Tracking State Rural Health Transformation Plans
ϳԹ News is working to collect and post approved plans as more states respond to emails and public records requests for their documents.
The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
1 - 20 of 109 Results
ϳԹ News is working to collect and post approved plans as more states respond to emails and public records requests for their documents.
Last year, the Trump administration announced a voluntary pledge by dozens of insurers to improve prior authorization, which often requires patients to seek approval before treatments. But prior authorization remains commonplace, and there's no evidence the government is trying to hold insurers to account.
With the federal Medicaid work requirements looming in January, Democrats are considering state legislation to call out big companies that employ workers enrolled in the safety net health program. Business giants such as Amazon and Walmart said the figures are misleading.
Thousands of people who had a Medicare drug plan with zero-dollar premiums last year got small premium increases this year — and didn’t know it. They were dropped from their coverage for failing to pay amounts as little as $8, and most can’t get it again until 2027.
The Trump administration’s cuts to Medicaid and SNAP may complicate Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo’s reelection chances.
Immigrant detainees have told courts across the nation that detention officials have failed to treat or stabilize their conditions, from pregnancy to prostate cancer, suggesting that systemic lapses in care extend well beyond record deaths in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.
Patients’ experiences encapsulate breakdowns in a healthcare system that traps patients in debt. The industry’s key players blame one another.
Some children are healthy enough to leave the hospital after a medical stay but have no place to go. Across the country, the practice of allowing children to remain hospitalized “beyond medical necessity” has become a costly problem, and states have struggled to address the issue.
A Minnesota Star Tribune-ϳԹ News investigation of hospital data and charity care programs shows most Minnesota hospitals provide little financial aid to patients and often make assistance difficult to get.
With high demand for mental health care, a wave of artificial intelligence-powered chatbots are being marketed as therapy apps — with little evidence they work and few regulations.
As President Donald Trump’s heightened immigration enforcement continues across the country, some states are updating temporary guardianship laws to keep the children of detained and deported immigrants out of state custody.
States are rolling out plans for their share of a $50 billion fund meant to improve rural health care. In some states, the money may provoke rural hospitals to cut services.
Trump administration officials say the state allows rampant fraud and have promised to investigate, blaming the “Russian, Armenian mafia” in the hospice and home health care industry. But data shows hotbeds of health care fraud throughout the country, with California outperforming most other states in recovering fraud dollars.
The state recently became the third to offer a public option health plan through its Affordable Care Act marketplace. But researchers said it’s unlikely to fill the gaps left by sweeping changes at the federal level.
The Trump administration has championed its Rural Health Transformation Program as an investment in American families who have been left behind. But Native American tribes, whose communities have a significant presence in rural America and have some of the greatest health needs, are ineligible to apply directly for funding.
While surgeons argue over who gets the best results, patients may struggle to make sense of credentials.
Some injured patients say they wish they had tried harder to check the backgrounds of doctors and clinics they trusted, but those records are hard to find.
Some states are enacting medical debt laws as the Trump administration pulls back federal protections. Elsewhere, industry opposition has derailed legislation.
In a survey by the National Funeral Directors Association, more than 60% of respondents said they would be interested in exploring green and natural burial alternatives.
As states prepare to implement changes to Medicaid required by President Donald Trump’s recent tax-and-spending law, tribal leaders say they are concerned Native American enrollees could lose their coverage, despite exemptions made by Congress.
© 2026 KFF