The Department of Health and Human Services is tasked with monitoring denials both by Obamacare health plans and those offered through employers and insurers. As insurers’ denials become more common, they sometimes defy not just medical standards of care but sheer logic. Why hasn’t the agency fulfilled its assignment?
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Family planning clinics are getting caught between state abortion bans and a federal requirement to refer patients for abortion care on request.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s official entry into the presidential race poses a thorny challenge for journalists: how to cover a candidate who’s opposed to vaccines without amplifying misinformation. And South Carolina becomes the latest state in the South to ban abortion after roughly six weeks of pregnancy. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Rachel Cohrs of Stat, and Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet join KFF Health News chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews KFF Health News senior correspondent Aneri Pattani about her project to track the billions of dollars coming from opioid makers to settle lawsuits.
Colorado’s new Prescription Drug Affordability Board could cap what health plans and consumers pay for certain medications starting next year. The process will pit patient groups against one another.
Josie sensed Florida lawmakers were threatening her health care and ability to be herself at school. So she left. Families of other trans youth are plotting exits as well.
As hospitals squeeze Democratic leaders in Sacramento for more money, health care finance experts and former state officials warn against falling for the industry’s fear tactics. They point to healthy profits and a recession-era financing scheme that allows rich hospitals to take tax money from poorer ones.
Por mucho tiempo, el estándar para este tipo de refugios, también llamados casas de acogida, ha sido alojar a las víctimas de violencia doméstica en casas ocultas con direcciones secretas
A medida que el oeste lucha contra una mega sequía que ha durado más de dos décadas y los estados corren el riesgo de recortes en el agua del menguante río Colorado, el Valle de San Luis ofrece pistas sobre lo que el futuro puede deparar.
Doctors say they are reluctant to practice in abortion-banned states, where making the best decision for a patient could run afoul of the law. Even former President Donald Trump’s surgeon general is concerned about the repercussions for women’s health, writes KFF Health News’ chief Washington correspondent, Julie Rovner.
A new domestic violence shelter in Bozeman, Montana, reflects efforts nationwide to rethink the model that keeps survivors of abuse in hiding. But there are no guidelines for bringing shelters out into the open, leaving each to make it up as they go.
As the West grapples with a megadrought, its driest spell in at least 1,200 years, rising levels of arsenic — a known carcinogen — in Colorado’s San Luis Valley offer clues to what the future may hold.
Impulsadas en gran medida por la prevalencia del fentanilo, un opioide sintético hasta 100 veces más potente que la morfina, las sobredosis de drogas en California matan ahora a más del doble de personas que los accidentes de tráfico.
La búsqueda por promulgar prohibiciones locales se ha vuelto particularmente crítica en pueblos pequeños, situados en las fronteras entre estados que han restringido el aborto y estados donde las leyes preservan el acceso.
After local leaders in rural Nevada reached an impasse over a proposed Planned Parenthood clinic, an anti-abortion activist pitching local abortion bans across the U.S. arrived at their remote City Hall.
State lawmakers have recently been debating whether and how to stiffen punishments for dealers, while Gov. Gavin Newsom is targeting fentanyl trafficking and distributing more naloxone. The problem, experts say, is one with no easy or clear answers.
After emergency surgery, an American expatriate with Swiss insurance now carries the baggage of a five-figure bill. Costs for medical care in the U.S. can be two to three times the rates in other developed countries, so foreigners and expats with good insurance in their home countries need travel insurance to protect themselves from “crazy prices.”
La cantidad de adultos jóvenes que no tienen relaciones sexuales ya estaba aumentando antes de que covid-19 hiciera que las citas fueran más difíciles y riesgosas.
Infant mortality rates across the South are by far the worst in the U.S. A look at South Carolina — where multimillion-dollar programs aimed at improving rates over the past 10 years have failed to move the needle — drives home the challenge of finding solutions, especially in rural communities.
The percentage of young adults not having sex was rising even before covid made dating harder. Data and research suggest economic precarity, technology, and the warping effects of porn on sexual attitudes may play a role.
Industry analysts are skeptical that Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan can win her first fight against a drug industry merger. It will be reviewed by a judge appointed by then-President Donald Trump.
La Comisión Federal de Comercio está actuando contra las empresas farmacéuticas y los intermediarios del sector, como parte de la campaña de la administración Biden para reducir los precios de los medicamentos en las farmacias.
KFF Health News and California Healthline staff made the rounds on national and local media this week to discuss their stories. Here’s a collection of their appearances.
Sen. Bernie Sanders’ broad statement that some U.S. drug prices are 10 times those of other nations doesn’t paint the full picture. Studies we examined generally found that U.S. prices were 2 to 4 times those in other countries, not 10.
The debate about whether employees should be required to return to the workplace has generally focused on commuting, convenience, and child care. A fourth C, caregiving, has rarely been mentioned.
Dealing with a stubborn or resistant older parent can be a difficult problem for adult children. Family caregivers and professionals have some hard-won lessons on how to manage these evolving relationships.