Insurance companies often require patients to have medical procedures, devices, tests and even some medicines preapproved to ensure the insurers are willing to cover the costs. But that doesn’t guarantee they’ll end up paying. Some patients are getting stuck with unexpected bills after the medical service has been provided.
President Donald Trump spent a good deal of time on health issues in his State of the Union address, but not everything he said checks out. Meanwhile, Iowa Democrats heading into the caucuses said health is their top issue, but it’s hard to see how that played out in their actual choices. Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Kimberly Leonard of the Washington Examiner and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss this and more. Also, Rovner interviews KHN’s Julie Appleby and NPR’s Selena Simmons-Duffin about the latest “Bill of the Month” feature.
Insurance giant Cigna and San Francisco-based Dignity Health have failed to ink a 2020 contract, leaving nearly 17,000 patients in California and Nevada scrambling to find new health care providers. Meanwhile, Dignity faces financial and legal challenges while it strives to implement its merger with Catholic Health Initiatives, which created one of the nation’s largest Catholic hospital systems.
In his Feb. 4 State of the Union address, President Donald Trump said the cost of extending health care to people regardless of their citizenship status would “bankrupt” the U.S.
We checked again. The data has not changed.
Here’s a sampling of recent fact checks related to some of the health care claims made during President Donald Trump’s Feb. 4 State of the Union speech.
Helping a loved one overcome addiction isn’t easy. Start by listening to people who have been through it. They can help find effective treatment and avoid unethical or incompetent operators.
Doctors and other clinicians say they’re enduring moral injury because the business of health care interferes with patient care.
But like all of health care, it’s complicated.
Federal officials unveiled guidance for states that want to opt out of some of the current funding program and instead seek a fixed payment to gain more flexibility.
