Filling the need for trusted information on national health issues
These FAQs provide the latest guidance on testing and treatment related to COVID-19 for Medicare beneficiaries, including questions related to out-of-pocket costs, the COVID-19 vaccine, telehealth, extended supplies of medication, skilled nursing facility stays, and issues for people in private Medicare Advantage plans.
Section 1115 demonstration waivers provide states an avenue to test new approaches in Medicaid and generally reflect changing priorities from one presidential administration to another. This issue brief summarizes waiver priorities and actions under the Biden Administration as well as pending waiver themes and other issues to watch. If the Build Back Better Act (BBBA) fails to pass or is narrowed significantly, Medicaid waivers and other administrative actions may be a key tool for the Biden Administration to advance policy priorities absent legislation.
With the COVID-19 pandemic impacting communities of color disproportionately in their health and economic well-being, long-term racial and ethnic disparities have received growing attention. But these inequities in our health system are not new and are a part of larger issues of systemic racism. An updated KFF chart pack analyzes…
This chart pack examines how people of color fare compared to White people across a broad array of measures of health coverage, access, and use; health status, outcomes, and behaviors; social determinants of health; and COVID-19 impacts to provide insight into the status of racial disparities in health and health care.
Less than a week after a new federal mandate to cover such products took effect, about half of the nation’s largest private insurers allow enrollees to directly obtain rapid at-home COVID-19 tests from specific sources without having to pay anything upfront, a new KFF analysis finds. The new coverage requirement…
This policy watch provides an early look at how top private insurers are implementing a new requirement to cover the cost of at-home COVID-19 tests. Initially about half offer a direct coverage option and half require an enrollee to pay upfront and then seek reimbursement.
As 2022 kicks off, a number of issues are at play that could affect coverage and financing under Medicaid. This issue brief examines key issues to watch in Medicaid in the year ahead.
In this commentary for Barron’s, Cynthia Cox and Lindsey Dawson examine the cost and availability of at-home COVID-19 tests and how the new Biden administration policy requiring private insurances to cover their costs may work.
This policy watch discusses the implications of Medicare’s preliminary National Coverage Determination for the new Alzheimer’s drug, Aduhelm, on the 2022 Medicare Part B premium and the possibility of an adjustment based on the coverage decision. The piece also discusses the implications for Medicare spending and the connection to ongoing policy discussions around prescription drug proposals in the Build Back Better Act.
This data note explores findings from on an 8-day online search for at home COVID-19 tests at major retailers. The findings are described against the backdrop of the Biden Administration policy requiring plans to cover the cost of these tests. We find that these tests remain hard to find and that this limited availability could negatively affect the success of the reimbursement strategy.
