Health Care Costs
A Plan to Cut Montana’s Medicaid Waiting List Was Met With Bipartisan Cheers. Then a Veto.
Montana state Sen. Becky Beard thought she’d found a fix for a shortage of assisted living care options for Montanans who can’t afford to pay for it themselves — a shortage she became aware of while searching for a suitable place for her mother to live. Beard, a Republican from the rural town of Elliston, […]
The Long Road to Reining In Short-Term Plans
The Host Julie Rovner KFF Health News @jrovner @julierovner.bsky.social Read Julie’s stories. Julie Rovner is chief Washington correspondent and host of KFF Health News’ weekly health policy news podcast, “What the Health?” A noted expert on health policy issues, Julie is the author of the critically praised reference book “Health Care Politics and Policy A […]
Wait, What’s a PBM?
Pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, are intermediary companies that negotiate the price of prescription drugs. PBMs are at the center of a tangled knot of pharmacies, drugmakers, and health insurers. Experts say they play a big role in raising prescription drug prices. So, what is being done to regulate PBMs? In this episode of “An […]
With More People Giving Birth at Home, Montana Passed a Pair of Laws to Make It Easier
Ashley Jones’ three children were born in three different places — a hospital, a birth center, and at home. Jones, who is 31 and lives in Belgrade, Montana, said she had “zero control over what was going on” during her hospital birth. Jones wanted a midwife to help deliver her third child, and after finding […]
As Nonprofit Hospitals Reap Big Tax Breaks, States Scrutinize Their Required Charity Spending
POTTSTOWN, Pa. — The public school system here had to scramble in 2018 when the local hospital, newly purchased, was converted to a tax-exempt nonprofit entity. The takeover by Tower Health meant the 219-bed Pottstown Hospital no longer had to pay federal and state taxes. It also no longer had to pay local property taxes, […]
What You Need to Know About the Drug Price Fight in Those TV Ads
In recent months ominous ads about prescription drugs have flooded the TV airwaves. Perhaps by design, it’s not always clear who’s sponsoring the ads or why. Or, for that matter, why now? The short answer is that Congress is paying attention. House and Senate members from both parties have launched at least nine bills, parts […]
Patients Squeezed in Fight Over Who Gets to Bill for Pricey Infusion Drugs
Health insurers and medical providers are battling over who should supply high-cost infusion drugs for patients, with the tussle over profits now spilling into statehouses across the country. The issue is that some insurers are bypassing hospital pharmacies and physician offices and instead sending more complex drugs through third-party pharmacies. Those pharmacies then send the […]
Credit Card, Please
A listener’s doctor asked her for a credit card before she’d even had her first appointment. That didn’t sit right with her. She wanted to know: Can they do that? In this episode of “An Arm and a Leg,” host Dan Weissmann speaks with experts about the risks of handing over a credit card to […]
Journalists Discuss Floridians Being Dropped From Medicaid and Tips for Telemedicine Visits
KFF Health News Florida correspondent Daniel Chang discussed the state’s Medicaid disenrollments and homeless Affordable Care Act enrollees on WLRN’s “The Florida Roundup” on June 23. Click here to hear Chang on “The Florida Roundup” Read Chang’s “Fraudsters Are Duping Homeless People Into Signing Up for ACA Plans They Can’t Afford” KFF Health News senior […]
The Hospital Bills Didn’t Find Her, but a Lawsuit Did — Plus Interest
Bethany Birch had pain in her diaphragm on and off for eight months in 2016. She knew it was triggered by food, so she said she tried taking an antacid. That helped a little, but, eventually, she avoided eating altogether. She estimated she lost 25 pounds in that time. One night that September, the pain […]