Kaiser Health News

Just as Walmart and other retailers shook up the prescription drug business by offering $4 generic drugs, the industry now aims to apply its negotiating and marketing clout to tackle problems that vex consumers and the health sector: unpredictable costs, a lack of primary care doctors and inefficient management of chronic illnesses, whose costs drive the majority of health care spending.

Grading Docs With Electronic Medical Records

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Topics:

Health Reform

Information Technology

Once most doctors saw how grading could help them improve, they were won over. Electronic medical records are good for the patient, the doctor and the bottom line. But they're not the silver bullet that will slay all the nation's health care problems.

VA Experience Shows Patient 'Rebound' Hard to Counter

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Topics:

Medicare

Military & Veterans Health

The Veterans Health Administration, the largest integrated health care system in the country, has long employed many of the approaches Medicare is pushing on all hospitals to cut unnecessary readmissions. But new data show VA hospital patients are just as likely to end up back in a hospital bed as are patients at private hospitals.

Health Law Bolsters Funding for In-School Clinics

Monday, July 25, 2011

Topics:

Health Reform

Women & Children

Treating skinned knees and stomachaches is part of the drill at any school nurse’s office or school-based health center. But for many kids, health-care providers at these sites do much more than treat everyday aches and pains: They give checkups and vaccinations, make sure kids take their insulin shots and antidepressants on time, and teach them how to manage chronic conditions such as asthma.

Consumers Add Their 2 Cents to Health Laws Plan Labels

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Topics:

Health Reform

Insurance

Starting next March, all insurers and employers will have to make it easier for consumers faced with the ordeal of picking a health plan. Under the 2010 health law, they’ll have to provide health policy information that the average enrollee can understand and use to compare with other plans.

New Labels Will Help Consumers Choose Health Plans

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Topics:

Health Reform

Insurance

For the first time, consumers shopping for a health policy will be able to get a good idea of how much of the costs different plans will cover for three medical conditions: maternity care, treatment for diabetes and breast cancer.

From California to the New York Island, a New Understanding of Higher Medicare Spending

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Topics:

Costs & Economic Analysis

Hospitals

Medicare

Some regions of the country that have been lambasted for high levels of Medicare spending actually are below the national average once the severity of patient sickness and special local expenses are taken into account, according to data from a new government analysis.

Insurance Trade-Off: Reducing Premiums By Eliminating Expensive Doctors, Hospitals

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Topics:

Costs & Economic Analysis

Hospitals

Insurance

When consumers and employers pick health plans, some increasingly are being offered a trade-off these days: They can get a hefty break on their premiums if they agree to pay more out-of-pocket when they use certain high-cost providers in their network or if they cut those providers out of their network altogether.

Some Seniors Are In For Sticker Shock on Drug Premiums

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Topics:

Aging

Health Reform

Insurance

The Obama administration often touts the health-law provision that over the next decade will close the unpopular “doughnut hole”—a gap in Medicare prescription drug coverage. But officials rarely cite another provision, one that might cause sticker shock among some seniors.

Public Doesn't Support Cuts To Health Care Programs

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Topics:

Health Reform

As Washington lawmakers face renewed pressure to remedy the country’s trillion-dollar budget deficit, fractured public opinion on where to make critical cuts—in health care and other major entitlement programs—could complicate political strategies in the run up to the 2012 presidential election