“Breakthrough” COVID-19 Hospitalizations Among Fully Vaccinated Patients Occur Most Often among Older Adults and Involve People with Chronic Health Conditions December 15, 2021 News Release “Breakthrough” hospitalizations involving COVID-19 among people who are fully vaccinated against the disease most often affected older adults and people with other chronic health conditions, finds a new analysis of hospital data from June through September by KFF and Epic Research. More than two-thirds (69%) of breakthrough COVID-19 hospitalizations occurred…
New Analysis of Historical Rates of Medicaid Enrollment Churn Sheds Light on the Implications for the End of the Continuous Enrollment Requirement Tied to Pandemic Funding December 14, 2021 News Release For more than a year-and-a-half, the continuous enrollment requirement tied to enhanced Medicaid funding during the COVID-19 pandemic has all but halted enrollment “churn,” the temporary loss of coverage in which people disenroll from Medicaid and then re-enroll within a short period of time. Such disenrollments are expected to resume…
Medicaid Enrollment Churn and Implications for Continuous Coverage Policies December 14, 2021 Issue Brief Recent policy actions and proposals in Medicaid have renewed focus on the problem of churn, or temporary loss of coverage in which enrollees disenroll and then re-enroll within a short period of time. We find that 10% of full-benefit enrollees have a gap in coverage of less than a year, and rates are higher for children and adults compared to aged and people with disabilities. Churn has implications for access to care as well as administrative costs faced by states.
Medicaid Outpatient Prescription Drug Trends During the COVID-19 Pandemic December 14, 2021 Issue Brief This data note describes Medicaid prescription drug utilization and spending trends in calendar year 2020 compared to previous years to explore how the pandemic impacted Medicaid prescription drug utilization and spending.
Build Back Better Would Change the Ways Low-Income People get Health Insurance December 14, 2021 Issue Brief The Build Back Better Act would make a number of changes to the way people get health insurance and how health care is financed, including by temporarily closing the Medicaid coverage gap.
Health Employment Continues Slow Recovery Since the Beginning of the Pandemic December 10, 2021 News Release Unlike past recessions, the health sector saw a big drop in employment in early 2020 similar to other sectors as the COVID-19 pandemic shut down much of the nation’s economy and remains below expected employment levels through November 2021, a new KFF chart collection shows. The chart collection takes a…
Donor Government Funding for International Family Planning Declines After Increasing the Previous Three Years December 10, 2021 News Release A new KFF analysis finds donor government support for global family planning efforts totaled US$1.40 billion in 2020, a decline of US$114 million compared to last year’s level of US$1.52 billion. This decline in donor funding was largely due to the decreased funding from the UK, family planning’s second largest…
Donor Government Funding for Family Planning in 2020 December 10, 2021 Report In 2020, donor government funding for family planning activities totaled US$1.40 billion, a decline of more than US$100 million compared to the 2019 amount (US$1.52 billion).
The No Surprises Act Begins January 2022: This is What You Can Expect December 10, 2021 News Release The “No Surprises Act,” which establishes new federal protections against most surprise out-of-network medical bills when a patient receives out-of-network services during an emergency visit or from a provider at an in-network hospital without advance notice, will take effect next month. A new KFF brief outlines what to expect in…
Consumer Appeal Rights in Private Health Coverage December 10, 2021 Issue Brief The Affordable Care Act (ACA) gives consumers the right to appeal private health plan claims denials and other adverse decisions, including the incorrect application of cost sharing, although limits apply. This issue brief describes consumer access to appeals and limits on appeal rights that have been adopted through federal regulations.