Hospitals Archives - Page 4 of 55

Here Come the ACA Premium Hikes

Episode 407

July 24, 2025

Medicaid may have monopolized Washington’s attention lately, but big changes are coming to the Affordable Care Act as well. Meanwhile, Americans are learning more about what’s in Trump’s big budget law, and polls suggest many don’t like what they see. Julie Appleby of KFF Health News, Jessie Hellmann of CQ Roll Call, and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews historian Jonathan Oberlander to mark Medicare’s 60th anniversary.

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A photo of a dimly lit hospital entrance seen through a window. The window is reflecting a view of the parking lot behind the photographer.

Rural Health Payout

$50B Rural Health ‘Slush Fund’ Faces Questions, Skepticism

Lawmakers added a $50 billion program for rural health to President Donald Trump’s massive tax and spending package with promises it would help plug the hole left by Medicaid cuts. Rural hospital and clinic leaders worry the infusion won’t reach the right places.

By Sarah Jane Tribble

July 21, 2025

The Week in Brief

Medical Rehab Hospital Inspections Go Unpublicized by Federal Officials

Get our weekly newsletter, The Week in Brief, featuring a roundup of our original coverage, Fridays at 2 p.m. ET.

By Jordan Rau

July 18, 2025

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Perspective

Surprise Medical Bills Were Supposed To Be a Thing of the Past. Surprise — They’re Not.

The No Surprises Act, which was signed in 2020 and took effect in 2022, was heralded as a landmark piece of legislation that would protect people who had health insurance from receiving surprise medical bills. And yet bills that take patients by surprise keep coming.

By Elisabeth Rosenthal

July 18, 2025

What the Health? From KFF Health News

The Senate Saves PEPFAR Funding — For Now

Episode 406

July 17, 2025

The Senate narrowly approved the Trump administration’s request to claw back about $9 billion for foreign aid and public broadcasting but refused to cut funding for the international AIDS/HIV program PEPFAR. Meanwhile, a federal appeals court ruled that West Virginia can ban the abortion pill mifepristone, which could allow states to block other FDA-approved drugs. Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico Magazine, Shefali Luthra of The 19th, and Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Call join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more.

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A woman wearing glasses and a mask helps another woman balance on one leg while holding a ball

Broken Rehab

How To Find the Right Medical Rehab Services

Specialized hospitals, nursing homes, clinics, and home health agencies provide rehab therapy. Insurers may limit the services you can get.

By Jordan Rau

July 15, 2025

From left, a man, a woman, and another man stand in a cemetery, looking at a gravestone

Broken Rehab

Even Grave Errors at Rehab Hospitals Go Unpenalized and Undisclosed

For-profit hospitals provide most inpatient physical therapy but tend to have worse readmission rates to general hospitals. Medicare doesn’t tell consumers about troubling inspections.

By Jordan Rau and Irena Hwang, The New York Times

July 15, 2025

KFF Health News On Air

Journalists Tally State and Local Health Care Implications of GOP Megabill

KFF Health News journalists made the rounds on national and local media recently to discuss topical stories. Here’s a collection of their appearances.

July 12, 2025

Watch: She’s at High Risk of Breast Cancer. She Moved, and Her Screening Costs Soared.

This installment of InvestigateTV and KFF Health News’ “Costly Care” series explores how the type of medical facility where a patient seeks care can affect the cost of that care — particularly when that facility is a hospital.

By Caresse Jackman, InvestigateTV and Jamie Grey, InvestigateTV

July 10, 2025

KFF Health News On Air

Journalists Assess Health Impacts of Trump’s Megabill, Who Will Feel Them, and When

KFF Health News journalists made the rounds on national and regional media this week to discuss topical stories. Here’s a collection of their appearances.

July 5, 2025

A man with grey hair, glasses, a red tie and a dark suit stands behind a podium

GOP Governors Mum as Congress Moves To Slash Medicaid Spending for Their States

In 2017, when President Donald Trump tried to repeal Obamacare and roll back Medicaid coverage, Republican governors helped turn Congress against it. Now, as Trump tries again to scale back Medicaid, Republican governors — whose constituents stand to lose federal funding and health coverage — have gone quiet on the health consequences.

By Phil Galewitz

July 3, 2025

An outside view of the University of Michigan Hospital, a tan building with a large M on the outside

Feds Investigate Hospitals Over Religious Exemptions From Gender-Affirming Care

Federal health officials are investigating claims that a Michigan health system fired an employee who sought a religious exemption to avoid calling transgender patients by their pronouns or referring them for gender-affirming care. Legal experts say the investigation escalates the Trump administration’s effort to curb medical care for transgender patients.

By Kate Wells, Michigan Public

July 1, 2025

What the Health? From KFF Health News

Supreme Court Upholds Bans on Gender-Affirming Care

Episode 402

June 20, 2025

The Supreme Court this week said Tennessee may continue to enforce its law banning most types of gender-affirming care for minors. The ruling is likely to greenlight similar laws in two dozen states. And the Senate is preparing to vote on a budget reconciliation bill that includes even deeper Medicaid cuts than the House version. Victoria Knight of Axios, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, and Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Call join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more.

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A photo of a nurse pushing a patient in a wheelchair in a hospital corridor.

‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ Would Batter Rural Hospital Finances, Researchers Say

Rural hospitals would take an outsize hit from Republicans’ proposed cuts to Medicaid and other federal health programs. Researchers say the financial erosion would trigger hospital closures and service cuts, especially in communities where large shares of patients are enrolled in Medicaid.

By Jazmin Orozco Rodriguez

June 12, 2025

An Arm and a Leg

A Mathematical Solution for US Hospitals?

Season 13, Episode 8

June 4, 2025

An immigrant mathematician is on a mission to save U.S. hospitals billions of dollars and improve the lives of doctors, nurses, and patients. At one hospital, it's working.

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An unidentifiable person in scrubs walks beside a tan wall with a sign reading "Holston Valley Medical Center" on it.

The Only Hospital in Town

Ballad Health’s Hospital Monopoly Underperformed. Then Tennessee Lowered the Bar.

Ballad Health, a state-sanctioned hospital monopoly in Tennessee and Virginia, can now be deemed a “clear and convincing” benefit to the public with performance that would earn a “D” on most grading scales, according to Tennessee state documents.

By Brett Kelman

June 3, 2025

A photo of a man standing outside under a shaded canopy of trees.

Bill of the Month

A Medicaid Patient Had a Heart Attack While Traveling. He Owed Almost $78,000.

Federal law says Medicaid must cover out-of-state emergency care. But a Florida man got a five-figure bill after a South Dakota hospital declined to charge his state’s Medicaid program.

By Arielle Zionts

May 29, 2025

A woman in a white shirt and black vest pulled up to expose her belly lies on an exam table as another woman holds a device to the pregnant woman's stomach.

Postcard From South Dakota

Rural Patients Face Tough Choices When Their Hospitals Stop Delivering Babies

More than 100 rural hospitals have stopped delivering babies since 2021, including a South Dakota hospital that serves small towns, farming communities, and a Native American reservation. Patients there now travel at least an hour to give birth.

By Arielle Zionts

May 19, 2025

A photo of a hospital exterior with a neon green sign in front of it that reads, "Spencer Hospital, healthier together."

Medicaid Payments Barely Keep Hospital Mental Health Units Afloat. Federal Cuts Could Sink Them.

Patients seeking mental health care are more likely to be on Medicaid than patients in more profitable areas of care, such as cancer or cardiac treatment.

By Tony Leys

May 12, 2025

What the Health? From KFF Health News

Cutting Medicaid Is Hard — Even for the GOP

Episode 396

May 8, 2025

Republicans on Capitol Hill are struggling to reach consensus on cutting the Medicaid program as they search for nearly a trillion dollars in savings over the next decade — as many observers predicted. Meanwhile, turmoil continues at the Department of Health and Human Services, with more controversial cuts and personnel moves, including the sudden nomination of Casey Means, an ally of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s, to become surgeon general. Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, Maya Goldman of Axios, and Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Call join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews KFF Health News’ Lauren Sausser, who co-reported the latest “Bill of the Month” feature, about an unexpected bill for what seemed like preventive care.

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