Health Insurance and Medicare News & Features

Between 2011 and 2015, your risk of catching an infection while you were in the hospital dropped 16 percent, researchers say.

Residents of for-profit nursing homes have almost twice the risk of health problems linked to neglect compared with people who live in nonprofit homes, researchers say.

Despite being washed with industrial detergent in high, disinfecting temperatures, hospital sheets still were contaminated with the potentially life-threatening C. difficile bacteria, researchers found. And those sheets spread the bacteria to uncontaminated ones.

Privacy curtains in hospital rooms became more contaminated the longer they stayed in place, and by the 14th day, 88 percent tested positive for MRSA bacteria, a serious threat to patients, a new study says.

About 70 percent of all breaches occurred with health care providers, compared with only 13 percent of breaches taking place at health insurance companies, the study findings showed.

In a new study, almost 30 percent of doctors surveyed said they had recorded a visit for a patient's use. And about 19 percent of U.S. adults said they'd done so themselves -- usually after asking the doctor's permission.

Doctors rank their top hospitals in an annual survey by Medscape.

Prices can be expected to rise about 20 percent for drugs facing a shortage, but only about 9 percent for medicines in good supply, researchers report.

The new venture plans to have its first medicines on the market by mid- to late 2019, the AP reported.

“I don’t feel any consumer should have to go through this,” says Drew Calver, who faced a life-changing surprise bill from an Austin hospital after a heart attack last year. After attention as a Bill of the Month patient, he paid the hospital $332. But he worries about other patients with surprise bills.

About 8.3 million Americans now carry health insurance plans purchased through an Obamacare state-based marketplace, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).

The median cost of medical education at a private medical school is $59,605 per year, and the median current debt of a graduating student is $202,000.

The next two spots are also repeats from last year. Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore holds the No. 3 spot, and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston holds the No. 4 spot.

This family of bacteria account for a tenth of hospital-acquired bacterial infections worldwide, and are the fourth and fifth leading cause of blood poisoning in North America and Europe, respectively.

Under Sanders' plan, all U.S. residents would have health coverage, with no copays or deductibles, and private insurers would be restricted to a minor role, the Associated Press reported.

Doctors interrupted patients who were telling them what’s wrong after only 11 seconds and were able to find out the patient's primary reason for the visit only about one-third of the time in a new study conducted by a researcher at the University of Florida.

The change, which is expected to add to premium increases next year, was slammed by major insurance groups, who said the program is working well, the Associated Press reported.

The court ruling against Kentucky's plan to overhaul its Medicaid program was also a setback for the Trump administration, which has encouraged states to impose work requirements on Medicaid beneficiaries and make other changes to the program, the AP reported.

An ER patient can be charged thousands of dollars in “trauma fees” — even if they weren’t treated for trauma.

Not only can seeing the same primary care doctor prolong life, but the same holds true for specialists such as surgeons and psychiatrists.

The Justice Department's decision was announced Thursday in a filing in federal court in Texas. Typically, the department defends federal laws in court.

The Medicare board of trustees said the program's hospital insurance trust fund could run out of money by 2026, three years earlier than previously forecast.

A University of Michigan poll found only about half of patients 50 to 80 years old have set up an online account with their health care provider.

Currently, hospitals must make their prices public, but the new rule requires the information to be posted online in a format that can be easily processed by computers, the Associated Press reported.

The former first lady’s announcement “not to seek additional medical treatment” and to focus on “comfort care” is shining a light on end-of-life choices.