Latest Morning Briefing Stories
Houston Embraces Obamacare Outreach, Despite Cruz and Perry
A coalition of the city’s health department, county clinics and groups like the Urban League and Enroll America is trying to get the word out to Houston’s 800,000 uninsured residents about the Affordable Care Act’s insurance marketplaces, which will open Oct. 1.
After The Floods, Colorado Hospital Braces For Winter
Estes Park Medical Center escaped the flood damage that hit most of the area. But two roads leading to the town known as the gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park are impassable. One snowstorm could close the remaining road and ground helicopters, leaving the hospital and its patients stranded.
Many Cancer Patients Overtreated In Final Days
Care is particularly aggressive in the Philadelphia area, according to a Dartmouth Atlas study.
States Balk At Terminating Medicaid Contracts Even When There’s Fraud Or Poor Patient Care
Officials won’t use “nuclear option” for fear of disrupting services to patients.
The Overlooked Obamacare Sales Force: Hospitals
Nobody has a bigger financial stake in the success of Affordable Care Act insurance exchanges than hospitals. And few may work harder to sign up consumers than hospitals themselves.
A Road To Health? Rural Alaska Town Argues For Access
A road in King Cove, Alaska would give 1,000 residents better access to emergency health care, but it would slice through a wildlife refuge. The decision rests with new Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, who toured the town in late August.
Rural Hospitals in Texas Wary of Proposed Medicare Cuts
A federal proposal to reduce the number of hospitals that carry the ‘critical access’ designation could cost 60 Texas hospitals that status, along with their enhanced Medicare reimbursements, potentially jeopardizing their survival.
Nurse Practitioner’s Life Story Prepares Him To Work With Homeless
As a primary care clinician at a health care clinic in northeast D.C., Douglas Reed’s life growing up in the neighborhood near the clinic prepared him to care for the residents there — and the special needs they have.
Pathways To Housing: One Woman’s Story
Two years ago Pathways to Housing helped a homeless Alicia O. find an apartment and get regular medical care, the first steps on her way to changing her circumstances, and improving her life.
Nurse Practitioners Try New Tack To Expand Foothold In Primary Care
Advanced practice nurses say that despite growing need for primary care, they are stymied by insurers that won’t credential them.
‘A Calling’ To Care For The Poor At St. Louis’ Grace Hill Community Centers
Some of the funding for Grace Hill and smaller community health centers in St. Louis may be in jeopardy, even as the number of people seeking discounted care or free is increasing in a state that will not expand Medicaid under the health law.
Some Hospitals Turn To Post-Discharge Clinics To Help Hold Down Readmissions
A study finds that a third of adult patients discharged from a hospital don’t see a physician within 30 days — and experts say this is a key reason so many of them need to come back in.
Don Berwick’s Newest Phase: Candidate, But Still Dr. Quality
The former acting administrator of CMS, now running for governor of Massachusetts, explains his “Letter to the People of England,” a call for continuous learning to improve quality within Britain’s National Health Service.
Why Health Law’s ‘Essential’ Coverage Might Mean ‘Bare Bones’
But how can a law praised for expanding coverage — one that includes an “employer mandate” to offer “minimum essential coverage” — allow companies to offer insurance that might not even cover hospitalization?
Despite Additional Dollars, Texas Doc Shortage Is Hard to Fix
The medical community is concerned the state’s plans to produce more physicians to treat a surging population are insufficient.
Letters to the Editor is a periodic KHN feature that details readers responses to recent KHN stories.
An Alaska-Sized Price Difference: A Circumcision In Anchorage Hospitals Can Cost $2,110 or $235
Some pediatricians, upset about the pricing for their patients and the lack of easy access to what the hospitals charge, are doing the procedures in their offices instead.
Moving People Home After Nursing Home Stay Is Complicated
A program aimed at getting people out of nursing homes and back in their own homes is off to a slow start. Organizers say it’s a challenge to find out which services each person needs, from meals delivered to a whole new apartment.
Talking Scales and Telemedicine: ACO Tools To Keep Patients Out Of The Hospital
A Minnesota hospital’s care for congestive heart failure patients set the stage for it to become an Accountable Care Organization under the health law.
Obamacare Presents Complex Choices For People With Disabilities
Some categories of essential benefits under the health law, like maternity care and preventive care, are straightforward. But “habilitative services” — including treatments like physical and speech therapy — are much more subjective.
