Latest KFF Health News Stories
Doctors Providing End of Life Counseling See Benefit in Current Controversy
Physicians, while disputing the charges of plans for euthanasia, say the debate on what is in the House health bill on end-of-life care could help focus attention on an underfunded service.
CBO OPTIONS PAPER AND ESTIMATES PUT DEMS QUOTES IN HERE ON WHY THEY ARE DOING THIS. Need lawmakers As Congress debates an increasingly contentious health care overhaul bill, As Congress debates creation of a government-run health insurance plan and whether employers should be required to provide health coverage to their workers as part of […]
An Actuary’s Role In Health Reform: Making Health Reform Viable
All our actions have consequences.
It seems to be what’s missing often from debate, especially around such emotionally-charged arguments as the health care reform debate, but actuaries deal in repercussions, moving behind the scenes, analyzing risk and the future and what health care reform will actually mean for America 5, 10 or 20 years from now.
Medicare Advisers Raised Rates but Complained of Flawed System
Elevating the commission, known as MedPAC, isn’t about greasing the path for unpopular payment reductions, an obvious way to save money. It’s about rethinking payment altogether. Even as MedPAC advised upping payments, commissioners quietly insisted for years that Congress should scrap its abstruse, fragmented rules for paying providers.
Carolyn Clancy on Comparative Effectiveness:
Dr. Carolyn Clancy, the director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, warns, “Doctors and patients are working together in a relative evidence-free zone.” She hopes to change that as interest and support veer towards comparative effectiveness research.
E-Health Ambitions to Confront Human, Financial Realities
As much as $36 billion in federal stimulus money will help physicians and hospitals go digital by 2015. But, workers need training, smaller offices may struggle to come up with down payments, and once the electronic records are up and running many say their biggest value is pointing out room for improvement. And, improvement efforts cost time and money, too.
Amid Stimulus Money, Community Health Centers Look For Their Post-Reform Role
Maisha Challenger never thought she’d have to set foot in a community health center. “I have been working my whole life so I usually am used to going to a doctor’s office,” she said. But after she lost her job as an education lobbyist – and the health insurance that came with it – she […]
Medical Imaging: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
In its current state, diagnostic imaging can be seen as “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly”. Congress must separate healthy and unhealthy growth
For Dying and Seriously Ill Children, Hope For Better Care
When 14 year old Prince Jackson was diagnosed with a brain tumor, he was caught in a gray zone: public and private insurance doesn’t usually cover the palliative care he desperately needed. But his mother got help from a new program that provides services for seriously ill or dying children.
Kill Grandma? Debunking A Health Bill Scare Tactic
Some analysts say false claims that the health bill encourages seniors to end their lives early were purposely spread to undermine the bill. In fact, the bill would pay health care providers to discuss a patient’s health care wishes. This story comes from our partner NPR News.
Transcript: President Obama Town Hall Meeting In New Hampshire
President Barack Obama continued his press for public support of health reform initiatives Tuesday at what The White House called a “Health Insurance Reform Town Hall” meeting in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
’80s Tax Bill Has Lessons For Health Care Overhaul
In negotiating health care legislation, lawmakers might want to look back to 1986. That was the year that a Democratic House and a Republican Senate worked together to pass a tax simplification bill. A full-court press by lobbyists is usually enough to stop a bill – but it wasn’t in 1986. This story comes from our partner NPR News.
Canadian Health Care System May Be Getting Bum Rap
The U.S. airwaves are full of political ads these days slamming the Canadian health care system. The ads say that in Canada, care is delayed or denied and some patients can wait a year for vital surgeries. Is the Canadian system really that bad?
For Major Health Industry Players, Reform’s Positives Outweigh Negatives
As congressional legislation takes shape, most of the major health care players – hospitals, doctors, nursing homes, health insurers and pharmaceutical companies – are likely to benefit over the long term.
Transcript: Health on the Hill
Today’s Health on the Hill is mostly about health off the Hill. Jackie Judd talks with Politico’s Carrie Budoff Brown about the contentious town hall meetings and how the lawmakers are preparing themselves for questions. The White House has launched a Web site to try to correct false rumors and to push the President’s agenda on health reform.
Health On The Hill – August 10, 2009
Today’s Health on the Hill is mostly about health off the Hill. Jackie Judd talks with Politico’s Carrie Budoff Brown about the contentious town hall meetings and how the lawmakers are preparing themselves for questions. The White House has launched a Web site to try to correct false rumors and to push the President’s agenda on health reform.
Bending the Curve Requires Health Care Reform, Not Just Sick Care Reform: A History Lesson
As President Obama and Congress struggle to bend the rising cost curve in order to make health care available to all Americans, the history of the first great expansion of health care coverage when Lyndon Johnson drove Medicare and Medicaid through Congress in 1965 offers some critical lessons.
Separating Fact From Fiction In Health Care Debate
A lot of misinformation is being generated by both ends of the political spectrum about legislation to overhaul the health care system. Bill Adair, editor of the nonpartisan Web site PolitiFact, spoke with All Things Considered’s Melissa Block to sort out the claims. This story comes from our partner NPR News.
Five Lessons From Seattle On Adopting Electronic Medical Records
In Seattle, three major hospital systems have sophisticated electronic medical records, one of the many goals of health reform. But the systems can’t talk to each other. Overcoming the obstacles will take ‘federal will and money.’
Transcript: President Obama’s Remarks On Health Reform
President Barack Obama devoted his weekly radio and internet address to the subject of health reform.