Patients Not Hurt When Their Hospitals Close, Study Finds
Despite frequent fears in communities when losing their hospitals, mortality rates do not rise, say Harvard researchers who examined 194 closures.
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Paying Medicaid Enrollees To Get Checkups, Quit Smoking and Lose Weight: Will It Pay Off?
Like wellness programs in the private sector, more than a dozen states are offering incentives to Medicaid enrollees to spur them to make healthier decisions — and potentially save taxpayers money.
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Rural Indiana Struggles With Drug-Fueled HIV Epidemic
In response to an HIV outbreak of historic proportions, Indiana鈥檚 legislature passed a bill permitting drug users in areas with disease outbreaks to trade used needles for clean ones. Sarah Varney reports for KHN and PBS NewsHour from Austin, Indiana.
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Running Out Of Money Is More Than Just A Worry For Many Seniors, Study Finds
About 12 percent of people 85 and older who died had no assets left and 20 percent had only their homes, according to the research. But even people who die much younger can face similar financial problems.
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Decoding Your Diagnosis: Psychiatrists Unveil Plain-English Guide For Patients
The American Psychiatric Association is releasing a new resource, Understanding Mental Disorders: Your Guide To DSM-5, to give patients and their families a better understanding of what these conditions involve and arm them with tools to advocate for their care.
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Medicare Itemizes Its $103 Billion Drug Bill
Federal officials release data showing prescription histories of hundreds of thousands of doctors and identifying the most common and costly drugs.
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Hope, Hurdles In Mental Health: A Medicaid Managed Care Firm鈥檚 First Year
Some say Cardinal鈥檚 first year鈥檚 performance has eased fears about care in Charlotte, N.C., but gaps and challenges remain.
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Montana Governor Signs Medicaid Expansion Into Law
Backers of Medicaid expansion celebrated in Helena as Gov. Steve Bullock signed the bill extending the health coverage to an estimated 45,000 more Montanans.
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An Obamacare Payment Reform Success Story 鈥 One Health System, Two Procedures
As part of an experiment run by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, doctors, nurses and managers at Baptist Health System in San Antonio joined forces to cut costs for hip and knee replacements, getting patients on their feet sooner, saving taxpayers money and increasing their own earnings.
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More Evidence That Health Plans Stint On Mandated Birth Control Coverage
Researchers with the National Women鈥檚 Law Center find insurers around the country are failing to provide contraception and other care without copays.
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Florida House Goes Home Early Over Medicaid Impasse
Meanwhile, Gov. Rick Scott sues the federal government, saying the state is being coerced to accept the expansion or lose dollars for other health care programs for the poor.
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Insuring Your Health
How Getting Married Affects Health Insurance Tax Credits
Kaiser Health News consumer columnist Michelle Andrews answers readers鈥 questions about cost and coverage.
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Medicaid’s Tension: Getting Corporate Giants To Do Right By The Needy
Tennessee鈥檚 TennCare program awaits federal rules to limit insurer profits and set stricter standards for quality and doctor networks 鈥 the biggest rules change for Medicaid managed care in a decade.
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California High Court To Consider Limits on Regulators鈥 Access to Prescription Database
A Burbank doctor, with the support of the AMA, says the Medical Board of California violated his patients鈥 privacy by checking his prescribing practices in a state database without a court order. The board says it needs that access to protect patients from harm.
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Hospitals Increasingly Turn To Patients For Advice
Federal efforts are driving hospitals to see patients as customers.
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Medicaid Programs Slow To Discourage Methadone Prescriptions Despite Widespread Problems
The federal government has been issuing warnings about the dangers of overdosing and addiction to methadone for nearly a decade. But only in the past two years have states started removing it from their Medicaid 鈥減referred drug lists.鈥
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Thousands May Have Been Shorted On Insurance Subsidies After Calculation Error
Some families likely received lower subsidies than they were entitled to or were denied Medicaid coverage because of faulty calculations related to children who receive Social Security income.
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Americans Are Drinking More Heavily, Especially Women
The first study to track drinking patterns at the county level finds that women are driving big increases in heavy drinking.
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Officials Weigh Options To Hold Down Medicare Costs For Hospice
Under Medicare鈥檚 hospice benefit, patients agree to forgo curative treatment, but they can continue to receive coverage for health problems not related to their terminal illness. Federal officials suspect some of those expenses should be covered by hospice.
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When Depression And Cultural Expectations Collide
A teen from a Taiwanese immigrant family struggles with depression as her mother worries and tries to understand. Asian American families like this one often have trouble seeking and finding appropriate treatment.
