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  • What Happens When COVID-19 Emergency Declarations End? Implications for Coverage, Costs, and Access

    Issue Brief

    This brief provides an overview of the major health-related COVID-19 federal emergency declarations that have been made since early on in the pandemic, summarizes the flexibilities triggered by each, and identifies the implications for their ending, related to coverage, costs, and payment for COVID-19 testing, treatments, and vaccines; Medicaid coverage and federal match rates; telehealth; access to medical countermeasures through FDA emergency use authorization (EUA); and other Medicaid, Medicare and private health insurance flexibilities.

  • Ending COVID-19 Emergency Declarations Will Bring an End to Flexibilities that Aided Patients, Providers, Insurers, and Public Programs in Responding to the Pandemic

    News Release

    When the federal government ends COVID-19 emergency declarations that were declared in the early days of the pandemic, it will bring to a close several changes that were enacted temporarily to enable the U.S. health care system to better deal with the crisis. A new KFF resource details a number of those flexibilities and lays out what it will mean for people, providers and federal health programs when they go away. One of the key…

  • Ground Ambulance Rides and Potential for Surprise Billing

    Issue Brief

    This analysis for the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker finds that half of emergency ground ambulance rides result in an out-of-network charge for people with private health insurance, potentially leaving patients at risk of getting a surprise bill.

  • The Implications of the Most Recent Challenge to the ACA’s Preventive Care Requirement Could Affect Millions

    News Release

    A new brief explains the implications of the most recent legal challenge contesting the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) requirement that most private insurance plans cover specific preventive care items and services—such as contraceptive services and supplies, and cancer screenings—at no cost to patients. In Braidwood Management v. Becerra, two Christian-owned businesses and six individuals in Texas have challenged the legality of the preventive care mandates on constitutional grounds. The plaintiffs are also challenging the requirement…

  • The Average Medicare Beneficiary Has a Choice of 43 Medicare Advantage Plans and 24 Part D Stand-Alone Plans for Coverage in 2023

    News Release

    For 2023, the typical beneficiary has a choice of 43 Medicare Advantage plans as an alternative to traditional Medicare, a new KFF analysis finds. That’s an increase of 5 plans on average from 2022, adding even more choices to the Medicare Advantage marketplace, which is poised to become the dominant way Medicare beneficiaries get their health coverage and care. In addition, the typical beneficiary has a choice of 24 Medicare Part D stand-alone prescription drug…

  • Charges for Emails with Doctors and other Healthcare Providers

    Issue Brief

    Patient-provider email messaging accelerated early in the COVID-19 pandemic as more patients sought medical care remotely, and the addition of billing codes for digital health services and subsequent changes in insurers’ payment policies have enabled providers to bill insurers and patients for messaging. This analysis examines the typical cost of patient-provider email messaging in 2020 and 2021 using private health insurance claims data. The typical cost for an email messaging claim was $39 in 2021,…

  • What Do People with Medicare Think About the Role of Marketing, Shopping for Medicare Options, and Their Coverage?

    Report

    To capture Medicare beneficiaries’ views and experiences in choosing between traditional Medicare and private plans, and among private plans, and the factors that influence these decisions, KFF worked with PerryUndem to conduct focus groups with Medicare beneficiaries in the Fall of 2022, during the annual Medicare open enrollment period. This report summarizes first-hand accounts of participants’ reactions open enrollment advertising and factors that influence their decision-making around Medicare plan choice.

  • A Backlash Against Health Insurers, Redux

    Perspective

    In this JAMA Health Forum post, Executive Vice President Larry Levitt recalls the mid-1990s’ public backlash against Health Maintenance Organizations (commonly known as HMOs) – all of which preceded the recent outpouring of health insurance concerns – as well as how consumer protections against coverage restrictions have evolved and fallen short.

  • Oral Health and Medicare Beneficiaries: Coverage, Out-of-Pocket Spending, and Unmet Need

    Issue Brief

    This brief describes the oral health of Medicare beneficiaries, examines sources of dental coverage for the Medicare population, and examines the utilization of dental services, out-of-pocket spending on dental care, and access problems. This analysis uses data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey Cost and Use file (MCBS), the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and the Kaiser Family Foundation Survey of Health Care Among Nonelderly People with…