When Copay Assistance Backfires on Patients
In early 2019, Jennifer Hepworth and her husband were stunned by a large bill they unexpectedly received for their daughter’s prescription cystic fibrosis medication. Their payment had risen to $3,500…
How Your In-Network Health Coverage Can Vanish Before You Know It
Sarah Feldman, 35, received the first ominous letters from Mount Sinai Medical last November. The New York hospital system warned it was having trouble negotiating a pricing agreement with UnitedHealthcare,…
A New $16k Postpartum Depression Drug Is Here. How Will Insurers Handle It?
A much-awaited treatment for postpartum depression, zuranolone, hit the market in December, promising an accessible and fast-acting medication for a debilitating illness. But most private health insurers have yet to…
Biden Team, UnitedHealth Struggle to Restore Paralyzed Billing Systems After Cyberattack
Margaret Parsons, one of three dermatologists at a 20-person practice in Sacramento, California, is in a bind. Since a Feb. 21 cyberattack on a previously obscure medical payment processing company,…
Si eres pobre, un tratamiento de fertilidad suele ser un sueño inaccesible
El primer embarazo de Mary Delgado se desarrolló según lo previsto, pero cuando lo intentó de nuevo siete años más tarde, no pudo concebir. Después de 10 meses, Delgado, que…
Journalists Examine Medicaid Unwinding, Farmworkers’ Mental Health, and the Big Opioid Payback
KFF Health News senior correspondent Aneri Pattani discussed how Mobile, Alabama, is weighing whether to use opioid settlement funds to pay treatment costs now or invest in long-term solutions to…
Readers Call on Congress to Bolster Medicare and Fix Loopholes in Health Policy
Letters to the Editor is a periodic feature. We welcome all comments and will publish a selection. We edit for length and clarity and require full names. Occupational Therapists Change…
Hacking at UnitedHealth Unit Cripples a Swath of the US Health System: What to Know
Early in the morning of Feb. 21, Change Healthcare, a company unknown to most Americans that plays a huge role in the U.S. health system, issued a brief statement saying…
If You’re Poor, Fertility Treatment Can Be Out of Reach
Mary Delgado’s first pregnancy went according to plan, but when she tried to get pregnant again seven years later, nothing happened. After 10 months, Delgado, now 34, and her partner,…
Opposition to Medicaid Expansion Thaws in an Unexpected Place: The Deep South
For more than a decade, some Southern states have resisted Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act, even though data suggest it could help their residents. Today, the large majority…