Latest Morning Briefing Stories
If You Have A Stroke, Better It Should Be In Paris
PARIS–I had a stroke last month, oh boy. It’s just that I didn’t know it. Here’s what happened: Only after three days of flashing, floating visual squiggles — commonly known as ocular migraines that usually last 20 minutes — do I email my old friend Dr. John Krakauer, who helps run stroke recovery at Johns […]
Exchange Assisters Want More Training To Help Consumers — Even After They Enroll
With the Nov. 15 kick-off for this year’s health law enrollment season fast approaching, the need for more training for the people who help consumers navigate the health insurance marketplace is growing increasingly clear. For example, 92 percent of health insurance marketplace assister programs say they want more preparation than they received last year, according […]
Large California Insurers Invite Others To Join Data Network
Now that two of California’s biggest health insurers have teamed up on a project to share patients’ digitized medical records, they are planning to invite other companies to join. The project will initially cover about 9 million Californians, making it possible for doctors and hospitals to quickly access patients’ medical histories and avoid unnecessary tests […]
Survey: Insurance Rates Lag In Health Law Holdout States
A Gallup poll released Tuesday says that the Affordable Care Act is significantly increasing the number of Americans with health insurance, especially in states that are embracing the law. It echoes previous Gallup surveys, and similar findings by the Urban Institute and RAND Corp. The latest Gallup survey found that, nationwide, the number of uninsured […]
Advocates Say Florida Consumers To Pay For State Lawmakers’ Decision
Republicans were quick to pounce Monday on Florida’s announcement that residents buying health insurance on the individual market for next year will face a 13.2 percent average increase in monthly premiums — one of the steepest rate hikes announced for any state. “Obamacare is a bad law that just seems to be getting worse,” said […]
Some California Hospitals, Insurers Disappointed in ‘Bundled Payments’
Giving health-care providers a lump sum payment for certain treatments – touted as a way to save money and improve coordination of care — yielded disappointing results for some major California hospitals and insurers, a study found. The RAND Corp. study, funded by a $2.9-million federal grant, looked at “bundled payments” for care of insured […]
Poverty Linked To Diabetic Amputations In California
People with diabetes in low-income neighborhoods in California are twice as likely to have a leg or foot amputated as those living in wealthier areas, according to a study released Monday. The study, published in the journal Health Affairs, underscores the stark differences in outcomes for diabetes patients throughout the state. “We are not particularly […]
Smokers Paying Less For Some Health Plans Than Expected
The health law allows insurance plans to charge tobacco users as much as 50 percent more for their premiums, but plans on average increased costs for these consumers by significantly less, according to a new study published in Health Affairs. Researchers found the median surcharge amount to be about 10 percent. Close to 90 percent […]
Study: ER Closures Raise Death Rates At Nearby Hospitals
Emergency patients who are admitted to the hospital are at greater risk of dying if another emergency room at a hospital nearby has closed its doors, a new study of California hospitals has found. The analysis is believed to be the first to examine the impact that emergency department closures have on the quality of […]
Unfavorable Views Of Health Law Spike In July: Poll
The health law’s unpopularity among the public rose sharply in July with a surge of disapproval from people who had been agnostic about it in recent months, a poll released Friday shows. The law is as unpopular as it has been since it was enacted four years ago. The poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation […]
6 States Extending Medicaid Pay Raise Next Year To Primary Care Doctors
Correction: This story has been updated to note that the District of Columbia in 2015 is not extending the Medicaid pay increase for physicians. The story originally listed D.C. with the six states that are keeping doctor pay higher next year. The District will allow Medicaid pay rates to fall back to earlier levels. Just six […]
Survey Finds 1 In 5 Uninsured Don’t Want Coverage
Though millions of people gained health coverage this year as a result of the Affordable Care Act, millions more remain unaware of their options or have no interest in getting insured, a new survey has found. Among those who were uninsured last year and remain uninsured, only 59 percent were familiar with the new Obamacare marketplaces […]
Moving Children From CHIP To Exchange Plans Would Increase Costs: Study
Cost sharing would increase and the number of child-specific services covered would decline if millions of low-income children now enrolled in the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) were forced to receive coverage through the health law’s insurance exchanges, according to a study released Tuesday. CHIP enrollees in some states could see their cost sharing increase 10-fold […]
Study Estimates 10 Million Americans Gained Health Coverage
About 10.3 million Americans gained health coverage this year, primarily as a result of the Affordable Care Act, according to a study by the federal government and Harvard University, published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine. The estimate of newly insured adults — the largest to date — is the first published in a […]
What’s Next In The Wake Of Conflicting Federal Court Decisions
KHN’s Julie Rovner and SCOTUSblog’s Tom Goldstein joined Gwen Ifill on PBS NewsHour Tuesday to discuss the implications of two federal court decisions that disagreed about the legality of selling subsidized insurance on healthcare.gov. Watch the video below.
Business Groups, Consumer Advocates Draw Lines In The Sand About Essential Benefits
The essential health benefits (EHBs) countdown is on for 2016. That’s when this provision of the Affordable Care Act, which sets out 10 specific health services that must be covered by plans sold on the exchanges, will likely be reviewed by the Department of Health and Human Services. Business interests and consumer advocates are already making their […]
Biggest Insurer Drops Caution, Embraces Obamacare
This KHN story can be republished for free. (details) UnitedHealthcare, the insurance giant that largely sat out the health law’s online marketplaces’ first year, said Thursday it may sell policies through the exchanges in nearly half the states next year. “We plan to grow next year as we expand our offering to as many as two […]
Registered Nurses Increasingly Delay Retirement, Study Finds
Despite predictions of an impending nurse shortage, the current number of working registered nurses has surpassed expectations in part due to the number of baby-boomer RNs delaying retirement, a study by the RAND Corp. found. The study, published online Wednesday by Health Affairs, notes that the RN workforce, rather than peaking in 2012 at 2.2 million […]
Obamacare Help Was In High Demand, Survey Shows
Most working people in the U.S. sign up for health insurance in a very straightforward way: a few forms, a few questions for human resources, a few choices of plans. Signing up for Affordable Care Act insurance was nothing like that. It involved questions about income, taxes, family size and immigration status. And in most […]
Avoid The Rush! Some ERs Are Taking Appointments
This KHN story also ran on Southern California Public Radio. It can be republished for free. (details) >>Click here to listen to the radio story Three times within a week, 34-year-old Michael Granillo went to Northridge Hospital Medical Center because of intense back pain. Each time, Granillo, who didn’t have insurance, stayed for less than an […]
