This analysis for the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker uses claims data from private, large employer-based plan to examine trends in complexity coding across outpatient practice settings from 2004 to 2021. It finds a trend toward higher complexity co…
Rural hospitals fared worse financially in states that have not expanded their Medicaid programs under the Affordable Care Act than in states that expanded Medicaid, a new KFF analysis finds. Nearly one third of all rural hospitals nationally are in th…
This data note examines rural hospitals’ operating margins in recent years. After seeing higher margins early in the pandemic, likely due to government relief funds, rural hospitals now face renewed challenges, especially in states that have not expand…
In this commentary for Barron’s, KFF’s Cynthia Cox and Jennifer Kates explore what will happen with costs to COVID-19 vaccines for people with and without insurance once the relevant public health emergency ends on May 11.
Since 2021, federal law has required hospitals to publicly post information about their standard prices and negotiated discount rates for common health services to encourage consumers to compare prices and to promote competition. To date, however, the …
This analysis examines transparency data currently shared by hospitals to comply with federal law and finds that they are messy, inconsistent and confusing, making it challenging if not impossible for patients or researchers to use them to compare pric…
This chart collection compares health care spending in the U.S. and other industrialized countries, including data on health spending per person and the growth rate in recent years and over time.
This slideshow examines trends in U.S. health spending over time, including the share of household budgets devoted to health expenses and comparisons of out-of-pocket expenditures to money spent on insurance through 2021.
On Jan. 20, 2023, the Biden Administration announced it will end the public health emergency (and national emergency) declarations on May 11, 2023. This policy watch provides an overview of how health care coverage and access will and won’t change when…
This slideshow examines how cost and insurance affects people’s access to care, including decisions to forgo or delay needed care and access to a usual source of care.
