KFF’s Kaiser Health News and Gray Television Partner to Examine the Drive Times and Roadblocks for Stroke Victims in Appalachia and the Mississippi Delta May 4, 2021 News Release KHN and Gray Television’s InvestigateTV team joined forces to dig into the underlying reasons why strokes are a deadlier threat across most counties in Appalachia and the Mississippi Delta, rural regions that are characterized by high rates of poverty, vulnerable elderly populations, a shortage of medical providers and an epidemic…
COVID-19 Test Prices and Payment Policy April 29, 2021 Issue Brief This analysis examines list prices for COVID-19 testing at the largest hospitals in every state and finds they range widely from $20 to $850. Federal law now requires private insurers to cover COVID-19 tests at no cost to the patient and provides funding for people without health insurance.
Analysis: Hospital Price Transparency Data Lacks Standardization, Limiting Its Use to Insurers, Employers, and Consumers April 9, 2021 News Release In spite of a new price transparency rule that requires hospitals to publish the prices of common health services, comparing prices across hospitals remains challenging due to limited compliance with the law and a lack of standardization in the available data, a new KFF analysis finds. The federal rule, which…
Early Results from Federal Price Transparency Rule Show Difficultly in Estimating the Cost of Care April 9, 2021 Issue Brief A new issue brief examines compliance with a new federal price transparency rule and variation in payer-negotiated rates at U.S. hospitals. The analysis looks at the websites of the two largest hospitals in each state and the District of Columbia, and finds that a lack of consistency in the data…
KHN and Guardian US Win Batten Medal for “Lost on the Frontline” April 5, 2021 News Release The News Leaders Association (NLA) awarded KFF’s Kaiser Health News (KHN) and Guardian US the 2021 Batten Medal for Coverage of the Coronavirus Pandemic for their year-long “Lost on the Frontline” investigation documenting the lives of more than 3,600 health care workers in the U.S. who died of COVID-19 after…
As Coronavirus Cases Surged This Fall, Admissions to Hospitals for Reasons Other Than COVID-19 Fell Markedly, Especially in the Midwest and West February 18, 2021 News Release Admissions to hospitals for reasons other than COVID-19 fell markedly again in November as cases of infections with the novel coronavirus began to surge anew, suggesting that more people were delaying care due to the worsening pandemic, according to an updated analysis by Epic Health Research Network (EHRN) and KFF.…
Trends in Overall and Non-COVID-19 Hospital Admissions February 18, 2021 Issue Brief This brief shows trends in hospital admissions during the coronavirus pandemic. Admissions to hospitals for reasons other than COVID-19 fell markedly again in November 2020 as cases of infections with the novel coronavirus began to surge anew, suggesting that more people were delaying care due to the worsening pandemic.
Surprise Medical Bills: New Protections for Consumers Take Effect in 2022 February 4, 2021 Fact Sheet This summarizes key provisions of the No Surprises Act, enacted in December 2020 to address the problem of unexpected medical bills, and issues that could arise during implementation ahead of its Jan. 1, 2022 effective date.
Analysis Examines the Implications of Price Transparency for Providers and Patients as New Rules Go into Effect January 13, 2021 News Release A new KFF analysis examines how new federal rules on price transparency for health services may affect patient decision-making and market pricing. As of January 1, 2021, the United States Department of Health and Human Services requires that hospitals publish payer-negotiated rates for common services on their websites. A second…
Price Transparency and Price Variation in U.S. Health Services January 13, 2021 Issue Brief A new Peterson-KFF analysis examines the potential impact of new federal price transparency rules on patient decision-making and market pricing for health services. The brief also includes new analysis of geographic variation in health prices.