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From Drew Altman

Drew Altman is president and chief executive officer of KFF, a position he has held for more than 30 years since founding the modern-day KFF organization in the 1990s. He is a leading expert on national health policy issues and an innovator in health journalism and the nonprofit field.

View full bio | Read Dr. Altman's Beyond the Data columns

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“KFF is an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. We have four major program areas: KFF Policy; KFF Polling; KFF Health News (formerly Kaiser Health News); and KFF Social Impact Media, which conducts specialized public health information campaigns. Learn more about the organization. 

What’s unique about KFF, however, can’t be found in any description of our programs because we’re more than a sum of our parts. KFF is a one-of-a-kind information organization. Not a policy research organization. Not a polling organization. And not a news organization. But rather, a unique combination of all three. That’s the vision behind KFF, and it's this combination that allows us to leverage our combined expertise and assets to play our national role on health policy.” Read more

Beyond the Data

In his “Beyond the Data” columns, Drew Altman discusses what the data, polls, and journalism produced by KFF mean for policy and for people.

Why We Are Stuck with Prior Authorization Review

Why We Are Stuck with Prior Authorization Review

Prior authorization review frustrates patients and physicians, but we likely can’t just eliminate it. In his new column, President and CEO Dr. Drew Altman discusses why, and why the focus is now instead on “doing it smarter.” Altman writes: “A proposal to eliminate prior authorization altogether could be the single most tangible and popular health reform idea a candidate could make. But, in our fragmented health system, with no great way to control costs or limit unnecessary care, we seem to be stuck with prior authorization review…and most payers are now trying to ‘do prior authorization review smarter.’”

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  • Those Long Lines To Enroll In The ACA

    From Drew Altman

    In this Policy Insight, Kaiser Family Foundation President and CEO Drew Altman discusses the need for community based outreach to enroll the long term uninsured.

  • A Tale of Two Siblings, the ACA, and the Supreme Court

    From Drew Altman

    In a column published on The Huffington Post, Kaiser Family Foundation President and CEO Drew Altman shows how the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to make the ACA Medicaid expansion a state option has upended the health insurance system for low and moderate income people in many states and discusses how the states and federal government can address the problem.

  • Obamacare: The Metrics In The News Are Mostly Wrong

    From Drew Altman

    In this Policy Insights, Kaiser Family Foundation President and CEO Drew Altman explains how the measures of success for year one of Obamacare used in media coverage and national discussion is the equivalent of judging the local weather from national averages.

  • Health Cost Growth Is Down, Or Not. It Depends Who You Ask.

    From Drew Altman

    In this Policy Insight, Kaiser President and CEO Drew Altman explores the disconnect between experts, national studies and the public about whether health care costs are slowing or accelerating—it’s a matter of perspective.

  • Obamacare Vital Signs Not Just Numbers

    From Drew Altman

    In his latest column, Kaiser President and CEO Drew Altman discusses the focus on first year metrics, especially enrollment projections, in the ACA debate.

  • No Quick Verdict on Obamacare

    From Drew Altman

    This column originally appeared in Politico on September 30. Dr. Altman's future Politico columns will be posted on kff.org one day after publication. October 1, the focus of great attention in the Obamacare wars, is finally here.

  • How Obamacare May Be Holding Down Costs

    From Drew Altman

    In his latest column published in Politico, Kaiser President and CEO Drew Altman examines the recent historic slowdown in health-care costs and discusses whether Obamacare is a contributing factor.

  • Pre-X Redux

    From Drew Altman

    With the focus now mainly on exchanges, Medicaid expansions, and enrolling the uninsured in newly available coverage arrangements, there is less attention lately to the ACA insurance reforms which have always been the most popular parts of the law – changes which could affect every American’s insurance in some way and which go into effect…

  • Covering The ACA May Be Almost As Hard As Implementing It

    From Drew Altman

    This Pulling It Together was adapted from a column I published earlier this week in Politico, with a new introduction added. You can read the original Politico column here. The implementation of the ACA is news and the public will demand information about it. Journalists and news organizations have an obligation to cover this story.

  • Poor People Have the Same Needs as Others

    From Drew Altman

    Drew Altman, President and CEO of the Foundation, was asked to contribute to the New York Times' Room for Debate discussion on More Medicaid, More Health? In his piece, Dr. Altman concludes "Insurance -- public or private -- provides financial protection and access to medical care which low-income people need just as everybody else does. But it cannot by itself change behavior, alleviate poverty, or guarantee that the medical system is doing all it can to improve health."