Health Care Costs

[UPDATED on Sept. 13, 2022: After this article was published, Itria Ventures, through a representative, said its contracts with Noble Health were not loans. To secure cash as its hospital operations faltered, Noble relied on a financial product in which Itria bought its future income. The financing is called “future receivable sale agreements.” In lawsuits filed in […]

[UPDATED on Aug. 13] For decades, the drug industry has yelled bloody murder each time Congress considered a regulatory measure that threatened its profits. But the hyperbole reached a new pitch in recent weeks as the Senate moved to adopt modest drug pricing negotiation measures in the Inflation Reduction Act. The bill “could propel us […]

“Nobody’s enforcing that law.” Rapper Fat Joe, in a TV ad about hospital price transparency requirements that began running this spring Rapper Fat Joe takes on hospital industry executives in an advertisement, contending that many hospitals are disobeying a law that requires them to publicly post the prices they charge cash-paying patients and insurance companies […]

Can’t see the audio player? Click here to listen. Click here for a transcript of the episode. Can a health care company make enough people mad about its billing practices that its business is hurt? For one genetic testing company, maybe.  An “Arm and a Leg” listener got a test that has become routine in early […]

La promesa de campaña del presidente Joe Biden de cancelar la deuda estudiantil por los primeros $10,000 adeudados en préstamos universitarios federales ha generado un debate sobre la equidad de estos programas de préstamos. En un sondeo de junio, poco más de la mitad de los estadounidenses encuestados apoyaron que se condonara la deuda universitaria, […]

President Joe Biden’s campaign promise to cancel student debt for the first $10,000 owed on federal college loans has raised debate about the fairness of such lending programs. While just over half of Americans surveyed in a June poll supported forgiving that much debt incurred for higher education, 82% said that making college more affordable […]

Julie Rovner, KHN’s chief Washington correspondent, joined PBS NewsHour’s Laura Barrón-López on July 29 to discuss Senate Democrats’ proposals to let Medicare negotiate some drug prices, cap out-of-pocket drug costs for seniors and continue funding for enhanced premium subsidies for people buying health insurance on the Affordable Care Act’s marketplaces. Republicans and Democrats have been […]

California Healthline senior correspondent Angela Hart appeared on KCRW’s “Press Play With Madeleine Brand” and KJZZ, a public radio station in Phoenix, this month to discuss California’s plan to reduce the cost of some prescription medications — starting with insulin — by diving into the generic drug market. California lawmakers set aside $100 million in […]

Data wonks with mighty computers are overjoyed. Ordinary consumers, not so much. That’s the reaction about three weeks into a data dump of enormous proportions. Health insurers are posting their negotiated rates for just about every type of medical service they cover across all providers. But so much data is flowing in from insurers — […]

In retrospect, Peggy Dula said, she shouldn’t have taken the ambulance. She was the least injured of the three siblings who were in a car when it was struck by a pickup truck last September. Her daughter had even offered to come to the crash site and pick her up. Jim Martens, 62, and Cynthia […]