Feds Say Hospitals That Redistribute Medicaid Money Violate Law
By Samantha Young
Federal officials are trying to clamp down on private arrangements among some hospitals to pay themselves back for the Medicaid taxes they’ve paid. State health officials and the influential hospital industry argue that regulators have no jurisdiction over the agreements.
Daily Edition for Monday, August 14, 2023
Troubled California Hospitals May Be Saved: Three California hospitals that declared bankruptcy earlier this year are hashing out deals that could bring back or save much-needed health care services for their communities. The proposals are far from the finish line, but they present a glimpse of hope for residents who face longer journeys to emergency rooms and increased risk when local medical centers close. Read more from CalMatters.
Patients in California County May See Refunds, Debt Relief From Charity Care Settlement
By Molly Castle Work
As hospitals are criticized for skimping on financial assistance, Santa Clara County has agreed to notify 43,000 former patients of possible billing reductions as part of a settlement. Some patients had sued, alleging the county’s hospital system sent them to collections for bills they shouldn’t have received.
Proposed Rule Would Make Hospital Prices Even More Transparent
By Julie Appleby
A Biden administration proposal would help standardize the data on prices that hospitals provide to patients, increase its usefulness to consumers, and boost enforcement. Previous rules gave hospitals too many loopholes.
Parents See Own Health Spiral as Their Kids’ Mental Illnesses Worsen
By Renuka Rayasam
The day-to-day struggles that parents of kids with mental health conditions must navigate have led to their own crisis: The stress can take a physical toll that disrupts parents’ ability to provide care, say psychologists, researchers, and advocates for families.
Daily Edition for Friday, August 11, 2023
Hunger, covid uptick, health industry layoffs, drug rationing, opioid settlement, record suicides, air quality, and more are in the news.
Your Exorbitant Medical Bill, Brought to You by the Latest Hospital Merger
By Elisabeth Rosenthal
After decades of unchecked mergers, health care is the land of giants, with huge medical systems monopolizing care in many cities, states, and even whole regions of the country. This decreases patient choice, impedes innovation, erodes quality of care, and raises prices. And federal regulators have been slow to act.
New Alzheimer’s Drug Raises Hopes — Along With Questions
By Judith Graham
Clinics serving Alzheimer’s patients are working out the details of who will get treated with the new drug Leqembi. It won’t be for everyone with memory-loss symptoms.
KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': On Abortion Rights, Ohio Is the New Kansas
Nearly a year to the day after Kansas voters surprised the nation by defeating an anti-abortion ballot question, Ohio voters defeated a similar, if cagier, effort to limit access in that state. This week, they rejected an effort to raise the threshold for approval of future ballot measures from a simple majority, which would have made it harder to protect abortion access with yet another ballot question come November. Meanwhile, the number of Americans without health insurance has dropped to an all-time low, though few noticed. Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico, Rachel Roubein of The Washington Post, and Emmarie Huetteman of KFF Health News join KFF Health News’ chief Washington correspondent, Julie Rovner, to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews Kate McEvoy, executive director of the National Association of Medicaid Directors, about how the “Medicaid unwinding” is going, as millions have their eligibility for coverage rechecked.
