Latest KFF Health News Stories
Quality, Economy, Transparency: A New Health Care Code
Wisconsin’s transparent health care costs and outcomes initiative is lowering costs.
Book Excerpt: Why A Mandate Matters
The thinking behind the individual mandate is that, in the absence of a government-run “single payer” insurance program like Canada’s, the only way to achieve universal health insurance is to require people to obtain coverage on their own, with government assistance for those who can’t afford it. An excerpt from a new book, Landmark: The Inside Story of America’s New Health Care Law and What It Means for Us All, by The Washington Post.
Book Excerpt: How The Individual Health Insurance Mandate Will Work
A simple rule lies at the heart of the new health law: Starting in 2014, almost every American will need to carry health insurance or pay a fine. An excerpt from a new book, Landmark: The Inside Story of America’s New Health Care Law and What It Means for Us All, by The Washington Post.
Health Law’s “Grandfather” Clause Could Deprive Consumers Of Key Benefits
Business and consumer groups are sparring over rules that might allow existing health plans to sidestep some patient protections in new health care law.
New Law Could Help Hospice Patients Continue Aggressive Medical Treatments
People who are dying currently can’t get Medicare to pay for hospice care if they continue aggressive curative treatment. But the new health overhaul law could lead to a major change in olicy that allows both hospice and curative care.
Companies Get Help To Insure Early Retirees
Companies that provide health insurance to retirees who are too young for Medicare may get some financial relief due to a new $5 billion federal program.
Today, we begin a new Friday afternoon feature: a wrap-up of the week’s major health policy news coverage.
Insurer Seeks A Little Less Parity For Mental Health Coverage
You might think the fight over mental health parity – the requirement that health insurance plans not handle coverage for mental ailments any differently than coverage for any other disorder – would be over. You would, however, be wrong.
Are Doctors Like Wall Street Lenders?
Unless clarifications are made in the financial overhaul legislation currently pending in Congress, doctors and dentists — as well as other health practitioners — are concerned that they will face hefty costs and paperwork burdens.
Groups Vie For A Piece Of Health Law’s $15 Billion Prevention Fund
Public health officials and a host of prevention and wellness groups have sharply different ideas about how to spend a big pot of new federal prevention money
Groups Vie for $15 Billion In Prevention Money
Public health officials and a host of prevention and wellness groups have sharply different ideas about how to spend a big pot of new federal prevention money
Medicare Doctor Pay ‘Fix’ Deadline Looming – Again
For the third time this year, Congress has just days to avert a scheduled 21 percent cut in pay to doctors who treat seniors and others on the Medicare program. And no one seems to be able to figure out how to solve the problem in anything except a stopgap way.
The Independent Payment Advisory Board and Health Care Price Controls
A new commission created by the health law is supposed to ensure that in 2015, Medicare spending is supposed to be limited to a fixed growth rate.
Hospitals Criticized For Keeping Quiet On Charity Care
Too many nonprofit hospitals fail to adequately publicize their charity-care programs, two advocacy groups say in a survey report released today.
Health Care Insurance Scams Rise as Layoffs Leave Workers Uninsured
A searing recession that left nearly 10 percent of the American workforce unemployed, plus a time when health care costs continue to soar, equals fertile ground for health insurance swindlers.
Studies: When Doctors Take More Responsibility, Care Becomes Cheaper And Better
Medical homes – where primary care doctors are held responsible for coordinating care for individual patients
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Tuesday that “within a couple months we will have a very robust call center operation” to answer consumers’ questions about the new health overhaul law.
Primary Care Docs Earn Less Than Specialists, But More Than We Do
Specialists make a lot more than doctors who are generalists, so-called primary care doctors. But the size of the gap might surprise you: Try more than $100,000 a year.
Transcript: Health On The Hill – May 3, 2010
Some states have told the Department of Health and Human Services that they intend to establish their own high-risk health insurance pool while others have said they want the federal government to do it.
Medical Students Learn First Hand About Health Costs
At the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, students get hands-on lessons about the impact of treatment costs on patients by volunteering Saturdays at the East Harlem Health Outreach Program, a student-run free clinic for uninsured residents of a low-income neighborhood nearby.