A state lawmaker wants health insurers to disclose denial rates and explain those denials as anger grows over rising costs and uncovered medical care. If the bill is signed into law, health experts say, it could be one of the boldest attempts in the nation to rein in denials.
States are required to claw back health care costs from the estates of many Medicaid recipients. Some, including Iowa, are particularly aggressive in their pursuit.
Pain MD, which once ran as many as 20 clinics across three states, gave chronic-pain patients about 700,000 total injections near their spines, according to court documents. Last year, federal prosecutors proved at trial that the shots were medically unnecessary and part of an extensive fraud scheme.
Delays in urgent CDC analyses of seasonal flu and bird flu, and the agency’s silence, will harm Americans as outbreaks escalate, doctors and public health experts warn.
KFF Health News shares our favorite reader-submitted health policy valentines. One struck us in the heart and inspired an original cartoon.
As Republicans consider adding work requirements to Medicaid, Georgia and Arkansas — two states with experience running such programs — want to scale back the key parts supporters have argued encourage employment and personal responsibility.
Some of the Trump administration’s dramatic funding and policy shifts are facing major pushback for the first time — not from Congress, but from the courts. Federal judges around the country are attempting to pump the brakes on efforts to freeze government spending, shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development, eliminate access to health-related webpages and datasets, and limit grant funding provided by the National Institutes of Health. Meanwhile, Congress is off to a slow start in trying to turn President Donald Trump’s agenda into legislation, although Medicaid is clearly high on the list for potential funding cuts. Shefali Luthra of The 19th, Jessie Hellmann of CQ Roll Call, and Maya Goldman of Axios News join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these topics and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews Mark McClellan, director of the Duke-Margolis Institute for Health Policy and a former health official during the George W. Bush administration, about the impact of cutting funding to research universities.
Patients and providers say health insurers’ preapproval requirements lead to delays and denials of needed medical treatments. Insurers argue that prior authorization keeps costs down.
Frustrated by spiraling drug costs, California lawmakers want to increase oversight of pharmaceutical industry intermediaries known as pharmacy benefit managers. It’s unclear whether they can persuade Gov. Gavin Newsom to get on board.
In several red states, officials say few or no abortions happened in 2023, raising alarm among researchers about the politicization of vital statistics.
