“Certificate of need” laws, largely supported by the hospital industry, limit health facility construction in 35 states and Washington, D.C. Georgia lawmakers decided its law was complicating the reviving of two hospitals critical to their communities.
Political drama involving a rural Georgia county reflects how state regulations that govern when and where hospitals can be built or expanded are evolving.
The end of pandemic-era Medicaid coverage protections coincided with changes in more than a dozen states to expand coverage for lower-income people, including children, pregnant women, and the incarcerated.
Anti-abortion groups and their allies secured a generational victory in 2022 when the Supreme Court overturned “Roe v. Wade.” A lawsuit in Texas demonstrates how those same forces threaten access to other health services, including birth control and screenings for cancer and sexually transmitted infections.
What does a law to protect worker pensions have to do with how health insurance is regulated? Far more than most people may think. The Employee Retirement Income Security Act, or ERISA, turns 50 in September. The law fundamentally changed the way the federal and state governments regulate employer-provided health insurance and continues to shape health policy in the United States. In this special episode of “What the Health?”, host and KFF Health News chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner speaks to Larry Levitt of KFF, Paul Fronstin of the Employee Benefit Research Institute, and Ilyse Schuman of the American Benefits Council about the history of ERISA and what its future might hold.
With medical devices, recalls are not always what they seem. In some recalls, including some of the most serious, the FDA and the manufacturers let doctors and hospitals continue to use the devices.
While fighting potential fraud in government programs has long been a conservative rallying cry, recent criticisms of the Affordable Care Act represent a renewed line of attack on the program when repealing it is unlikely.
Taborian Hospital in Mound Bayou, Mississippi, was established to exclusively admit Black patients during a time when Jim Crow laws barred them from accessing the same health care facilities as white patients. Its closure underscores how hundreds of Black hospitals in the U.S. fell casualty to social progress.
Six months after the Feb. 14 parade, parents of survivors under 18 years old say their children are deeply changed. In this installment of “The Injured,” we meet kids who survived the mass shooting only to live with long-term emotional scars.
Millions of dollars from national opioid settlements are pouring into Mississippi. The state and localities haven’t spent much yet. In many cases, how the money will be used is up in the air.
