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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.
Despite higher inflation and dwindling COVID-19 relief funding from the federal government, the nation’s largest for-profit health systems so far this year have operating margins that meet or exceed levels in 2019 prior to the pandemic, a new KFF analysis finds.
This Issue Brief describes the Medicare Hospital Readmission Reduction Program (HRRP), which penalizes hospitals that have relatively higher readmission rates, analyzes the impact of this program on Medicare patients and hospitals, and discusses several issues that have been raised regarding its implementation.
In this July 1 column for The New York Times Opinion section, KFF Executive Vice President for Health Policy Larry Levitt explains how the budget reconciliation bill passed by the Senate on July 1 is effectively a partial repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and, if signed into law, the resulting reductions in Medicaid…
As the ACA open enrollment deadline approaches amid the expiration of the enhanced premium tax credits, nearly six in 10 Marketplace enrollees say they would not be able to afford $300 more in annual health care costs, which may lead some to alternative coverage products, such as short-term plans, a type of private coverage that tends to have lower premiums but few consumer protections and limited benefits.
This brief examines two proposed federal rules that would further restrict youth access to gender affirming care. One rule would change the hospital Conditions of Participation (CoPs) which would prohibit most Medicare and Medicaid enrolled hospitals from providing certain types of gender affirming medical care for young people and the other would prohibit federal Medicaid or CHIP funds from covering this care. The rules have a 60-day comment period, do no take immediate effect, and are expected to face litigation, if finalized.
This analysis presents key facts about hospitals with more than 40 charts related to national spending on hospital care, characteristics of the hospital industry, rural hospitals, use of hospital care, out-of-pocket spending and medical debt, hospital prices, hospital finances, and charity care.
The Alliance for Health Reform and The Commonwealth Fund discusses the critical role of safety-net hospitals in providing care to vulnerable populations.
This brief describes the new executive order, examines the intersection of homelessness and mental illness, reviews the history of the deinstitutionalization movement, and discusses specialized treatment services for people with SMI.
This report takes an in-depth look at Medicare Advantage plans’ hospital networks. The analysis draws upon data from 409 Medicare Advantage plans serving beneficiaries in 20 diverse counties that together accounted for about one in seven (14%) Medicare Advantage enrollees nationwide in 2015. The report examines the size and composition of plans’ hospital networks, the variation across counties, the inclusion of Academic Medical Centers and NCI-Designated Cancer Centers, and the relationship between network size and other plan features, including premiums, quality star ratings, per capita Medicare spending, parent organization, and plan tax status.
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