Health Industry

Latest KFF Health News Stories

As Hospitals Get Bigger, Medical Debt Is Harder for Patients To Shake

KFF Health News Original

If you get sick in America, there’s a good chance you’ll end up in debt. Four in 10 U.S. adults have some form of health-care debt, KFF has found. One surprising risk: living in a community where hospitals have consolidated — an increasingly common development as health systems merge or large systems gobble up smaller hospitals. That’s […]

Public Health Departments Face a Post-Covid Funding Crash

KFF Health News Original

During the coronavirus pandemic, states received a rush of funding from the federal government to bolster their fight against the disease. In many cases, that cash flowed into state and local health departments, fueling a staffing surge to handle, among other things, contact tracing and vaccination efforts. But public health leaders quickly identified a familiar […]

Cash Shortages and Complex Rules Impede Native American Health-Care Access

KFF Health News Original

Each year, the Indian Health Service rejects tens of thousands of requests to fund outside care that it doesn’t provide, forcing patients to go without treatment or pay big medical bills themselves. The IHS is supposed to provide free care to Native Americans, but it does so only at scattered clinics and hospitals the agency funds and then manages […]

Calif. Ballot Measure Targets Drug Discount Program Spending

KFF Health News Original

Californians in November will weigh in on a ballot initiative to increase scrutiny over the use of health-care dollars — particularly money from a federal drug discount program — meant to support patient care largely for low-income or indigent people. The revenue is sometimes used to address housing instability and homelessness among vulnerable patient populations. Voters […]