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Complaints about misleading health insurance marketing are soaring. State insurance commissioners are taking notice. Theyâve created a shared internal database to monitor questionable business practices, and, in the future, they hope to provide a public-facing resource for consumers. In the meantime, consumers should shop wisely as open enrollment season begins.
Consumers may find relief in some key changes made by Congress and the Biden administration, although other issues remain unsettled.
KHN gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories.
Montana has been a national model for how employers could gain control and transparency over medical bills. Upcoming changes to its model have health care price experts wondering whether the state is making improvements or losing focus.
Nearly half of large employers report that increasing numbers of their workers were using mental health services, according to a KFF annual employer survey. Yet almost a third of those employers said their health planâs network didnât have enough behavioral health care providers for employees to have timely access to the care they need.
A medical billing specialist investigated her husbandâs ER bill. Her sleuthing took over a year but knocked thousands of dollars off the hospitalâs charges â and provides a playbook for other consumers.
A youth mental health crisis and a shortage of therapists and other care providers who take insurance are pushing many families into financial ruin. But it's rarely acknowledged as medical debt.
A broad coalition of Medicaid expansion supporters faces off against a smaller group of opponents as early voting begins on a constitutional amendment that would increase coverage under South Dakotaâs program.
Medicare can pay for some dental care if it is medically necessary to safely treat another covered medical condition, and federal officials have asked for suggestions on whether that list of conditions should be expanded.
The lawsuit was filed three years ago to learn about vast overcharges by the popular health plans that are detailed in audits the government refused to release to the public.
The Biden administration has decided to try to fix the so-called âfamily glitchâ in the Affordable Care Act without an act of Congress. The provision has prevented workersâ families from getting subsidized coverage if an employer offer is unaffordable. Meanwhile, Medicareâs open enrollment period begins Oct. 15, and private Medicare Advantage plans are poised to cover more than half of Medicareâs 65 million enrollees. Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico, and Rachel Cohrs of Stat join KHNâs Julie Rovner to discuss these topics and more. Plus, for extra credit, the panelists recommend their favorite health policy stories of the week they think you should read.
People now have at their disposal more medicines that are effective at reducing weight, but none can counter obesity alone. One big problem: Insurance coverage remains spotty, and the costly drugs may be needed long term.
Independent medical practices keep closing as doctors join behemoth hospital groups or leave the field. Research suggests thatâs bad news for patients. Studies repeatedly conclude that consolidation in the health care industry is driving up costs while showing no clear evidence of improved care.
Hospitals, boosted by private equity-backed staffing companies, have embraced a new idea: the obstetrics emergency department. Often, it is just a triage room in the labor-and-delivery area, but it bills like the main emergency department.
The human body mass index â a simple mathematical equation â is tied to a measure of obesity invented almost 200 years ago. On the downside, it can stand between patients and treatment for weight issues. It particularly mismeasures Black women and Asians.
Congress wonât be back in Washington until after Election Day, but lawmakers have left themselves a long list of items to finish up in November and December, including unfinished health care policies. Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Call; Jessie Hellmann, also of CQ Roll Call; and Mary Agnes Carey of KHN join KHNâs Julie Rovner to discuss these topics and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews KHNâs Sam Whitehead, who reported and wrote the latest KHN-NPR âBill of the Monthâ episode about a family who tried to use urgent care to save money, but ended up with a big emergency room bill anyway.
If an embryo has implanted in a fallopian tube, ending the pregnancy is imperative to protect the patientâs life. Womenâs health advocates have raised concerns that the needed treatment may be hampered by restrictive abortion laws in some states. Yet women seeking treatment in states with more liberal abortion laws may still find the process expensive and harrowing.
Private Medicare Advantage health plans are increasingly ending coverage for skilled nursing or rehab services before medical providers think patients are healthy enough to go home, doctors and patient advocates say.
Sterling Raspe lived just eight months. In this KHN video, her father shows the 2-inch stack of medical bills generated by Sterlingâs care.
Congress has once again decided not to decide how to fund the federal government in time for the start of the fiscal year, racing toward a midnight Sept. 30 deadline to pass a stopgap bill that would keep the lights on for two more months. However, it does appear the FDAâs program that gets drugmakers to help fund some of the agencyâs review staff will be renewed in time to stop pink slips from being sent. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Rachel Cohrs of Stat, and Victoria Knight of Axios join KHNâs Julie Rovner to discuss these topics and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews filmmaker Cynthia Lowen, whose new documentary, âBattleground,â explores how anti-abortion forces played the long game to overturn Roe v. Wade.
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