Category: Health Care Costs

Readers Slam Hospital Monopolies and Blame the Feds for Understaffed Nursing Homes

KFF Health News gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories.

Patients Expected Profemur Artificial Hips to Last. Then They Snapped in Half.

The FDA and the manufacturer were alerted to Profemur titanium hips breaking inside U.S. patients as of 2005. It took 15 years to recall the devices. Many fractures could have been avoided.

California’s Ambitious Medicaid Experiment Gets Tripped Up in Implementation

The health care insurers, nonprofit organizations, and other groups responsible for implementing Gov. Gavin Newsom’s ambitious plan to infuse Medicaid with social services say their ability to serve vulnerable, low-income Californians is hamstrung.

What to Know About Home Care Services

Finding an aide to help an older person stay at home safely takes work. Here’s a guide.

Desperate Families Search for Affordable Home Care

Facing a severe shortage of aides and high costs, people trying to keep aging loved ones at home often cobble together a patchwork of family and friends to help.

An Arm and a Leg: To Get Health Insurance, This Couple Made a Movie

On this episode of “An Arm and a Leg,” hear how a couple wrote and directed a short film, starring one of them — just to maintain health insurance through the actors union.

Uncle Sam Wants You … to Help Stop Insurers’ Bogus Medicare Advantage Sales Tactics

The Biden administration wants to crack down on deceptive or misleading Medicare Advantage and drug plan sales tactics. It’s counting on beneficiaries to help catch offenders.

FTC Chief Gears Up for a Showdown With Private Equity

Lina Khan, chair of the FTC, says a recent lawsuit is meant to chill the consolidation of medical groups that results in higher prices for consumers. But it may be too late to curb price hikes.

Medicare Advantage Increasingly Popular With Seniors — But Not Hospitals and Doctors

Some hospitals and physician groups are rejecting Medicare Advantage plans over payment rates and coverage restrictions, causing turmoil for patients.

Medicaid ‘Unwinding’ Makes Other Public Assistance Harder to Get

The bottleneck caused by states’ reevaluation of Medicaid enrollees has swept up low-income families that rely on other safety-net services.