Latest KFF Health News Stories
Radical Approach To Huge Hospital Bills: Set Your Own Price
A small consulting firm is disrupting hospitals’ business as usual by encouraging employers to pay much less than what hospitals bill — based on its analysis of what is reasonable.
How One Hospital Brought Its C-Sections Down In A Hurry
Faced with the possible loss of an important insurer, a large Orange County, Calif., hospital rapidly reduced excessive cesarean section rates in part by sharing each physician’s rate with everyone in the obstetrics department.
Cancer Spawns Construction Boom In Cleveland
When the Cleveland Clinic opens its new cancer center, it will be five minutes away from a competitor’s new cancer hospital.
Staffing An Intensive Care Unit From Miles Away Has Advantages
Some hospitals are using a remote command center to keep an eye on ICU patients. This brings the expertise of a major medical center to rural hospitals — and may help keep the rural centers open.
Losing A Hospital In The Heart Of A Small City
Economic challenges are squeezing the city of Lakewood, just outside of Cleveland, forcing the closure of one hospital, even as another is built in a more affluent suburb.
Patients Not Hurt When Their Hospitals Close, Study Finds
Despite frequent fears in communities when losing their hospitals, mortality rates do not rise, say Harvard researchers who examined 194 closures.
Medicare Itemizes Its $103 Billion Drug Bill
Federal officials release data showing prescription histories of hundreds of thousands of doctors and identifying the most common and costly drugs.
California High Court To Consider Limits on Regulators’ Access to Prescription Database
A Burbank doctor, with the support of the AMA, says the Medical Board of California violated his patients’ privacy by checking his prescribing practices in a state database without a court order. The board says it needs that access to protect patients from harm.
Hospitals Increasingly Turn To Patients For Advice
Federal efforts are driving hospitals to see patients as customers.
Officials Weigh Options To Hold Down Medicare Costs For Hospice
Under Medicare’s hospice benefit, patients agree to forgo curative treatment, but they can continue to receive coverage for health problems not related to their terminal illness. Federal officials suspect some of those expenses should be covered by hospice.
What’s At Stake In The Supreme Court Obamacare Case
Despite political opposition to the Affordable Care Act, more than 186,000 people in Louisiana signed up for health insurance through healthcare.gov. The vast majority of those received subsidies, which could be lost in the King v. Burwell case before the Supreme Court.
Google Glass In The ER? Health Care Moves One Step Closer To Star Trek …
Researchers at a Rhode Island hospital studied how Google Glass technology could be used to beam the images of emergency-room patients to specialists in different locations.
Only 251 Hospitals Score Five Stars In Medicare’s New Ratings
The ratings, posted on Medicare’s website Thursday, rank hospitals based on patient reviews.
So You Have Dense Breasts. Now What?
Dense breasts make mammograms harder to read. As more states pass laws requiring that women be told of the risks, debate is growing about whether such warnings are helpful — or even harmful.
FAQ: Congress Passes A Bill To Fix Medicare’s Doctor Payments. What’s In It?
A rare bipartisan effort will scrap the troubled physician payment formula and transition to a system focused on new quality measures.
Moving Out: Hospitals Leave Downtowns For More Prosperous Digs
Hospitals are relocating to more affluent communities to attract better-paying patients, but critics say they abandon the poor.
Patient-Doctor Relationship Forged Through Computer Screens
Through LiveHealth Online, Missouri’s largest insurer allows members to connect to doctors around the country from their computer, tablet or phone.
Coalition Hopes To Amp Up Push For Health Care Transparency
A new coalition of insurers, pharmaceutical companies, and provider and consumer advocacy groups launched an initiative to make more information available to consumers about the actual costs of health services.
Medical Schools Try To Reboot For 21st Century
The American Medical Association is funding experiments at universities around the country to try to change how we train physicians.
Med Students Chip In To Help The Uninsured
Almost 1 million New York City residents are still uninsured. Rather than go to emergency rooms or city hospitals, some of them get free care from medical school students.
