Kaiser Health News

In December 2014, Medicare began a pilot program in three states, including Pennsylvania, to cut down on what officials believed were improper payments, including some possible fraud and abuse, in nonemergency ambulance services. The program moved to more aggressively enforce Medicare's long-standing policy requiring that beneficiaries be so weak they could only be moved on a stretcher before it would pay for repeated, nonemergency ambulance service.

In general, both praise and criticisms of the law are accurate. That's because the health law is so big and sweeping that it has had effects both positive and negative. Here is a brief guide to some things the health law has -- and has not -- accomplished since it was signed by President Barack Obama in 2010.

Nearly a third of patients who get colonoscopies to screen for cancer visit a gastroenterologist before having the procedure, at an average cost of $124, even though such visits may be unnecessary, a new study found.

Stung by losses under the federal health law, major insurers are seeking to sharply limit how policies are sold to individuals in ways that consumer advocates say seem to illegally discriminate against the sickest and could hold down future enrollment.

The city of La Habra says the $260 fees are to help recoup expenses that aren't sufficiently covered by insurers.

Peter Lee said UnitedHealth made a series of blunders on rates and networks that led to a $475 million loss last year.

Patients suffered no extra harm when doctors training to be surgeons were allowed to work longer shifts, a study released Tuesday concludes, adding to a push to relax the strictest limits on resident hours.

It's a powerful draw for hospitals and other health care providers scrambling to adjust to sweeping changes in how they're paid for the care they provide. Whether the emails actually trigger an empathetic connection or not, the idea of tailoring regular electronic communications to patients counts as an innovation in health care with potential to save money and improve quality.

Pennsylvania-based Independence Blue Cross' announcement that it will cover a complex type of genetic testing for some cancer patients thrusts the insurer into an ongoing debate about how to handle an increasing array of these expensive tests.

A spoonful of sugar may make the medicine go down, but that's hardly useful if a patient doesn't remember to take it in the first place.