Jordan Rau

Kaiser Health News staff writer.

Work by Jordan

Doctor-owned hospitals prosper under health law

Doctor-owned hospitals are earning many of the largest bonuses from the federal health law's new quality programs, even as the law halts their growth.

Behind the fiscal cliff deal, a prolonged hospital finance fight

Hospitals complain they are bearing the brunt of sustaining payment levels for doctors but the changes in Medicare were a long time coming.

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Hospitals offer wide array of services to keep patients from needing to return

In the past, the only thing a patient was sure to get after a hospital stay was a bill. But as Medicare cracks down on high readmission rates, hospitals are dispatching nurses, transportation, culturally specific diet tips, free medications and even bathroom scales to patients deemed at risk of relapsing.

Medicare revises hospitals' readmissions penalties

Medicare's new readmission penalties for hospitals just got a bit tougher. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has discovered errors in its initial calculations in August. As a result, 1,422 hospitals with comparatively high readmission rates will lose slightly more money than they were expecting.

Medicare to tie doctors' pay to quality, cost of care

Twenty thousand physicians in four Midwest states received a glimpse into their financial future last month. Landing in their e-mail inboxes were links to reports from Medicare showing the amount their patients cost on average as well as the quality of the care they provided. The reports also showed how Medicare spending on each doctor's patients compared to their local peers in Kansas, Iowa, Missouri and Nebraska.

Support of health law rebounds a bit

The latest Kaiser Family Foundation monthly poll shows that the health reform law’s popularity rose a bit after hitting a new low last month.

Poll: Few Americans think health is improving in the U.S.

The results of a new poll show 45 percent of people think the health of Americans had worsened in the last five years, and one public health researcher says economic concerns may be at least partly to blame.

Public support of health law drops sharply

Public support of last year’s health care law hit an all-time low in October as many Democratic voters lost confidence that one of President Barack Obama’s major programs will improve their lives, a new poll finds. For the first time, as many people believe the law won’t make the country better off as believe it will.

Census: Rate of uninsured Americans flat in 2010

Report shows 13 percent of Kansans lack health insurance

The number of Americans without health insurance coverage rose to 49.9 million in 2010 from 49 million in 2009, the Census Bureau reported today.

Questions and answers about health reform

A Kaiser Health News Q & A looking at what comes next

Now that the Senate has passed a health reform bill, Kaiser Health News describes the consequences in a questions-and-answers format.

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