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The federal governmentās hospital penalty program finishes its first decade by lowering payments to nearly half the nationās hospitals for readmitting too many Medicare patients within a month. Penalties, though often small, are credited with helping reduce the number of patients returning for another Medicare stay within 30 days.
āObstetrical emergency departmentsā are a new feature in some hospitals that can inflate medical bills for even the easiest, healthiest births. Just ask the parents of Baby Gus.
Some doctors, sick of mainstream health careās red tape, are finding refuge in practices that combine concierge medicine with charity care.
Negotiations on the health parts of President Joe Bidenās domestic agenda are getting serious but have yet to produce a deal every Democrat can support. Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration remains without a nominated leader but manages to take the first steps toward approving over-the-counter hearing aids. Joanne Kenen of Politico and Johns Hopkins, Tami Luhby of CNN and Rachel Cohrs of Stat join KHNās Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Plus, for extra credit, the panelists recommend their favorite health policy stories of the week they think you should read too.
In this episode, we get our bearings on self-funded insurance plans, and how they affect the average ā sometimes burned-out ā American worker trying to get answers about insurance.
New, often lower-cost plans capitalize on the convenience of telemedicine ā and patientsā growing familiarity with it. But consumers should weigh costs and care options before enrolling in a āvirtual-firstā plan.
The law says nonprofit hospitals are supposed to offer low-income patients financial assistance. But the average person doesnāt know about it. Hereās how to get help.
Patients soon will not have to worry about the prospect of these often-costly unexpected bills, a federal law promises. Some experts say the new policy could also slow the growth of health insurance premiums.
Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to regulate out-of-control health care spending in California. The effort is being shaped by the very health industry players that would be regulated.
Patients are caught in the middle as insurers clamp down on paying for treatments or force prior authorizations for care.
The covid pandemic has caused millions of people, particularly LGBTQ adults, to lose their jobs and enroll in Medicaid or insurance through the Affordable Care Act. Yet these plans often donāt fully cover the basics needed by many transgender Americans, such as injectable estrogen, a hormone therapy commonly used by trans women.
KHN and California Healthline staff made the rounds on national and local media this week to discuss their stories. Hereās a collection of their appearances.
A patient from Dallas got a PCR test in a free-standing suburban emergency room. The out-of-network charge: $54,000.
Efforts to give 2.2 million Americans health insurance hang in the balance as Congress debates a massive spending bill. The so-called Medicaid gap is felt most acutely in Texas, where about half of those who stand to gain coverage live.
More than 2 million low-income adults are uninsured because their states have not accepted Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. Congressional Democrats want to offer them coverage in the massive spending bill being debated, but competition to get into that package is fierce.
Private agencies that bring young adults to the U.S. to care for children generally offer basic health insurance, but plans may exclude many types of necessary care. What the agencies might not mention is that au pairs are eligible to enroll in comprehensive coverage on the Affordable Care Act marketplaces and likely qualify for premium subsidies that would make the insurance affordable.
This episode highlights how New York enacted a charity care law, one of the precursors to the federal provision on charity care in the Affordable Care Act. Ā
The plans are designed for people who donāt get dental coverage through their jobs and canāt afford an individual plan. For about $300 to $400 a year, patients receive certain preventive services at no charge and other procedures at a discount.
Peter Lee helped create Covered California, which has been lauded as a national example among the Affordable Care Actās insurance marketplaces, and he fiercely opposed Republican efforts to repeal the federal health reform law.
Democrats have hit a snag in their effort to compile a $3.5 trillion social-spending bill this fall ā moderates are resisting support for Medicare drug price negotiation provisions that would pay for many of the measureās health benefit improvements. Meanwhile, the new abortion restrictions in Texas have moved the divisive issue back to the political front burner. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Rachel Cohrs of Stat and Shefali Luthra of The 19th join KHNās Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, Rovner interviewās KHNās Phil Galewitz about the latest KHN-NPR āBill of the Monthā installment, about two similar jaw surgeries with very different price tags.
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