Category: Hospitals

Walmart Charts New Course By Steering Workers To High-Quality Imaging Centers

Walmart, the nation’s largest private employer, is recommending that employees and dependents use one of 800 imaging centers identified as providing trustworthy care.

Dealing With Hospital Closure, Pioneer Kansas Town Asks: What Comes Next?

After depending on the local hospital for more than a century, Fort Scott residents now are trying to cope with life without it.

Podcast: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’ ‘Conscience’ Rules, Rx Prices and Still More Medicare

Joanne Kenen of Politico, Jen Haberkorn of the Los Angeles Times and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss the latest news about the Trump administration’s effort to allow health care practitioners and organizations to refuse to provide care or refer patients for services that violate their conscience or religion. Also this week, the administration orders TV ads for prescription drugs to include list prices. And Tennessee wants free rein from the federal government to run its Medicaid program. Plus, Rovner interviews Joan Biskupic, author of a new book on Chief Justice John Roberts, about the behind-the-scenes negotiations that led to the 2012 ruling upholding the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act.

Market Muscle: Study Uncovers Differences Between Medicare And Private Insurers

Findings released Thursday by the Rand Corp. highlight how reimbursement rates vary nationally and the impact the charges have on the nation’s high cost of health care. 

Effects Of Surgery On A Warming Planet: Can Anesthesia Go Green?

Two of the most commonly used anesthesia gases are similar medically but worlds apart when it comes to their impact on the planet.

Readers And Tweeters Parse Ideas — From Snakebites To Senior Suicide

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

FDA To End Program That Hid Millions Of Reports On Faulty Medical Devices

In the wake of a KHN investigation, the agency will no longer let device makers file reports of harm outside a widely used public database.

Even Doctors Can’t Navigate Our ‘Broken Health Care System’

A physician’s frustration navigating a medical emergency with his elderly father reveals a complex, dysfunctional system.

Will Ties To A Catholic Hospital System Tie Doctors’ Hands?

Doctors at the University of California’s flagship San Francisco hospital are sharply divided over a proposal to join forces with a Catholic-run system that restricts care on the basis of religious doctrine — part of a broader public debate as Catholic hospitals expand their reach.

Hospitals Chafe Under Medicare’s New Payment Rule For Off-Campus Clinics

Under the rule that took effect this year, Medicare will lower payments for clinic visits performed at hospital-owned facilities to a rate that is equivalent to what it pays an independent doctor. Federal officials expect the move will save the government $380 million this year.