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KFF designs, conducts and analyzes original public opinion and survey research on Americans’ attitudes, knowledge, and experiences with the health care system to help amplify the public’s voice in major national debates.
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This analysis finds that Medicare's negotiated prices for 10 high-expenditure prescription drugs are lower than what private Medicare drug plans had been paying, but still much higher than the prices available in 11 other wealthy nations.. It is available on the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker.
This brief explains the role and implications of cross-market mergers between hospitals and health systems that operate in different regions and describes the approaches that government antitrust agencies have taken in reviewing these types of transactions.
Ultimately, assessing the impact of President Trump’s newest iteration of “Most Favored Nation” drug pricing depends on details that have yet to be fleshed out.
High U.S. prices and demand for Ozempic and Wegovy have implications for insurance premiums, public program costs, and affordability.
As policymakers and regulators pay more attention to consolidation in health care provider markets, this brief examines and summarizes the evidence about consolidation, including recent trends, the impact on prices and quality, and proposals to address consolidation and increase competition.
Most patients do not know about the new surprise billing protections and likely also do not know of resources available to seek recourse for incorrect medical bills. This brief provides resources to privately insured patients who receive surprise balance bills and also summarizes relevant policies and how they apply to balance billing.
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.
An archived webcast of this forum is now available at www.healthsystemtracker.org . Nearly a fifth of the United States’ economy goes to healthcare spending – a far larger share than in any other large, wealthy country in the world.
Recent legislation would require drug companies to pay rebates to the federal government when annual increases in prescription drug prices for Medicare and private insurance exceed the rate of inflation. As context for understanding the possible impact of this proposal, this analysis compares price changes for drugs covered by Medicare Part B (administered by physicians) and Part D (retail prescription drugs) between 2019 and 2020 to the inflation rate over the same period.
The “No Surprises Act,” which establishes new federal protections against most surprise out-of-network medical bills when a patient receives out-of-network services during an emergency visit or from a provider at an in-network hospital without advance notice, will take effect next month. A new KFF brief outlines what to expect in 2022.
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