Category: Medicare

How fee-for-service shapes your doctor’s decisions

An excerpt from Reshaping Health Systems: What Drives Health Care and How You Can Change It. Copyright © 2024, Wolters Kluwer. Clinical case Jessica is a 67-year-old woman having her very first visit with her new primary care clinician, Dr. Jackson. Je…

Proposed Coverage of Anti-Obesity Drugs in Medicare and Medicaid Would Expand Access to Millions of People with Obesity

This policy watch examines the implications of new proposed regulations that would allow Medicare and require Medicaid to cover drugs used to treat obesity, including a relatively new class of highly effective but costly drugs known as GLP-1s.

Readers Embrace ‘Going It Alone’ Series on Aging and Chastise Makers of Pulse Oximeters

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

TV’s Dr. Oz Invested in Businesses Regulated by Agency Trump Wants Him To Lead

Celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz recently held broad investments in health care, tech, and food companies. Were he confirmed to run the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, his job would involve interacting with giants of the industry that have contributed to his wealth.

KFF Health News’ ‘What the Health?’: Trump’s Nontraditional Health Picks

Not only has President-elect Donald Trump chosen prominent vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, Trump also has said he will nominate controversial TV host Mehmet Oz to run the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which oversees coverage for nearly half of Americans. Meanwhile, the lame-duck Congress is back in Washington with just a few weeks to figure out how to wrap up work for the year. Rachel Cohrs Zhang of Stat, Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Call, and Riley Ray Griffin of Bloomberg News join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews Sarah Varney, who has been covering a trial in Idaho challenging the lack of medical exceptions in that state’s abortion ban.

Congress must fix the Medicare penalty that’s keeping millions from aging at home

People enrolled in Medicare got good news recently. Their annual out-of-pocket costs for Part D prescription drug coverage will be capped at $2,000 next year. That should provide welcome relief to millions of older adults who worry about how they will …

KFF Health News’ ‘What the Health?’: Readying for Republican Rule

Come January, Republicans will control the House of Representatives, Senate, and White House, regaining full power for the first time since 2018. That will give them significant clout to dramatically change health policy. But slim margins in Congress will leave little room for dissent. Meanwhile, President-elect Donald Trump has vowed not to touch Medicare, though […]

KFF Health News Sues To Force Disclosure of Medicare Advantage Audit Records

Freedom of Information Act case targets HHS inspector general’s reviews of billions of dollars in health plan overpayments.

Watchdog Calls for Tighter Scrutiny of Medicare Advantage Home Visits

Medicare officials defend the use of home visits that often spot medical conditions that are never treated.

Trump’s White House Return Poised To Tangle Health Care Safety Net

The new Trump administration is likely to reduce subsidies for Affordable Care Act insurance plans and roll back Medicaid coverage. Public health authorities worry that anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will be empowered.