Letters to the Editor
Readers And Tweeters Dive Into Debate Over ‘Medicare For All’
Kaiser Health News gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories.
Hospitals
701-720 of 1,136 results
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Growing Concerns Of Coronavirus Should Spur Plans 鈥 Not Panic 鈥 In The Workplace
Even in the event of an outbreak, employers have to follow certain rules in their efforts to protect employees from this virus.
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It’s Not Just Hospitals That Sue Patients Who Can’t Pay
Until very recently, the separate company that runs the emergency department at Nashville General Hospital in Tennessee was continuing to haul patients who couldn't pay medical bills into court.
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Analysis: Who Profits From Steep Medical Bills? The People Tasked With Fixing Them.
Surprise bills are just the latest weapons in a decades-long war among health care industry players over who gets to keep聽the fortunes generated each year from patient illness: $3.6 trillion聽in 2018. The practice is an outrage, yet no one in the health care sector wants to unilaterally make the type of big concessions that would change things.
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One Defensive Strategy Against Surprise Medical Bills: Set Your Own Terms
By writing in payment limits when signing hospital forms, patients might have leverage in negotiations over disputes that arise from surprise medical bills.
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Patients Caught In Crossfire Between Giant Hospital Chain, Large Insurer
Insurance giant Cigna and San Francisco-based Dignity Health have failed to ink a 2020 contract, leaving nearly 17,000 patients in California and Nevada scrambling to find new health care providers. Meanwhile, Dignity faces financial and legal challenges while it strives to implement its merger with Catholic Health Initiatives, which created one of the nation鈥檚 largest Catholic hospital systems.
By Brian Krans -
Preeminent Hospitals Penalized Over Rates Of Patients鈥 Injuries
Medicare cut payments for 786 hospitals because of high infection and complication rates. They included a third of the hospitals proclaimed as the nation鈥檚 best in one prominent ranking.
By Jordan Rau -
A Guide To Following The Health Debate In The 2020 Elections
As the Democratic primary campaign nears pivotal voting, important aspects of health care policy are being overlooked.
By Julie Rovner -
Appendicitis Is Painful 鈥 Add A $41,212 Surgery Bill To The Misery
A young man averted medical disaster after a friend took him to the nearest hospital just before his appendix burst. But more than a year later, he鈥檚 still facing a $28,000 balance bill for his out-of-network surgery.
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Terminally Ill, He Wanted Aid-In-Dying. His Catholic Hospital Said No.
Neil Mahoney had terminal cancer. He also had a legal right to aid-in-dying. But his faith-based hospital called it 鈥渕orally unacceptable.鈥 So he turned to a network of Colorado doctors to fulfill his last wish.
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Listen: How High-Deductible Plans Hurt Rural America
KHN senior correspondent Markian Hawryluk joined Colorado Public Radio鈥檚 Avery Lill on 鈥淐olorado Matters鈥 to discuss his recent story on how high-deductible health plans are especially hurting the financial health of patients and hospitals in rural America.
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No Shield From X-Rays: How Science Is Rethinking Lead Aprons
A number of radiology organizations are trying to end the decades-old practice of shielding patients from radiation with lead aprons. They say it provides no benefit and might even inadvertently expose people to higher radiation levels. But the policy about-face is moving slowly.
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Must-Reads Of The Week From Brianna Labuskes
Newsletter editor Brianna Labuskes wades through hundreds of health care policy stories each week, so you don't have to.
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Picture Of Health
Hospital Known For Glamorous Patients Opens New Doors To Its Neediest
For years, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, one of California鈥檚 largest nonprofit hospitals, has been spending less on charity care than other nonprofit hospitals in the state. Now it is expanding eligibility for free and discounted medical care.
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Effort To Control Opioids In An ER Leaves Some Sickle Cell Patients In Pain
People with sickle cell disease aren't fueling the opioid crisis, research shows. Yet some ER doctors still treat patients seeking relief for agonizing sickle cell crises as potential addicts.
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Must-Reads Of The Week From Brianna Labuskes
Newsletter editor Brianna Labuskes wades through hundreds of health care policy stories each week, so you don't have to.
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Hospital Group Mum As Members Pursue Patients With Lawsuits And Debt Collectors
The influential trade association has said little over the years as health systems, including those of its own trustees, seized patients鈥 incomes and assets. Now it is reevaluating.
By Jay Hancock -
Coping With Loss Of Hospital, Rural Town Realizes: We Don鈥檛 Need A Hospital
It鈥檚 been about a year since the hospital in Fort Scott, Kan., closed. The lessons for this community about meeting its residents鈥 health needs could provide insights for the rest of the country.
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California AG Details 鈥楬istoric鈥 Settlement Agreement In Sutter Health Antitrust Case
Sutter Health will pay $575 million to settle a high-profile antitrust case filed by California鈥檚 attorney general. In addition, it has agreed to end a host of practices that the state alleged unfairly stifled competition.
By Jenny Gold -
Analysis: In Medical Billing, Fraudulent Charges Weirdly Pass As Legal
After my husband had a bike accident, we were subjected to medical bills that no one would accept if they had been delivered by a contractor, or a lawyer or an auto mechanic. Such charges are sanctioned by insurers, which generally pay because they have no way to know whether you received a particular item or service 鈥 and it鈥檚 not worth their time to investigate the millions of medical interactions they write checks for each day.