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This data note examines the financial performance of the three largest for-profit hospital systems in the U.S. during the COVID-19 pandemic. All three health systems have had positive operating margins that have exceeded pre-pandemic levels for the majority of the pandemic, including in the third quarter of 2022.
In this issue brief, we estimate rates of Medicaid coverage loss among people who became Medicare-Medicaid enrollees (MMEs) during 2018 but did not have any months of MME coverage in the prior year. We compare outcomes for partial-benefit MMEs and full-benefit MMEs.
In this Issue Brief we review and assess the COVAX Humanitarian Buffer mechanism, which is part of the effort to share Covid vaccines globally. The Buffer is intended to direct vaccines to vulnerable people like refugees and others facing humanitarian emergencies during the pandemic, and was supported by the US and many other donors and organizations. However, it faced many challenges such as liability and indemnification issues for using newly developed vaccines, restricted access to…
This issue brief presents the latest findings on key state policy choices about Medicaid HCBS in 2022 based on the 20th KFF survey of state officials administering Medicaid HCBS programs in all 50 states and DC. The data were collected from April through September 2022. The survey was sent to each state official responsible for overseeing the administration of HCBS benefits (e.g., home health, personal care, and services for specific populations such as people with…
About 5 million people could benefit from the fix to the Affordable Care Act’s “family glitch” that allows workers offered unaffordable family coverage to get subsidies in the marketplace – if they can show they qualify. This brief looks at some of the challenges consumers may face in deciding whether to take advantage of the fix.
The four states along the U.S.-Mexico border are home to over 78 million people of whom 8 million live in 44 counties that adjoin the border and border activity is at an all-time high. KFF's county-level analysis of the region shows that people living in border states fare worse along socioeconomic and health access measures as compared to the rest of the U.S. and that people who live in border counties within these states, especially…
Over the course of the pandemic, racial disparities in cases and deaths have widened and narrowed. However, overall, Black, Hispanic, and American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) people have borne the heaviest health impacts of the pandemic. While Black and Hispanic people were less likely than their White counterparts to receive a vaccine during the initial phases of the vaccination rollout, these disparities have narrowed over time and reversed for Hispanic people.
This analysis uses the 2019 IBM MarketScan claims data to look at prescriptions of methotrexate and misoprostol, two drugs that can be used to terminate pregnancies, but are also used to manage chronic conditions like cancer, autoimmune diseases, and abnormal bleeding. These drugs may be restricted in response to state abortion bans, which we find will disproportionately affect women of reproductive age who make up the majority of those who rely on these drugs.
Nearly all enrollees in Medicare Advantage plans sponsored by the seven largest firms in the market are in a plan that offers some vision, hearing, fitness, and/or dental benefits. Other benefits, including over the counter, remote access technologies, meals, acupuncture and transportation, vary widely across firms, and in-home support services, bathroom safety, Part B rebates, telemonitoring and caregiver support are relatively uncommon
This brief, based on the 2022 KFF Women's Health Survey highlights how workplace benefits and caring for children’s health care differ by gender and among different subpopulations of women.
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