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Nevada’s budget debate highlights how uncertainty over funding for federal safety net programs may lead some officials to turn to opioid settlement dollars to make up the difference.
Republicans in Congress have suggested big cuts to Medicaid, the state-federal health insurance program for people with low incomes or disabilities. The complex, multifaceted program touches millions of Americans and has become deeply woven into state budgets and the U.S. health care system.
A decision about how to spend settlement funds in Carter County, Kentucky, which was hit hard by the opioid epidemic, offers a window into the choices that surround this windfall.
A state lawmaker wants health insurers to disclose denial rates and explain those denials as anger grows over rising costs and uncovered medical care. If the bill is signed into law, health experts say, it could be one of the boldest attempts in the nation to rein in denials.
States are required to claw back health care costs from the estates of many Medicaid recipients. Some, including Iowa, are particularly aggressive in their pursuit.
Pain MD, which once ran as many as 20 clinics across three states, gave chronic-pain patients about 700,000 total injections near their spines, according to court documents. Last year, federal prosecutors proved at trial that the shots were medically unnecessary and part of an extensive fraud scheme.
Delays in urgent CDC analyses of seasonal flu and bird flu, and the agency’s silence, will harm Americans as outbreaks escalate, doctors and public health experts warn.
KFF Health News shares our favorite reader-submitted health policy valentines. One struck us in the heart and inspired an original cartoon.
As Republicans consider adding work requirements to Medicaid, Georgia and Arkansas — two states with experience running such programs — want to scale back the key parts supporters have argued encourage employment and personal responsibility.
Frustrated by spiraling drug costs, California lawmakers want to increase oversight of pharmaceutical industry intermediaries known as pharmacy benefit managers. It’s unclear whether they can persuade Gov. Gavin Newsom to get on board.
Patients and providers say health insurers’ preapproval requirements lead to delays and denials of needed medical treatments. Insurers argue that prior authorization keeps costs down.
Mental health workers on strike in Southern California say Kaiser Permanente is woefully understaffed, its therapists are burned out, and patients are often denied timely access to care. The insurer says it has largely fixed the problem. But across California and the nation, mental health parity is still not a reality.
More than 60,000 people bleed to death every year in the United States. Many of those deaths occur before the patient reaches a trauma center where blood transfusions can be given.
On the campaign trail, President Donald Trump said the power to make abortion policies “has been returned to the states.” In his first two weeks in office, he’s already gone further to restrict abortion than any president who’s held office since the 1973 “Roe v. Wade” decision, writes Julie Rovner.
State Medicaid and Affordable Care Act programs have long struggled to connect with lower-income Americans to help them access care. Now some are trying an alternative approach: meeting them at the laundromat.
The MiSalud app enables Spanish-speaking users in the U.S. to meet virtually with health professionals in Mexico via a smartphone app. At Taylor Farms in Salinas, California, the novel program has been a hit.
State legislatures nationwide, including several in the South, are spending millions to improve rural health outcomes and access. For years, though, most Southern states have refused billions of federal dollars to provide public health insurance to more low-income adults. That isn’t likely to change with Trump back in office.
Unsure how to help the troubled psychiatric facility, legislators look to shore up other parts of the state’s mental health system.
An unprecedented freeze on the agency’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report sparks new concerns about political meddling in science.
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