Michelle Andrews

Michelle Andrews is a contributing writer and former columnist for KFF Health News. She has been writing about health care for more than 15 years. Her work has appeared frequently in The New York Times, where she wrote the Money and Medicine column and contributed regular news and features. Her work has also been published in Money, Fortune Small Business, National Geographic and Women’s Health magazines, among others. Michelle previously worked as a senior writer at U.S. News & World Report and at SmartMoney magazines. She has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin and a master’s in journalism from Columbia University.

If You’re Blindsided By Health Plan Changes, Learn The Root Causes — And Your Rights

Insurers can reduce benefits or change cost sharing, but they are generally supposed to tell enrollees about the change beforehand. And although plans must tell patients when they are denied coverage, sometimes treatment is affected for other reasons.

Too Few Patients Follow The Adage: You Better Shop Around

Three-quarters of participants in a newly released study said they did not know of resources for comparing health care costs, while half said that if a website were available to provide such information, they would use it.