Wary of inflation, Americans have been watching the prices of everyday items such as eggs and gasoline. A less-noticed expense should cause greater alarm: rising premiums for health insurance. They have been trending upward for years and are now rising faster than ever. Consider that, from 2000 to 2020, egg prices fluctuated between just under…
By JASON HINES On August 1, 2025, Capital Women’s Care (CWC), one of the largest OB/GYN practices in the Mid-Atlantic region went out-of-network with UnitedHealthcare, affecting tens of thousands of women across Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Washington D.C. The contract dispute between Capital Women’s Care (CWC) and UnitedHealthcare offers a fascinating case study in how price transparency…
A paper by Dillibe et al. (2025), examined primary data obtained from 555 US-based patients who reported switching providers between 2018 and 2022. To analyze these data, the authors used critical incident technique (CIT). CIT is implemented by asking participants to recall and describe specific events or behaviors that contributed to important outcomes (in this…
By CHINELO GRACE CHIGOZIE The U.S. has a healthcare cost problem that everyone knows about but no one talks about openly. For decades, the same medical treatment has cost very different amounts. Hospitals down the street from each other might charge five times more or less for the exact same thing. Patients couldn’t find out…
The Host Julie Rovner KFF Health News @jrovner @julierovner.bsky.social Read Julie’s stories. Julie Rovner is chief Washington correspondent and host of KFF Health News’ weekly health policy news podcast, “What the Health?” A noted expert on health policy issues, Julie is the author of the critically praised reference book “Health Care Politics and Policy A…
It started with a high school typing course. Wanda Woods enrolled because her father advised that typing proficiency would lead to jobs. Sure enough, the federal Environmental Protection Agency hired her as an after-school worker while she was still a junior. Her supervisor “sat me down and put me on a machine called a word…
“My son was diagnosed with congenital CMV, a virus that can cause hearing loss. As part of this diagnosis, he will be required to have routine hearing tests every few months until he is 10 years old. I reached out to you because I wanted to know why my son’s hearing tests weren’t covered by…
Ingrid is one of the OGs of customer service in health plans, PBMs and as she insists startups. She and her co-founder Marin Nelson have built Sobrynth–a company that is taking a whole new approach to helping with (primarily) alcohol addiction in the workplace. Despite the rise of mental health solutions, EAP, the focus on…
Conventional wisdom holds that alcohol use is part of American culture…but perhaps this is changing. According to a Gallup poll released last week, not only is alcohol use declining but there is an increasing perception that alcohol use is not good for you. While a majority of Americans (54%) still use alcohol, drinking rates are…
UnitedHealth Group’s multibillion-dollar pharmacy benefit manager, Optum Rx, is suing five Kentucky counties in an attempt to force them out of national opioid litigation against the company. Pharmacy benefit managers, often called PBMs, act as middlemen that negotiate prescription drug prices between drug companies, insurance plans, and pharmacies. Some lawyers and advocates say PBMs helped…