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KFF designs, conducts and analyzes original public opinion and survey research on Americans’ attitudes, knowledge, and experiences with the health care system to help amplify the public’s voice in major national debates.
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Recognizing that ongoing vaccination efforts are crucial to ending the pandemic, CMS issued an Interim Final Rule with Comment Period (IFC) that establishes new vaccine reporting and/or education requirements for nursing homes and ICF/IDDs as of May 21st, 2021. Public comments are due July 12, 2021, after which CMS may revise the rule.
Recent policy attention has focused on closing the coverage gap for roughly 2.2 million individuals living in the 12 states that have not adopted Medicaid expansion included in the Affordable Care Act (ACA). These individuals do not qualify for Medicaid and have incomes below poverty, making them ineligible for premium subsidies in the ACA Marketplace. Pending federal legislation may temporarily provide coverage to individuals in the coverage gap, but providing a permanent pathway to coverage may fall back…
State Medicaid programs are using managed care and an array of other service delivery and payment system reforms, financial incentives, and managed care contracting requirements to help achieve better outcomes and lower costs. This brief examines what delivery system and payment reform initiatives are in place across states; how are states linking financial incentives and using transparency to improve quality and outcomes; and how are states leveraging managed care plan contracts to advance delivery system…
As the coronavirus pandemic kept people home last year, just over 1 in 4 Medicare beneficiaries had a telehealth visit with a doctor or other health professional between the summer and fall of 2020, a new KFF analysis finds. Once limited to beneficiaries living in rural areas, coverage of telehealth services by traditional Medicare has undergone rapid expansion during the pandemic, with new options including allowing some services to be provided via audio-only telephone. Medicare…
This brief explores key issues and poses questions regarding PEPFAR’s future, providing a roadmap for the major decisions ahead for the program. It identifies eight key, interrelated issues facing the administration, Congress, and other PEPFAR stakeholders.
This report examines the views and experiences of people in rural, urban and suburban areas related to the pandemic, and finds they hold very different views of the COVID-19 vaccines, particularly when it comes to children.
New federal financial incentives for Medicaid expansion and the increased reliance on Medicaid as a coverage safety net during the pandemic have renewed debate in the 12 states that have not adopted the Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. A new KFF literature review provides context for these expansion debates by summarizing evidence from nearly 200 studies about the effects of Medicaid expansion that were published between February 2020 and March 2021. These studies…
Increasing availability of high-quality comprehensive data disaggregated by race/ethnicity is a prerequisite for efforts to advance health equity, not only related to COVID-19 but in health and health care more broadly.
Continuing its expansion into audio storytelling, KFF’s Kaiser Health News examines the rising suicide rates among Black, Hispanic and other communities of color in its first collaboration with Science Friday, the award-winning producer of high-quality, trustworthy science news and educational programming. The storytelling highlights tragic cases like that of 19-year-old Jamal Clay, who killed himself in his family’s garage in May 2020. Rafiah Maxie, Clay’s mom and herself a social worker, recounts her difficulties in…
This literature review report summarizes evidence from nearly 200 studies on the effects of Medicaid expansion published between February 2020 and March 2021. These studies generally find beneficial impacts of expansion across a range of areas.
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