Kaiser Health News, Cost & Quality Blog

Venture capitalists have poured billions into the digital mental health space, sensing an area of unmet demand that is ripe for disruption. The problem for consumers is separating the apps that might help from those that offer little more than distraction — or could actually do harm.

When the Blackfeet tribe shut down the roads leading to the eastern side of Glacier National Park, businesses worried for their future. But it worked, and with one of the nation’s highest covid vaccination rates, the reservation has reopened to visitors.

Las últimas cifras de inscripción al Medicaid muestran que creció de 71,3 millones de miembros en febrero de 2020, cuando la pandemia comenzaba en los Estados Unidos, a 80,5 millones en enero, según un análisis de KFF de datos federales.

More than 80 million Americans with low incomes were receiving health coverage through the federal-state program in January. The program now covers nearly 1 in 4 people nationwide.

Federal officials say that some of the money changing hands has corrupted doctors and endangered patients.

Health care insiders get surprise medical bills, too. One of them shares tips for writing an insurance appeal.

HCA charges patients an “activation fee” of up to $50,000 for trauma teams at centers located in half its 179 hospitals — and they often don’t need trauma care, an analysis of insurance claims data shows.

Colorado está a punto de aprobar una ley para que los trabajadores del campo puedan acceder a atención médica, algo que muchos empleadores al parecer no permiten.

Phone visits became an option for many Medicare and Medicaid patients during the pandemic. Now policymakers are deciding whether they’re worth the money.

Agricultural workers living in employer-owned housing can have trouble getting health care. It’s symptomatic of bigger gaps in worker protections that the pandemic spotlighted, say proponents of a newly passed Colorado bill for farmworker rights.

The federal approval of a controversial drug to treat Alzheimer’s disease has reignited the debate over drug prices and the way the Food and Drug Administration makes decisions. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden seeks to gain goodwill overseas as he announces the U.S. will provide 500 million doses of covid vaccine to international health efforts. Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet, Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times and Joanne Kenen of Politico join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also, Rovner interviews Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, the new administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. And to mark the podcast’s 200th episode, the panelists discuss what has surprised them most and least over the past four years.

When estimating how well a patient’s kidneys are working, doctors frequently turn to an equation that depends on a question: Is the patient Black? Kidney experts are now debating how to remove the race adjustment and whether the question is a function of sound science. It’s considered just the first step in dismantling institutional racism in kidney care.

Two medical schools vie to open in Montana, highlighting the rapid spread of for-profit schools and their previously tarnished business model.

Republicans, Democrats and the public at large agree that prices for prescription drugs are too high. But no one seems to know how to fix it. Vanderbilt University drug price researcher Stacie Dusetzina explains the basics of why drugs cost so much and why it’s hard to do something about it. Joanne Kenen of Politico, Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet and Anna Edney of Bloomberg News join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss the prospects for policy changes.

Federal officials asked a court to dismiss a suit by drugmakers over the policy enacted by the Trump administration that would allow states to bring in cheaper prescription medications from Canada. The filing said the lawsuit was moot because it’s unclear when or if the FDA would approve any state’s importation plan.

The number of Americans 65 and older is expected to nearly double in the next 40 years. Finding a way to provide and pay for the long-term health services they need won't be easy.

Por un estudio del sueño para resolver su apnea, recibió una factura que es seis veces superior a la que paga Medicare.

The University of Miami Health System charges a truck driver six times what Medicare would pay for an overnight test.

A little-discussed, long-term toll of the pandemic is that large numbers of older adults have become physically and cognitively debilitated and less able to care for themselves after sheltering in place.

Patients often fork over payments comparable to valet rates to park while receiving care. A recent study found that some of the country’s most prestigious cancer centers charge nearly $1,700 over the course of treatment for some types of the disease.