Category: states

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Biden Social-Spending ‘Framework’ Pulls Back on Key Health Pledges

President Joe Biden unveiled a compromise “Build Back Better” framework shortly before taking off for key meetings in Europe, but it’s unclear whether the framework can win the votes of all Democrats in the House and Senate, and it leaves out some of the party’s health priorities, notably significant provisions to lower prescription drug prices. Meanwhile, younger children may soon be eligible for covid vaccines. Joanne Kenen of Politico and Johns Hopkins, Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet and Rachana Pradhan of KHN join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more.

Democrats’ Plans to Expand Medicare Benefits Put Pinch on Advantage Plans’ Funding

As lawmakers weigh new spending provisions to cover dental, hearing and vision services for Medicare beneficiaries, a group supporting Medicare Advantage plans is airing commercials that raise concerns about the funding for those private plans.

Medicare Punishes 2,499 Hospitals for High Readmissions

The federal government’s hospital penalty program finishes its first decade by lowering payments to nearly half the nation’s hospitals for readmitting too many Medicare patients within a month. Penalties, though often small, are credited with helping reduce the number of patients returning for another Medicare stay within 30 days.

How Billing Turns a Routine Birth Into a High-Cost Emergency

“Obstetrical emergency departments” are a new feature in some hospitals that can inflate medical bills for even the easiest, healthiest births. Just ask the parents of Baby Gus.

Analysis: A Procedure That Cost $1,775 in New York Was $350 in Maryland. Here’s Why.

The state’s unique health system controls what hospitals can charge for services.

Direct Primary Care, With a Touch of Robin Hood

Some doctors, sick of mainstream health care’s red tape, are finding refuge in practices that combine concierge medicine with charity care.

Understaffed State Psychiatric Facilities Leave Mental Health Patients in Limbo

The pandemic has so seriously strained already tight state psychiatric hospitals in Georgia, Virginia, Texas and elsewhere that these facilities for the poorest and most vulnerable people with mental illness struggle to admit new patients.

In Maine, Vaccine Mandate for EMTs Stresses Small-Town Ambulance Crews

The covid vaccination rate for first responders in the state is more than 95%. But it’s lower in more rural areas, where ambulance crews can’t function if even just a few people quit.

3 States Limit Nursing Home Profits in Bid to Improve Care

Following the devastating impact of covid-19 on nursing homes, state lawmakers want to be sure that government and private payments primarily go to improve care and staffing.

‘Down to My Last Diaper’: The Anxiety of Parenting in Poverty

Diapers are a baby essential, but no federal program helps families cover their considerable cost. Jennifer Randles, a professor of sociology at Fresno State in California, spoke with KHN about her novel research exploring the outsize role “diaper math” plays in the lives of low-income moms.