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…
CHINCOTEAGUE, Va. — When Azania Lane-Majestic arrived at the beach with her family, her initial excitement gave way to concern. No lifeguards could be seen despite heavy, pounding surf. So she held the hand of her 8-year-old daughter whenever they went in the water. And, just in case, she went online and looked up how…
In a top-rated nursing home in Alexandria, Virginia, the Rev. Donald Goodness is cared for by nurses and aides from various parts of Africa. One of them, Jackline Conteh, a naturalized citizen and nurse assistant from Sierra Leone, bathes and helps dress him most days and vigilantly intercepts any meal headed his way that contains…
From an interesting review paper in the Journal of Economic Perspectives by Craig Garthwaite: Although research and development investments clearly respond to market opportunities, the exact benefits created by these incremental investments remain unclear. This is largely because the exact marginal products developed in response to these incentives are elusive to identify. Certainly, the amount…
Within an hour of receiving a covid vaccination in November 2020, Utah preschool teacher Brianne Dressen felt pins and needles through her arms and legs. In the medical odyssey that followed, she suffered double vision, chronic nausea, brain fog, and profound weakness. Once a rock climber, she became a couch potato. Although Dressen’s symptoms were…
California lawmakers are poised to delay the state’s much-ballyhooed new law mandating in vitro fertilization insurance coverage for millions, set to take effect July 1. Gov. Gavin Newsom has asked lawmakers to push the implementation date to January 2026, leaving patients, insurers, and employers in limbo. The law, SB 729, requires state-regulated health plans offered…
By KIM BELLARD Vaccine experts are going rogue in response to RFK Jr’s attacks on vaccine safety. Health insurers promise – honest…this time – to make prior authorizations less burdensome (although not, of course, to eliminate them). ChatGPT and other LLMs may be making us worse at learning. So many things to write about, but…
AHIP (formerly America’s Health Insurance Plans) released a statement yesterday saying that their health plan members “announced a series of commitments to streamline, simplify and reduce prior authorization.” 48 US health plans signed off on the statement. What were AHIP’s 6 commitments? Standardizing Electronic Prior Authorization. Participating health plans will work toward implementing common, transparent submissions…
Nearly seven months after the fatal shooting of an insurance CEO in New York drew widespread attention to health insurers’ practice of denying or delaying doctor-ordered care, the largest U.S. insurers agreed Monday to streamline their often cumbersome preapproval system. Dozens of insurance companies, including Cigna, Aetna, Humana, and UnitedHealthcare, agreed to several measures, which…
GREENVILLE, Miss. — Cedric Sturdevant woke up with “a bit of depression” but made it to church, as he does every Sunday. In a few days, he would drive from Mississippi to Washington, D.C., to join HIV advocates at an April rally against the Trump administration’s actions. It had clawed back more than $11 billion…