Category: states

Cash for Colonoscopies: Colorado Tries to Lower Health Costs Through Incentives

State employees could receive checks ranging from $50 to thousands of dollars if they choose the right provider.

Hurricane Ian’s Deadly Impact on Florida Seniors Exposes Need for New Preparation Strategies

Lengthy checklists from public health officials on handling emergencies miss vulnerable seniors who can’t always follow the recommendations.

Hospital Investigated for Allegedly Denying an Emergency Abortion After Patient’s Water Broke

Federal officials have ordered the probe after reports that a woman whose water broke at 18 weeks could not get medical care recommended by her doctors to end the pregnancy because hospital officials were concerned about Missouri’s strict abortion law.

This Open Enrollment Season, Look Out for Health Insurance That Seems Too Good to Be True

Complaints about misleading health insurance marketing are soaring. State insurance commissioners are taking notice. They’ve created a shared internal database to monitor questionable business practices, and, in the future, they hope to provide a public-facing resource for consumers. In the meantime, consumers should shop wisely as open enrollment season begins.

Medicare Fines for High Hospital Readmissions Drop, but 2,300 Facilities Are Still Penalized

Federal officials said they are penalizing 2,273 hospitals, the fewest since the fiscal year that ended in September 2014. Driving the decline was a change in the formula to compensate for the chaos caused by the covid-19 pandemic.

Knoxville’s Black Community Endured Deeply Rooted Racism. Now There Is Medical Debt.

Despite the end of Jim Crow segregation, its legacy lives on in medical debt that disproportionately burdens Black communities.

Ambulance Company to Halt Some Rides in Southern California, Citing Low Medicaid Rates

American Medical Response, the largest U.S. ambulance company, is ending nonemergency transportation for 12 hospitals in Los Angeles and Orange counties, saying the state doesn’t pay enough to transport low-income patients. The state is pushing back.

When Monkeypox Reaches Rural Communities, It Collides With Strained Public Health Systems

In Nevada, local health officials are assessing the threat of monkeypox, but their response may be hampered by historically limited public health infrastructure worn thin by the covid-19 pandemic.

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Voters Will Get Their Say on Multiple Health Issues

Abortion isn’t the only health issue voters will be asked to decide in state ballot questions next month. Proposals about medical debt, Medicaid expansion, and whether health care should be a right are on ballots in various states. Meanwhile, the latest lawsuit challenging the Affordable Care Act has expanded to cover all preventive care. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Jessie Hellmann of CQ Roll Call, and Victoria Knight of Axios join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these topics and more.

Montana Switches Gears to Try to Bargain for Lower Health Care Costs for Employees

Montana has been a national model for how employers could gain control and transparency over medical bills. Upcoming changes to its model have health care price experts wondering whether the state is making improvements or losing focus.