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KFF’s policy research provides facts and analysis on a wide range of policy issues and public programs.
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.
KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the organization’s core operating programs.
If you are eligible for Medicare, your initial enrollment period for Part A and Part B begins three months before the month of your 65th birthday and ends three months after it. For example, if your 65th birthday is in June, your enrollment period will extend from March 1 through September 30. If you join during one of the 3 months before you turn 65, coverage will begin the first day of the month you…
Health care debt is a widespread problem in the United States. Medicare offers coverage for a range of health care services, including hospitalizations, physician visits, prescription drugs, and post-acute care, but Medicare beneficiaries generally pay out-of-pocket for their monthly premiums and deductibles, cost-sharing for Medicare-covered services, and the cost of services not covered by Medicare. This data note examines findings from the KFF Health Care Debt Survey to assess the prevalence, sources and consequences of…
This issue brief describes how Medicaid home care operates—including who is eligible and the systems in place to promote program integrity in its delivery—and the challenges of using new CMS data to identify unusual billing patterns or potential fraud in the program.
In choosing among the many Medicare Advantage plans, it is useful to think about what’s most important to you in a health plan. If you feel strongly about getting care from specific doctors and hospitals, it would be a good idea to review the provider directories of each Medicare Advantage plan to be sure the hospitals, doctors, and other health professionals that matter most to you are in the plan network. If you are most…
Medicare Advantage plans denied 3.4 million prior authorization requests for health care services in whole or in part in 2022, or 7.4% of the 46.2 million requests submitted on behalf of enrollees that year, according to a new KFF analysis of federal data. That was a higher share of denials than in recent years. The share of all prior authorization requests denied by Medicare Advantage plans increased from 5.7% in 2019, 5.6% in 2020 and…
This analysis presents findings from the 2026 KFF Women’s Health Survey on women's reported need for and use of fertility services.
This brief explains fraud, waste, abuse, and improper payments in Medicare and describes actions to ensure Medicare program integrity.
Most voters (61%) now say that the outcome of this year’s presidential election will have a major impact on access to abortion in this country – up 10 percentage points from March, a new KFF Health Tracking Poll finds. The shift has occurred mainly among Democratic and independent voters over a period of time that saw Vice President Harris become the Democratic presidential nominee and make protecting abortion access a key component of her campaign.…
This brief examines the financial burden of health care spending among households where all members are covered by Medicare compared to non-Medicare households.
This Health Policy 101 chapter explores why polls and surveys are essential for understanding health policy issues and aims to teach you how to evaluate polls effectively. It covers the importance of polls in policy analysis, key considerations for interpretation, polling methodologies, and questions to assess the usefulness of polls. The chapter concludes with real-world examples demonstrating how polling informs policy debates.
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