Chad Terhune
KFF Health News
Los Angeles, CA, United States
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Past articles by Chad:
Coverage Denied: Medicaid Patients Suffer As Layers Of Private Companies Profit
Managed-care plans, which reap billions in taxpayer dollars to coordinate care for low-income Americans on Medicaid, outsource crucial treatment decisions to subcontractors that aren’t directly accountable to the government. In California, health officials say one firm improperly withheld or delayed care for hundreds of people. → Read More
Coverage Denied: Medicaid Patients Suffer As Layers Of Private Companies Profit
Managed-care plans, which reap billions in taxpayer dollars to coordinate care for low-income Americans on Medicaid, outsource crucial treatment decisions to subcontractors that aren’t directly accountable to the government. In California, health officials say one firm improperly withheld or delayed care for hundreds of people. → Read More
Billions In ‘Questionable Payments’ Went To California’s Medicaid Insurers And Providers
The money was paid on behalf of more than 400,000 people who may have been ineligible for the public program, a state audit found. One had been dead for four years before payments stopped. → Read More
Billions In ‘Questionable Payments’ Went To California’s Medicaid Insurers And Providers
The money was paid on behalf of more than 400,000 people who may have been ineligible for the public program, a state audit found. One had been dead for four years before payments stopped. → Read More
As Billions In Tax Dollars Flow To Private Medicaid Plans, Who’s Minding The Store?
Insurance companies profit from government contracts but are subject to little oversight of how they spend the money or care for patients. The expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act has only exacerbated the problem. → Read More
Billions of tax dollars flow to private Medicaid plans. But is anyone minding the store?
Some experts ask whether insurance companies — now receiving hundreds of billions in public money — are earning their Medicaid checks. → Read More
As Billions In Tax Dollars Flow To Private Medicaid Plans, Who’s Minding The Store?
Insurance companies profit from government contracts but are subject to little oversight of how they spend the money or care for patients. The expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act has only exacerbated the problem. → Read More
Private Medicaid Plans Receive Billions In Tax Dollars, With Little Oversight
More than two-thirds of Medicaid recipients are enrolled in privately run Medicaid managed care programs. Yet the evidence is thin these contractors improve patient care or save the government money. → Read More
Paper Jam: California’s Medicaid Program Hits ‘Print’ When The Feds Need Info
Amid the buzz over apps and electronic medical records rescuing modern medicine, California’s Medicaid program still clings to 1970s-era technology. A reboot may cost half a billion dollars. → Read More
As California Hospitals Sweep Up Physician Practices, Patients See Higher Bills
A Health Affairs study quantifies the financial effects of such mergers on consumers and their insurers. The hospital industry and doctor practices say the consolidation leads to better coordination of care. → Read More
The $109K Heart Attack Bill Is Down To $332. What About Other Surprise Bills?
“I don’t feel any consumer should have to go through this,” says Drew Calver, who faced a life-changing surprise bill from an Austin hospital after a heart attack last year. After attention as a "Bill of the Month" patient, he paid the hospital $332. But he worries about other patients with surprise bills. → Read More
His $109K Heart Attack Bill Is Now Down To $332 After NPR Told His Story
"I don't feel any consumer should have to go through this," says Drew Calver, of the huge surprise bill he got from an Austin hospital after his 2017 heart attack. He's worried about other patients. → Read More
A Jolt To The Jugular! You’re Insured But Still Owe $109K For Your Heart Attack
A Texas teacher, 44, faces a “balance bill” of almost twice his annual salary for a heart attack he never expected to have. → Read More
Life-Threatening Heart Attack Leaves Teacher With $108,951 Bill
An insured Texas teacher, 44, faces a "balance bill" of almost twice his annual salary from an out-of-network hospital's treatment of his sudden heart attack. → Read More
A Black Eye For Blue Shield: Consumers Lash Out Over Coverage Lapses
The state’s third-largest insurer faces anger from customers in the individual market who unexpectedly lost their insurance despite paying premiums faithfully. In its recently filed lawsuit, the company blamed a contractor for “egregious” billing problems. → Read More
Californians with Blue Shield health plans complain of sudden, erroneous cancellations
Californians with individual Blue Shield policies say they have been subject to sudden, erroneous cancellations, especially in recent months, forcing them to go without heart medicine, skip vaccinations for their children and pay hundreds of dollars out-of-pocket for other medical care. → Read More
A Black Eye For Blue Shield: Consumers Lash Out Over Coverage Lapses
The state’s third-largest insurer faces anger from customers in the individual market who unexpectedly lost their insurance despite paying premiums faithfully. In its recently filed lawsuit, the company blamed a contractor for “egregious” billing problems. → Read More
Top Trump Health Official Takes Swipes At ACA, Single-Payer In Enemy Territory
After a San Francisco speech focused mostly on Medicare, Seema Verma fielded questions that underscored the administration’s differences with California on other key health care issues. → Read More
Top Trump Health Official Takes Swipes At ACA, Single-Payer In Enemy Territory
After a San Francisco speech focused mostly on Medicare, Seema Verma fielded questions that underscored the administration’s differences with California on other key health care issues. → Read More
Top Trump health official takes swipes at ACA, single-payer in enemy territory
After a San Francisco speech focused on Medicare, Seema Verma fielded questions that underscored the administration’s differences with California on other key health care issues. → Read More