Kaiser Health News

Massachusetts is aiming set the first statewide target for healthcare spending in the U.S. by holding healthcare cost increases to the same rate as the state's economy.

In what is shaping up as the first state-federal showdown on Medicaid following the Supreme Court's ruling on President Barack Obama's health law, Maine is moving ahead with plans to cut about 38,000 people from its rolls to balance its state budget.

The future of the nation's largest health insurance program -- Medicaid -- hangs in the balance of the Supreme Court's decision on the 2010 health law.

A multi-billion dollar federal initiative to move low-income elderly and disabled people from long-term care facilities into the community has fallen far short of its goals, as many states have struggled to cobble together housing and other services.

Medicare plans on using resource use reports to tie physician reimbursement to quality and costs of care.

Later this month, just as the Supreme Court is hearing arguments on the 2010 health law, the House is expected to pass a measure that would repeal an advisory board created in the law to curb Medicare spending if it exceeds specific targets.

Friday was Donald Berwick's last day as administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Much of the focus in Washington has been on fixing Social Security's retirement system, but the disability system is in much worse shape. The trust fund that supports disability benefits will run out of money by 2017, according to new estimates.