Latest Kaiser Health News Stories
Lifting Therapy Caps Is A Load Off Medicare Patients’ Shoulders
Last month’s budget deal means Medicare beneficiaries are eligible for physical and occupational therapy indefinitely. Plus, prescription drug costs will fall for more seniors.
As Surgery Centers Boom, Patients Are Paying With Their Lives
An investigation by Kaiser Health News and the USA TODAY Network discovers that more than 260 patients have died since 2013 after in-and-out procedures at surgery centers across the country. More than a dozen — some as young as 2 — have perished after routine operations, such as colonoscopies and tonsillectomies.
Buried In The Budget Bill Are Belated Gifts For Some Health Care Providers
How physical and occupational therapists triumphed in a two-decade-long quest to overturn limits on their compensation.
Never Too Late To Operate? Surgery Near End Of Life Is Common, Costly
Nearly 1 in 3 Medicare patients undergo an operation in their final year of life.
Refusing To Work For Medicaid May Not Translate To Subsidies For ACA Plan
In states that are instituting work requirements for Medicaid coverage, refusing to get a job will not likely make you eligible for subsidies to buy a marketplace plan.
Trump’s Budget Proposal Swings At Drug Prices With A Glancing Blow
The Trump administration rolled out a list of actions to attack drug prices, but most dance around the edges.
KHN On NPR: The Uniquely American Problem Of High Prescription Drug Costs
Kaiser Health News Editor-in-Chief Elisabeth Rosenthal discusses drug costs with Scott Simon, the host of NPR’s Weekend Edition. Listen to the broadcast and read a transcript of that conversation.
Bipartisan Senate Budget Deal Boosts Health Programs
The agreement would add $2 billion to the National Institutes of Health and fund community health centers around the country. But it does not include provisions to help stabilize the federal health law’s marketplaces.
Stalled Health Programs Await A Green Light On The Hill
With another piece of must-pass legislation set to move through Congress, there’s a push to attach provisions to keep afloat a number of health-related programs for which funding or specific federal direction has expired.
After Polyps Are Detected, Patients May No Longer Qualify For Free Colonoscopies
While the federal health law made insurers cover the full cost of screening colonoscopies, consumers with a history of polyps who need more frequent tests may have to pick up some costs.
How The Shutdown Might Affect Your Health
For some federal health programs, a shuttered government means business as usual. But the congressional impasse over funding will hit others hard.
Home Care Agencies Often Wrongly Deny Medicare Help To The Chronically Ill
Agencies sometimes turn away Medicare beneficiaries with chronic health problems by incorrectly claiming Medicare won’t pay for their services, say patient advocates.
Half Of Hospitals In Conn., Del. Hit By Medicare’s Safety Penalties
Seven states saw a third or more of their hospitals punished under the federal heath law’s campaign against hospital-acquired conditions.
Trump Administration Relaxes Financial Penalties Against Nursing Homes
Medicare is discouraging regional offices from levying fines for “one-time mistakes” or from using daily fines that seek to put pressure on nursing homes to make changes.
Infection Lapses Rampant In Nursing Homes But Punishment Is Rare
A Kaiser Health News analysis of federal inspection records shows that nursing home inspectors labeled mistakes in infection control as serious for only 161 of the 12,056 homes they have cited since 2014.
751 Hospitals Hit With Safety Penalties For 2018: Data Table
The federal government has cut payments to hospitals with high rates of patient injuries this year. Those hospitals will lose 1 percent of Medicare payments over the federal fiscal year, which runs from October through September. Maryland hospitals are exempted from penalties because that state has a separate payment arrangement with Medicare. Below are the […]
Medicare Penalizes Group Of 751 Hospitals For Patient Injuries
Each hospital will have its payments reduced by 1 percent for the year.
Medicare Fails To Recover Hundreds Of Millions Of Dollars In Lab Overcharges
Genetic testing firms declare bankruptcy and wipe out debt to the federal government.
Experts Tell Congress How To Cut Drug Prices. We Give You Some Odds.
Some of the nation’s most influential scientists recommend eight steps to lower drug prices. KHN takes the political temperature and tells you the chances of Congress acting on them.
Podcast: ‘What The Health?’ Is Health Care Spending Still The Hungry, Hungry Hippo?
In this episode of “What the Health?” Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Stephanie Armour of the Wall Street Journal, Alice Ollstein of Talking Points Memo and Margot Sanger Katz of The New York Times discuss new health spending numbers from the federal government, as well as how the year-end legislating in Congress is being complicated by health issues.
