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This brief survey examines how the public views the motivations of doctors, nurses, insurance companies, and drug companies when it comes to making profits vs. working for the public good. It updates a question asked in 2005 to measure how views have changed over time. TOPLINE & METHODOLOGY Download
Caroline Pearson, executive director of the Peterson Health Technology Institute (PHTI) and the Peterson Center on Healthcare, joins Chip to discuss who really benefits as AI moves into health care's back office. A quiet arms race is underway — providers deploying AI to code, bill, and capture revenue and insurers deploying it right back to review, deny, and hold the line. The open question is whether any of this lowers what the country actually spends…
AI is racing into everyday medicine. The rules of the road are still being written. Dr. Michelle Mello of Stanford, professor at both the Law School and the School of Medicine, and co-leader of its Healthcare Ethical Assessment Lab for AI, joins Chip to address the questions that trail every advance this series has covered: who makes the rules, who ensures the technology gets it right — and who answers when it doesn't?
Mergers and acquisitions involving hospitals and other health care providers are drawing attention from federal and state regulators, including the Federal Trade Commission, and policymakers amid concerns that such consolidations can reduce competition and contribute to the high costs of health care. A new KFF brief examines and summarizes the evidence about consolidation among health care providers as more community hospitals become part of a larger system, and more physicians are in practices owned by…
This data note examines rural hospitals’ operating margins in recent years. After seeing higher margins early in the pandemic, likely due to government relief funds, rural hospitals now face renewed challenges, especially in states that have not expanded Medicaid.
This data note examines the financial performance of the three largest for-profit hospital systems in the U.S. during the COVID-19 pandemic. All three health systems have had positive operating margins that have exceeded pre-pandemic levels for the majority of the pandemic, including in the third quarter of 2022.
The latest data on U.S. health spending are now available on the Health Spending Explorer, an interactive tool that allows users to explore trends in health expenditures by federal and local governments, insurers, service providers, and individuals. The data, which span from 1960 to 2017, are based on the just-released national health spending report from the federal government. Users can build and download custom charts, with options to filter data by type of service and source…
In his latest column for The Wall Street Journal's Think Tank, Drew Altman discusses this week's Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services report on health spending and assesses the current effort to control health-care costs.
A new animated video on the Peterson-Kaiser Health System Tracker provides an engaging “check-up” of the nation’s health system, addressing questions of whether it’s getting better or worse and how it compares to other countries. Health of the Healthcare System, produced by the Kaiser Family Foundation, draws on the most up-to-date, reliable data to offer an easy-to-understand portrait of cost, quality and access to health care in the United States. Julie Rovner, a veteran health reporter…
Most nonprofit hospitals and hospital systems had enough cash on hand in 2022 to cover operating expenses for an extended period of time, though about one-in-10 had relatively low levels to cover their expenses, which potentially could leave them vulnerable in a financial crisis, a new KFF analysis finds.The analysis comes as the hospital industry pushes for increases in Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement levels and Congress considers legislation that would reduce hospital revenues, such as…
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