Concerns Grow Over Quality of Care as Investor Groups Buy Not-for-Profit Nursing Homes
For-profit groups own more than 70% of U.S. nursing homes. Industry leaders and researchers wonder whether corporations and investors can succeed where not-for-profit organizations have struggled. Or, will quality of care suffer in the name of making money?
FTC Chief Gears Up for a Showdown With Private Equity
Lina Khan, chair of the FTC, says a recent lawsuit is meant to chill the consolidation of medical groups that results in higher prices for consumers. But it may be too late to curb price hikes.
As More Patients Email Doctors, Health Systems Start Charging Fees
Doctors say billing for email consultations reduces message volume and gives them more free time. The increasingly prevalent practice has also raised fears about negative impacts to patient care.
Pacientes reciben facturas por enviarles correos electr贸nicos a sus m茅dicos
Con un fuerte aumento de los mensajes de correo electr贸nico durante la pandemia de covid, un n煤mero creciente de sistemas de salud han empezado a cobrar a los pacientes cuando los m茅dicos y otros profesionales cl铆nicos responden a sus mensajes.
Promising Better, Cheaper Care, Kaiser Permanente鈥檚 National Expansion Faces Wide Skepticism
Kaiser Permanente, the California-based health care giant, is looking to dramatically expand its national presence. It鈥檚 committed $5 billion to a new unit called Risant Health and has agreed to acquire Pennsylvania-based Geisinger, but skeptics wonder how it will export its unique model to other states.
Malpractice Lawsuits Over Denied Abortion Care May Be on the Horizon
Physicians and attorneys say it鈥檚 a question of when 鈥 not if 鈥 a pregnant person dies from lack of care in a state with an abortion ban, potentially setting the stage for a malpractice lawsuit that could pressure providers to reconsider delaying or denying care.
Banning Noncompete Contracts for Medical Staff Riles Hospitals
It鈥檚 about the money 鈥 on both sides 鈥 as arguments swirl about patient safety, rising prices, and paying back on-the-job training.
Surprise-Billing Law Loophole: When 鈥極ut of Network鈥 Doesn鈥檛 Quite Mean Out of Network
Billing experts and lawmakers are playing catch-up as providers find ways to get around new surprise-billing laws, leaving patients like Danielle Laskey of Washington state with big bills for emergency care.
A Baby Spent 36 Days in an In-Network NICU. Why Did the Hospital Next Door Send a Bill?
A baby spent more than a month in a Chicago NICU. A big bill revealed she was treated by out-of-network doctors from the children鈥檚 hospital next door. Her parents were charged despite a state law protecting patients from such out-of-network billing 鈥 and sent to collections when they didn鈥檛 pay up.
More Orthopedic Physicians Sell Out to Private Equity Firms, Raising Alarms About Costs and Quality
While some doctors seem eager for a huge payoff, others are warily watching what happens when private equity firms take charge of orthopedic practices.
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鈥檚 strict abortion law.
Court Ruling May Spur Competitive Health Plans to Bring Back Copays for Preventive Services
The Affordable Care Act required that health insurers provide many medical screenings and prevention services at no out-of-pocket cost to health plan members. But insurers and employers may consider adding cost sharing for preventive services now that a federal court ruled the ACA鈥檚 mandate is unconstitutional.
Patients and Doctors Trapped in a Gray Zone When Abortion Laws and Emergency Care Mandate Conflict
Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, ER doctors say they 鈥 and their patients 鈥 are trapped between state anti-abortion laws and the federal law requiring that care be delivered in emergency situations. Women鈥檚 lives hang in the balance.
Biden鈥檚 FTC Has Blocked 4 Hospital Mergers and Is Poised to Thwart More Consolidation Attempts
The president has directed the Federal Trade Commission to carefully consider health industry mergers that may stymie competition and drive up prices. The new Democratic majority appears eager to look beyond traditional hospital consolidations to deals that involve products, services, or staffing.
FTC Official: Antitrust Push in Health Care Must Focus on a Merger鈥檚 鈥楬uman Impact鈥
Mark Seidman, an assistant director in the Federal Trade Commission鈥檚 Bureau of Competition, talks with KHN about efforts to police consolidation among hospitals and other health care providers.
Digital Mental Health Companies Draw Scrutiny and Growing Concerns
Consumers who have trouble getting in to see a therapist are turning to online behavioral health providers that offer quick access. But there鈥檚 limited research on their effectiveness.
States Watching as Massachusetts Takes Aim at Hospital Building Boom and Costs
A Massachusetts health care cost watchdog agency helped block plans of the state鈥檚 largest hospital system to expand into the suburbs. Now, other states are looking at whether Massachusetts鈥 decade-old model of controlling health costs is worth emulating.
Biden Pledges Better Nursing Home Care, but He Likely Won鈥檛 Fast-Track It
CMS chief Chiquita Brooks-LaSure says the agency reserves its power to quickly institute new regulations for 鈥渁bsolute emergencies.鈥 On staffing, nursing home residents might need to wait years to see any real change.
Resistance to a Boston Hospital鈥檚 Expansion Centers on Rising Prices
Mass General Brigham鈥檚 $2.3 billion expansion plan is raising state officials鈥 concerns that it will reduce competition and raise the price of care in Massachusetts. It also signals a national shift from a focus on hospital mergers and purchases of physician practices 鈥 which boost the cost of care 鈥 to individual hospitals鈥 expansions to gain a bigger share of the market.
La catarata de informaci贸n sobre la inscripci贸n a Medicare no explica bien las opciones de Medigap
En parte porque las pol铆ticas sobre el acceso y los costos de Medigap cambian dependiendo del estado, o por la informaci贸n confusa, muchos beneficiarios no eligen lo que m谩s les conviene.
