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“Insuring Your Health” columnist Michelle Andrews answers questions from readers, including someone wondering about coverage if you’ve been drinking, talking with your insurer about a family member’s bill and preventive colonscopies.
With their budgets squeezed, states are trying to reduce unnecessary ER visits by patients in Medicaid. But officials complain that their efforts are sometimes hampered by hospitals’ aggressive marketing of ERs to increase admissions and profits.
Employers struggling to keep down insurance costs are increasingly requiring workers to pay a percentage of high-cost drugs rather than a modest co-pay.
The trust fund that supports Social Security disability benefits will run out of money by 2017, leaving the program unable to pay full benefits unless Congress acts, according to new congressional estimates.
With the real estate market depressed, thousands of seniors are unable to move because they can’t sell their homes.
Michelle Andrews, KHN’s “Insuring Your Health” columnist, answers a question from a reader about how insurer and provider fees from ambulance service vary around the nation.
Shopping for health insurance next year will be easier, consumer advocates and government officials say. But the new materials are still a work in progress.
Mila Kofman and Sabrina Corlette helped to develop the forms that HHS unveiled on Wednesday. The idea is to give consumers simple, clear and standardized information before they buy coverage – akin to nutrition labels.
Express Scripts and Medco Health Services manage the prescription drug coverage that health insurance companies offer to large organizations. The two firms say their plans for a $29 billion merger will help control health care costs for consumers. But will bigger really be better?
