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  • Analysis: The Vast Majority of Physicians Accept New Patients, Including Patients With Medicare and Private Insurance

    News Release

    Despite occasional anecdotal reports of people having trouble finding a doctor who takes their insurance, KFF researchers find in a new analysis that the vast majority of non-pediatric office-based physicians accept new Medicare patients, as well as new private insurance patients. Eighty-nine percent of such physicians accepted new Medicare patients in 2019, and 91 percent accepted new private insurance patients, according to the analysis, which uses data from the federal 2019 National Electronic Health Records…

  • AI: Rewiring the Machine

    Podcast

    In a conversation focused on the technology underlying AI in health care, Chip is joined by Seema Verma, former administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), and now Executive Vice President and General Manager at Oracle Health and Life Sciences, the second largest electronic health records (EHR) platform in the U.S. Seema shares her insights on the evolution of EHRs and why it’s necessary to redesign these systems to better integrate AI capabilities and improve the quality of care.

  • KFF Analysis Finds Physician Networks in ACA Marketplace Plans Vary Widely, and Enrollees Typically Pay More in Premiums to Access Broader Networks

    News Release

    A KFF analysis of physician networks in the Affordable Care Act’s Marketplace plans finds wide variations in the share of local practicing physicians who participate, with the least costly plans generally having a smaller share of physicians than more expensive plans. The analysis examines the breadth of physician networks listed in Marketplace plan directories in 2021 in nearly every county nationally in relation to the number of actively practicing physicians locally.  On average, Marketplace enrollees…

  • Guardrails for AI in Health Care — How High?

    Podcast

    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?

  • Ten Things to Know About Consolidation in Health Care Provider Markets

    News Release

    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…

  • Medicare Patients’ Access to Physicians: A Synthesis of the Evidence

    Issue Brief

    Congressional debates about the Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) raise questions about whether doctors are willing to see Medicare patients. This issue brief examines multiple data sources to assess beneficiaries’ access to physicians, particularly vulnerable beneficiaries with greater health needs and other disadvantages. It examines the share of doctors who are participating physicians as well as those who have opted-out of the Medicare program to privately contract with Medicare patients. It includes State analyses of…

  • Health Affairs Article: Impact of State Tort Reforms on Physician Malpractice Payments

    Issue Brief

    A study in the March/April 2007 issue of Health Affairs analyzes the impact of state tort reforms on physician malpractice claims. The study finds that the tort law changes have had a measurable but limited impact on physician malpractice claims, depending on the type and strength of the tort reform. Commissioned by Kaiser, the study was authored by Teresa M. Waters of the University of Tennessee, and Peter P. Budetti of the University of Oklahoma, and Gary…

  • Trends in Medicaid Physician Fees, 2003-2008

    Fact Sheet

    This study, published in a Health Affairs Web exclusive, provides the first national and state-by-state update of Medicaid physician fees since 2003. Medicaid has historically reimbursed physicians under fee-for-service at levels below what Medicare and private health insurers would pay for the same services. The study finds that Medicaid fees grew by more than 15 percent from 2003 to 2008, but fell in real terms because the gains did not keep pace with inflation. Medicaid…

  • The Trump Administration’s Proposed $103,265 Fee for H-1B Visas Could Affect the Health Care Workforce

    Quick Insights

    The proposed $103,265 fee could lead to reductions in U.S. health care workforce, increasing barriers to care….A decline in H-1B workers would disproportionately impact states that employ the largest shares of H-1B workers (NY, MA, CA, and PA), lower income and rural areas where H-1B health care workers often are employed, and smaller employers, who would face greater challenges paying the fee.