Latest Morning Briefing Stories

So Your Insurance Dropped Your Doctor. Now What?

KFF Health News Original

Patients sometimes find themselves scrambling for affordable care when a contract dispute causes a hospital — and most of the doctors and other clinicians who work there — to be dropped from an insurance network. Here are six things to know if that happens to you.

Doctor Tripped Up by $64K Bill for Ankle Surgery and Hospital Stay

KFF Health News Original

A doctor in Colorado became the patient after an accident totaled her car and sent her to the operating room. The hospital kept her overnight, but her insurer stopped paying after she left the emergency room.

Médicos, callados mientras Florida busca terminar con décadas de mandatos de vacunación infantil

KFF Health News Original

Sin embargo, si las tasas de vacunación bajan, aumentan los casos de enfermedades como sarampión, hepatitis, meningitis y neumonía e incluso podrían regresar enfermedades como la difteria y la poliomielitis.

Many Fear Federal Loan Caps Will Deter Aspiring Doctors and Worsen MD Shortage

KFF Health News Original

Health care professionals fear that new caps on federal student lending, set to start in July, will put medical school out of reach for many who want to become doctors and exacerbate physician shortages. Others say unlimited federal lending has fed a rise in academic costs, saddling families and, ultimately, taxpayers with debt.

A Ticking Clock: How States Are Preparing for a Last-Minute Obamacare Deal

KFF Health News Original

Even if Congress strikes a deal soon to extend more generous Affordable Care Act subsidies, the prices and types of ACA plans available could change dramatically. Unprecedented uncertainty and upheaval could cloud this year’s open enrollment season, which begins in most states on Saturday.

Doctors Muffled as Florida Moves To End Decades of Childhood Vaccination Mandates

KFF Health News Original

Florida has announced plans to end mandatory vaccination. Now scientists are assessing which of several diseases deadly to children — whooping cough, measles, polio, rubella, mumps, diphtheria, and tetanus — are likely to make a resurgence and when.

Officials Show Little Proof That New Tech Will Help Medicaid Enrollees Meet Work Rules

KFF Health News Original

The Trump administration says it’s developing a digital tool to help people prove they’re meeting new Medicaid work requirements. KFF Health News talked to officials from the two states running pilot programs and found little evidence of new — or effective — technology.

States Jostle Over $50B Rural Health Fund as Trump’s Medicaid Cuts Trigger Scramble

KFF Health News Original

States are battling for their piece of $50 billion in federal rural health funding, but it’s not just hospitals vying for the money. Tech startups and policy demands are raising the stakes as Medicaid cuts loom.

After Chiding Democrats on Transgender Politics, Newsom Vetoes a Key Health Measure

KFF Health News Original

California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would have expanded access to hormone therapy, a top priority for the trans community. Advocates say it would have ensured continuity in gender-affirming care amid Trump administration attacks. Analysts say it’s another sign of the Democrat’s move to the center.

It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! It’s a Chemtrail? New Conspiracy Theory Takes Wing at Kennedy’s HHS

KFF Health News Original

The idea that airplane vapors are toxic to people or that there are ongoing efforts to intentionally change the climate made the social media rounds. Now, it has found advocates at the Department of Health and Human Services.