The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
More than 600,000 people are released from prisons every year, many with costly health conditions but no medications, medical records, a health care provider, or insurance.
Last year, state lawmakers adopted the country鈥檚 toughest online privacy restrictions. The law offers Congress a path forward on federal protections even as it serves as a cautionary tale for taking on Big Tech.
A Donald Trump-appointed federal judge agreed that even the possibility that the father鈥檚 daughters might access contraception without his permission violated the tenants of his Christian faith.
This installment of InvestigateTV and KHN鈥檚 鈥淐ostly Care鈥 series looks at the case of a New Orleans woman whose thumb injury saddled her with a big ER bill for a tetanus shot and some minor care.
While Medicare was designed as health insurance for those 65 and older, it also covers people with disabilities who are young enough to still get pregnant. Yet they often struggle to get their birth control covered and end up with large medical bills 鈥 or instead opt for hysterectomies or tubal ligations, which Medicare sometimes will cover.
Financial pitfalls at the nation鈥檚 highest-elevation hospital serve as a cautionary tale as rural hospitals emerge from the pandemic on shaky ground.
Consumer and patient advocates push for new federal rules to protect Americans from debt collectors and force hospitals to make financial assistance more accessible.
Under pressure from Republican attorneys general, the nation’s second-largest pharmacy chain says it will not dispense the abortion pill mifepristone.
Hospitals in New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma are among the first to apply for a new rural hospital payment model that shifts the focus of services away from overnight stays to outpatient and emergency care. Still, experts say the law needs to be amended to provide the right mix of care for rural communities.
While there are no hard-and-fast rules about when to opt for a telehealth visit versus seeing a doctor face-to-face, physicians offer guidance about when it may make more sense to choose one or the other.
The FDA has long blocked the importation of cheap medicine, agreeing with pharmaceutical manufacturers that it opens the door to opioids. The agency鈥檚 own data shows that rarely happens.
KHN and California Healthline staff made the rounds on national and local media this week to discuss their stories. Here鈥檚 a collection of their appearances.
Social media marketing lures people to South Florida鈥檚 lucrative cosmetic surgery scene with the promise of cheap Brazilian butt lifts. But some researchers, patient advocates, and surgeon groups say that the risks of the procedure are generally not understood by prospective patients, and that an unsafe number of surgeries can be performed per day in office settings, maximizing profits.
President Joe Biden said in his State of the Union address that federal funds will pay to replace lead pipes in hundreds of thousands of schools and child care centers. In the meantime, schools are dealing with high lead levels now.
Today鈥檚 public service announcements on gun safety feel somewhat sanitized. It鈥檚 time to act with the same kind of visceral public campaign that helped de-glorify smoking. Would filmmakers commit to making action movies without guns, just as filmmakers stopped making smoking glamorous in films?
President Joe Biden and Republicans in Congress spent last month sparring over whether to shield Medicare and Social Security from budget cuts 鈥 leading some to wonder if Medicaid was on the table instead. Biden and Democrats say no, but some Republicans seem eager to trim federal spending on the health program for Americans with low incomes. And ready or not, artificial intelligence is coming to medical care. Benefits, as well as unintended consequences, are likely. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Rachel Cohrs of STAT News, and Lauren Weber of The Washington Post join KHN鈥檚 chief Washington correspondent, Julie Rovner, to discuss these issues and more.
Eli Lilly’s news that it plans to cut insulin costs for patients will help, not hinder, the recent efforts in California and by entrepreneurs such as Mark Cuban to offer lower-cost alternatives, drug pricing experts said.
More than 10,000 dental patients have been fitted with an Anterior Growth Guidance Appliance, or AGGA, according to court records.聽But the unproven and unregulated device has not been evaluated by the FDA, according to聽a months-long joint investigation by KHN and CBS News.
States take drastically different approaches to recovering Medicaid money from deceased participants鈥 estates. Demands for repayment of Medicaid spending can drain the assets a person leaves behind, depending on where they lived.
Patient injuries, abuse, and neglect have continued at the Montana State Hospital since the state-run psychiatric facility lost its federal certification due to preventable patient deaths. But state officials won鈥檛 release details, citing laws making those reports confidential.
