Reprinted with permission from Kaiser Health News
September 5th, 2012 – While policymakers debate complex changes to reduce health spending, promoting patients’ involvement in treatment decisions could have an immediate effect. A new Health Affairs report about decision aids — materials given to patients to help educate them about treatment options — shows they can help hold down costs by reducing demand for medical procedures.
Sept. 4, 2012 – With Medicare poised next month to give bonuses and penalties to hospitals based on how they ranked in quality standards, a number of health policy experts are questioning whether the amounts of money at stake are large enough to make a difference.
July 3, 2012 A fight between the Washington state insurance commissioner and the state’s largest seller of individual health insurance is spotlighting problems in that increasingly troubled market. The spat arose over insurers’ efforts to curb soaring premiums by restricting or eliminating prescription drug benefits.Experts say they haven’t yet seen similar moves by insurers in other states to axe drug coverage from policies sold in the individual market. But some predict expensive drug benefits will offer an inviting target.
May 24, 2012--A multi-billion dollar federal initiative to move low-income elderly and disabled people from long-term care facilities into the community has fallen far short of its goals, as many states have struggled to cobble together housing and other services.Wayne Cook watches neighborhood children play in the courtyard as home health aide Jacqueline Goodman organizes his daily medications at his home in San Leandro, Calif.
February 21, 2012 -- Seven organizations will receive a total of $639 million in federal low-interest loans to launch new, consumer-governed health insurance plans in eight states, the federal government announced Tuesday.
This article was reprinted from www.kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
