Patient Engagement

More than 90 percent of hospitals across the country make patients' medical record available online, according to a new report from the American Hospital Association.

National guidelines call for doctors to provide full disclosure about adverse events, and studies have shown that those discussions benefit patients. But new research finds that the act of disclosure, combined with stress from the procedure gone wrong, can be an anxious experience for some doctors.

The more generic alternatives there are to brand-name drugs, the more likely they will drive down costs for patients and providers. That's the word from a new report from the Journal of the American Medical Association.

According to the department, 108 million Americans have no dental insurance and access to care can be difficult even for those who are covered.

With Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt announcing to the Senate Finance Committee Wednesday that the implementation of MACRA may be delayed, physician groups are weighing in, generally agreeing that a delay would benefit smaller practices in particular.

Americans in their 80s and 90s are not the ones amassing the largest medical bills to hold off death, according to a new analysis that challenges a widely held belief about the costs of end-of-life care.

The deficit of properly trained physicians is expected to get worse. By 2030, one in five Americans will be eligible for Medicare, the government health insurance for those 65 and older.

Many babies born to mothers who are covered by Medicaid are automatically eligible for that coverage during the first year of their lives. In a handful of states, the same is true for babies born to women covered by the Children's Health Insurance Program. Yet, this smart approach is routinely undermined by another federal policy that requires babies' eligibility be reevaluated on their first birthday. Although they're likely still eligible for coverage, many of these toddlers fall through the cracks.

Even when patients were grouped by characteristics such as age or severity of illness, hospitals differed significantly in inpatient costs, length of stay, and time spent in the intensive care unit.

Provider directories for some health plans sold through Covered California and in the private market are so inaccurate that they create an "awful" situation for consumers trying to find doctors, according to the lead author of a new study published in the journal Health Affairs.