Health Care Costs
Temp Nurses Cost Hospitals Big During Pandemic. Lawmakers Are Now Mulling Limits.
To crack down on price gouging, proposed legislation in Missouri calls for allowing felony charges against health care staffing agencies that substantially raise their prices during a declared emergency. A New York bill includes a cap on the amount staffing agencies can charge health care facilities. And a Texas measure would allow civil penalties against […]
Listen to ‘Tradeoffs’: Medical Debt Delivers ‘A Shocking Amount of Misery’
The numbers that tell the story of medical debt in the U.S. are staggering: Around 100 million Americans have health care debt, and together they owe at least $140 billion. And research suggests this debt can have striking consequences on people’s financial, physical, and mental health. In this episode of the “Tradeoffs” podcast, Dan Gorenstein […]
Two Counties Square Off With California Over Mental Health Duties
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento and Solano counties are in a standoff with the state over mental health coverage for a portion of Medicaid patients in those counties — a dispute that threatens to disrupt care for nearly 50,000 low-income residents receiving treatment for severe mental illness. The Department of Health Care Services, which administers Medi-Cal, […]
Wrestling With a Giant: How to Dispute a Hospital Bill
When Sandeep Swami received a $1,339 bill for a quick and uneventful emergency room visit for his 11-year-old daughter, he pushed back. The charge was a “facility fee” for the hospital, though the treatment entailed only a six- to seven-minute consultation with a doctor. Because Swami had a high-deductible health plan and had not yet […]
Biden Budget Touches All the Bases
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 […]
Planes de salud de Medicaid intentan proteger a sus miembros… y a sus ganancias
Las protecciones federales por la pandemia de covid-19, que desde 2020 prohibieron a los estados eliminar a beneficiarios de Medicaid, incluso si ya no calificaban, lograron bajar el número de personas sin seguro de salud a un mínimo histórico. También generaron ganancias inesperadas para los planes de salud, que los estados pagan para supervisar la […]
Este dispositivo dental debía arreglar las mandíbulas de los pacientes. Las demandas afirman que les destrozó los dientes
Boja Kragulj, una clarinetista consumada que ha tocado con orquestas en Nueva York, Philadelphia y Jacksonville, Florida, ya ha perdido cuatro dientes. Y espera perder al menos una docena más. Hace cinco años, con el fin de corregir su mordida y mejorar su respiración, Kragulj probó un dispositivo dental que, le aseguraron, ejercería presión sobre […]
¿Por qué cuesta tanto la insulina? Las grandes farmacéuticas no son las únicas que influyen en los precios
El anuncio de Eli Lilly & Co. de que rebajará los precios de sus principales productos de insulina podría facilitar la vida de algunos pacientes diabéticos y, al mismo tiempo, aliviar la presión sobre las grandes farmacéuticas. También arroja luz sobre los métodos de especulación de los mediadores de precios de la industria farmacéutica —los […]
Medicaid Health Plans Try to Protect Members — And Profits — During Unwinding
The federal covid-19 pandemic protections that have largely prohibited states from dropping anyone from Medicaid since 2020 helped millions of low-income Americans retain health insurance coverage — even if they no longer qualified — and brought the U.S. uninsured rate to a record low. It also led to a windfall for the health plans that […]
Why Does Insulin Cost So Much? Big Pharma Isn’t the Only Player Driving Prices
Eli Lilly & Co.’s announcement that it is slashing prices for its major insulin products could make life easier for some diabetes patients while easing pressure on Big Pharma. It also casts light on the profiteering methods of the drug industry’s price mediators — the pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs — at a time when […]