Montana nonprofit hospitals receive millions of dollars in tax exemptions as charities each year in exchange for giving back to their communities. A KHN review found that some of Montana’s richest medical centers are falling behind most state and national hospitals.
As hospitals juggle holiday covid surges and all their other patients, the global supply chain crisis has left them short of critical supplies.
KHN gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories.
Physician assistants are pushing to be renamed “physician associates,” complaining their title is belittling and doesn’t convey what they do. “We don’t assist,” they insist. Doctors’ groups fear there’s more than just a name in play.
Hospitals in Montana and Idaho reported threats and harassment from public officials and family members of patients who were denied treatment with a drug not authorized to treat covid-19.
With few options for health care in their rural community, a Tennessee couple’s experience with one outrageous bill could have led to a deadly decision the next time they needed help.
Congress last year shielded consumers from unexpected out-of-network charges, but hospitals and doctors have decried the arbitration plan put forward by the Biden administration for negotiating these bills as favoring insurers. More than 150 members of the House agree.
As hospital systems and insurers adjust to the pandemic, their contract negotiations grow increasingly fraught. Contracts for in-network care are ending without a new deal, leaving patients suddenly with out-of-network bills or scrambling to find new in-network providers.
KHN gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories.
Many small hospitals have shuttered their labor and delivery units as births decline. For those who resist the trend, some studies suggest that hospitals with low deliveries are more likely to see complications for patients. Doctors and public health experts say there is no magic number to determine when it is best to close an obstetrics unit.
