Insurers voluntarily set the charges aside earlier in the pandemic — but that means those same health plans can decide to reinstate them.
Category: Medicare
Humana Health Plan Overcharged Medicare by Nearly $200 Million, Federal Audit Finds
Medicare Advantage company may face record penalty over alleged billing errors.
Analysis Finds That a Relatively Small Number of Drugs Account for the Majority of Medicare Prescription Drug Spending
A new KFF analysis finds that a relatively small share of drugs, mainly those without generic or biosimilar competitors, accounted for a disproportionate share of prescription drug spending in Medicare in 2019. This finding suggests that recent proposa…
Relatively Few Drugs Account for a Large Share of Medicare Prescription Drug Spending
As policymakers focus attention on proposals to lower prescription drug costs by allowing price negotiation or international reference pricing for a limited number of drugs, this analysis measures the share of total Medicare Part D and Part B prescript…
KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Pause and Effect on Covid Vaccines
Podcast panelists discuss a range of health policy developments, from the latest in the covid vaccination effort to the HHS budget, among other things.
Biden Seeks $400 Billion to Buttress Long-Term Care. A Look at What’s at Stake.
Long-term care options are expensive and often out of reach for seniors and people with disabilities. The president has proposed a massive infusion of federal funding for home and community-based health services that advocates say will go a long way toward helping individuals and families.
KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Planning for Round Two
The ink is barely dry on the recent covid relief bill, but Democrats in Congress and President Joe Biden are wasting no time gearing up for their next big legislative package. Meanwhile, predictions of more states expanding Medicaid have proved premature. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Rachel Cohrs of Stat and Kimberly Leonard of Business Insider join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Plus, Rovner interviews KHN’s Lauren Weber, who reported the latest KHN-NPR “Bill of the Month” episode.
Moving the Needle on Prescription Drug Costs: Using the Innovation Center and Other Demonstration Authority
This brief examines how the CMS Innovation Center (also known as CMMI) and Section 402 demonstration authority could become pathways for the Biden Administration to implement policy changes related to prescription drug costs.
Democrats Gave Americans a Big Boost Buying Health Insurance. It Didn’t Come Cheap.
The $1.9 trillion covid relief bill expands subsidies for private insurance plans. That will lighten the burden on consumers, but it locks taxpayers into yet more support for the health care industry.
March 30 Web Event: Unsung Heroes: The Crucial Role – and Tenuous Circumstances – of Home Care Workers During the Pandemic
Even as the pandemic took a devastating toll on health care workers and older adults in the United States, many home care workers continued to report to work and provide vital care to vulnerable people despite the health risks to themselves and their o…
