The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
The GOP “Path to Prosperity” 2012 budget blueprint includes proposals to restrain spending growth in health care costs by voucherizing Medicare and giving Medicaid block grants to states.
Recent lawsuits show the government is cracking down on suspected anti-competitive actions in the health care and insurance industries.
Critics say the agreements, designed to help educate consumers about the dangers of opiods, invade patient privacy and damage trust.
Are vouchers the same as premium support? Will seniors’ health care look like that offered federal workers? A guide to some of the questions and issues in the House Budget chairman’s plan.
The House Budget Committee chairman’s alternative budget would provide Medicare beneficiaries with “premium support” and turn Medicaid into a capped block grant.
This week, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., will release a budget blueprint that tackles the three big health care challenges facing the budget
Despite the political risks of changing the popular program, Republicans – including Budget Comm. Chairman Paul Ryan – will offer overhaul plans soon.
Hospitals, doctors scramble for outside help in deciphering how to capitalize on health law’s “accountable care organizations.”
As many as 4 million Medicare beneficiaries could end up in new model of health care, but initial savings for government are small.
KHN’s Jordan Rau explains how the Obama administration envisions accountable care organizations, which are designed to help hospitals and doctors form new networks to coordinate patients’ care.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Donald Berwick have unveiled the long-awaited federal rule on accountable care organizations. Here are several documents HHS has released to help make sense of the proposed regulation.
KHN’s Jordan Rau explains how the Obama administration envisions accountable care organizations, which are designed to help hospitals and doctors form new networks to coordinate patients’ care. Officials estimate that the ACOs could save Medicare up to $960 million over three years. ACOs are a feature of the new health law.
Health law advocates tend to get gloomy about the threats haunting every step along the measure’s path to implementation. As an antidote, here are ten reasons to be optimistic about the Affordable Care Act’s progress and prospects.
Having spent so much political capital on the health law’s passage, one might expect it to feature prominently in the president’s planned reelection campaign. But it will likely turn out to be the law’s opponents who are more likely to talk about it.
Virginia’s attorney general says it is hard to prejudge a constitutional case, but he says at least two cases suggest the Supreme Court could side with him.
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was the lone witness at the Senate Appropriations Health subcommittee hearing today. Committee chairman Tom Harkin was adamant that the health law would not lose funding while ranking Republican Sen. Richard Shelby called the law too expensive.
Interest groups, businesses and other policy proponents are pushing to capitalize on states’ dire Medicaid shortfalls.
A recent Rand study found that in families with high-deductible plans, kids were less likely to get immunizations and adults were less likely to get cancer screenings. Not only did this seem to jeopardize the beneficiares’ health, it also called into question the cost savings.
Seriously ill patients, even when not facing death, can benefit from better pain and symptom management, care coordination and help setting goals from specially trained teams, which typically include a doctor, a nurse, a social worker and a spiritual counselor.
If eligibility went up to age 67, the federal government would save $7.6 billion but total costs would rise more than that for seniors, employers and states.
