The Last Major Phase of the COVID-19 Vaccination Roll-out: Children Under 5 June 21, 2022 Issue Brief With the FDA authorization of both Moderna and Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for children between the ages of 6 months and 5, the last major phase of the U.S. vaccination roll-out is underway. This brief provides an overview of the characteristics of children under the age of 5 and discusses some issues to consider in rolling out vaccination to this age group.
Analysis: The Vast Majority of Physicians Accept New Patients, Including Patients With Medicare and Private Insurance May 12, 2022 News Release Despite occasional anecdotal reports of people having trouble finding a doctor who takes their insurance, KFF researchers find in a new analysis that the vast majority of non-pediatric office-based physicians accept new Medicare patients, as well as new private insurance patients. Eighty-nine percent of such physicians accepted new Medicare patients…
Most Office-Based Physicians Accept New Patients, Including Patients With Medicare and Private Insurance May 12, 2022 Issue Brief This brief examines the share of non-pediatric office-based physicians accepting new patients with Medicare or private insurance and how these rates have changed over time and vary by physician specialties, geographic areas, and physician and practice characteristics across Medicare and private insurance. This analysis further examines the extent to which non-pediatric physicians are opting out of Medicare, by specialty and state.
New Interactive Provides Essential Facts and Trends Related to Medicare Spending April 26, 2022 News Release A new KFF interactive provides essential facts and trends about spending on Medicare, the federal health insurance program that covers 65 million seniors and people with disabilities, or nearly 1 in 5 Americans. In 2020, Medicare spending accounted for 12 percent of the federal budget and 20 percent of national…
Outpatient telehealth use soared early in the COVID-19 pandemic but has since receded February 10, 2022 Issue Brief Telehealth use skyrocketed during the early months of the pandemic. While it has since decreased somewhat from that high, it still represents a much more substantial share of health care than before COVID, this KFF-Epic Research analysis finds.
Network Adequacy Standards and Enforcement February 4, 2022 Issue Brief Health plan networks affect patient access to care. This brief reviews options for setting and enforcing network adequacy standards and tools for making differences in plan networks more transparent.
Surprise Medical Bills are Ending, But Controversy Continues January 20, 2022 Perspective In this column for the JAMA Health Forum, Larry Levitt examines how the No Surprises Act that prohibits unexpected out-of-network charges for patients could lead to lower payment rates and revenues for some doctors and other care providers.
Drew Altman: The Pandemic is Boosting the Public’s View of Doctors August 3, 2020 Perspective In this Axios column, Drew Altman looks at how the heroic performance of the nation’s doctors on the frontlines of coronavirus care and effective communication by many physician scientists on television, is shifting the public’s views, with twice as many Americans now saying doctors put people ahead of profits than they did in earlier KFF polling.
Public’s Views of Doctors, Nurses, Insurance Companies, and Drug Companies Survey August 3, 2020 Poll Finding This brief survey examines how the public views the motivations of doctors, nurses, insurance companies, and drug companies when it comes to making profits vs. working for the public good. It updates a question asked in 2005 to measure how views have changed over time.
How Prepared is the U.S. to Respond to COVID-19 Relative to Other Countries? March 27, 2020 Issue Brief Compared to most similarly large and wealthy countries, the U.S. has fewer practicing physicians per capita but has a similar number of licensed nurses per capita. Looking specifically at the hospital setting, the U.S. has more hospital-based employees per capita than most other comparable countries, but nearly half of these hospital workers are non-clinical staff.