cost of Medicaid is drawing fire from hospitals, and HHS may refuse to approve the plan.
Today’s Headlines – December 9, 2011
Happy Friday! Here are your morning headlines: The Los Angeles Times: Boehner Defies Obama Veto Threat With New Payroll Tax Plan The package Boehner has been compiling for more than a week was not made publicly available, but it includes the payroll tax holiday as well as an extension of long-term unemployment benefits, which also […]
States Cut Community Health Center Funding
Just as demand for services at community health centers has been projected to increase — both because of the recession and the health law’s expansions in access to medical care — state funding for these centers has reached a seven-year low for fiscal year 2012, according to a new report. A survey by the National Association of Community Health […]
Why Observing Prostate Cancers Is Gaining Ground On Surgery
An expert panel suggests doctors shouldn’t call most low-risk prostate tumors cancer at all.
My ER Doctor Is Billing Me For What Insurance Didn’t Pay, What Can I Do?
KHN’s “Insuring Your Health” consumer columnist Michelle Andrews answers a question about what to do when you’re billed by an out-of-network doctor for an in-network hospital visit.
Berwick Calls Republicans ‘The True Rationers’
Don Berwick, who left his job last week as head of the Medicare and Medicaid programs after sustained opposition from Senate Republicans who accused him of supporting rationing, struck back Wednesday with a blistering attack on his critics. “The true rationers are those who impede improvement, who stand in the way of change, and who […]
In Houston, The Doctor Can’t See You Now
This story is part of a reporting partnership that includes KUHF, and Kaiser Health News. At the Martin Luther King Jr. Health Center on Houston’s south side, patients can fill a prescription, see a podiatrist, and get new eyeglasses. They can even buy fresh fruits and vegetables at a weekly farmer’s market. But what they […]
Today’s Headlines – December 8, 2011
Good morning! Here are your headlines: The Associated Press/Washington Post: House Leaders Hope GOP Lawmakers Ready To Back Bill Renewing Payroll Tax Cut, Jobless Benefits Top House Republicans hope to win rank-and-file GOP support for a measure renewing this year’s Social Security payroll tax cut and extending benefits for the long-term unemployed. House GOP lawmakers […]
Readmissions Not Just A Medicare Problem, Study Finds
Medicare has identified preventable hospital readmissions as a measure of the fragmentation of health care for the elderly, driving up health care costs. A new paper finds younger patients also fail to get needed follow-up care after a hospital stay. About one in 12 adults ages 21 and older were readmitted to hospitals within 30 days of discharge, […]
When ‘Critical Access’ Hospitals Are Not So Critical
A Medicare program intended to preserve “critical access” to rural hospitals may have grown beyond that goal, possibly keeping open hospitals that should close.
Health Law May Accelerate Growth In Urgent Care Centers
Crowded emergency rooms and a lack of primary care doctors have fueled recent expansions. But the drive to lower costs is also a factor and could bring more customers under the overhaul.
CMS: States’ Health Spending Gap Widens
Updated Dec. 8, 2011 at 1:03 p.m. Researchers at the office of the actuary and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services offered the first snapshot of state-by-state health-care spending since the recession Wednesday, as well as a look at where provisions of the 2010 health law could have their greatest effect. The authors of the research […]
Medicare Offers Extra Enrollment Time For Seniors Who Call Today
Extra time is limited only to seniors who have had trouble signing up and contact one of several organizations that are working to help beneficiaries.
Today’s Headlines – December 7, 2011
Good morning! Here are the early morning highlights to get you going: The Washington Post: Republicans Split On Democratic Plan To Extend Payroll Tax Cut Many predict that the tax cut will ultimately be extended as part of a broad bill that would address other budget issues facing end-of-the-year deadlines, such as an extension of […]