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A $50 billion federal fund is supposed to modernize rural health with electronic health records, AI, telehealth, and more. But community clinics and rural health advocates fear that the contractors administering the money for states will bite off a big chunk before it reaches rural patients.
Florida鈥檚 KidCare expansion has been stuck in legal limbo since February 2024. Since then, the number of uninsured children in Florida has risen to 400,000 鈥 one of the highest state tallies.
Patients are getting stuck in the emergency department for days while waiting for a spot in an inpatient ward.
Real estate investment trusts are landlords for thousands of nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and hospitals. Some select the managers and keep close watch over their performance but deny responsibility for bad care.
Starting next year, about 18.5 million adults will be subject to new Medicaid work rules in 42 states and Washington, D.C. Applicants must show they鈥檝e been working for at least a month before receiving benefits. Some Republican-controlled states want to triple the required work period.
Some states already don鈥檛 have enough staff to quickly process Medicaid applications and answer enrollees鈥 phone calls. Researchers say they may not be prepared to handle new Medicaid work rules, predicting people will lose coverage as a result.
Federal health officials have ordered states to reverify the immigration status of hundreds of thousands of Medicaid enrollees. After seven months, findings from five states show the reviews have uncovered few immigrants without legal status who are improperly receiving benefits.
The Trump administration faces the challenge of naming a new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who can both satisfy the Make America Healthy Again movement and get confirmed by the Senate. Meanwhile, a new Senate bill to rescind the approval of the abortion pill mifepristone is again elevating the abortion debate, which some Republicans would prefer to stay on the back burner until after the midterms. Shefali Luthra of The 19th, Lizzy Lawrence of Stat, and Rachel Cohrs Zhang of Bloomberg News join 吃瓜不打烊鈥 Julie Rovner to discuss the news. Also this week, Rovner interviews Georgetown University Law Center鈥檚 Katie Keith about the state of the Affordable Care Act on its 16th anniversary.
The Trump administration鈥檚 unprecedented actions targeting Medicaid funding in Minnesota are part of what could become a playbook as officials turn pressure toward California, Florida, Maine, and New York.
Trump administration officials say the state allows rampant fraud and have promised to investigate, blaming the 鈥淩ussian, Armenian mafia鈥 in the hospice and home health care industry. But data shows hotbeds of health care fraud throughout the country, with California outperforming most other states in recovering fraud dollars.
Medicare Advantage insurers say a proposal by the Trump administration to keep their payments nearly flat next year may lead to service cuts that harm seniors struggling to afford health care. A decision is due by early next month.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had another tough week. In addition to Kennedy having rotator cuff surgery, the nomination of his ally to become surgeon general is teetering, the controversial head of the FDA's vaccine center is resigning next month, and a new survey shows Americans trust government health officials less than they do former Biden official Anthony Fauci. Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico Magazine, and Shefali Luthra of The 19th join 吃瓜不打烊鈥 Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more.
Some Republican state lawmakers and state health associations are pushing back against spending plans under the Trump administration鈥檚 $50 billion federal rural health fund. Federal administrators already approved states鈥 plans, but in many cases, state lawmakers must greenlight spending.
Health care prices are on the rise, and patients are flummoxed that even insurance companies aren鈥檛 doing more to control costs.
State officials believe they鈥檝e found a way to extend the life of federal Rural Health Transformation Program money Wyoming is receiving as part of last summer鈥檚 One Big Beautiful Bill Act 鈥 by investing most of it.
Politicians have pushed for price transparency in health care. But instead of patients shopping for services, it鈥檚 mostly health systems and insurers that are using the information, as fodder for negotiations over pay.
A planned 10-year federal program called Making Care Primary was supposed to help primary care doctors by easing administrative burdens, allowing them to focus on improving patients鈥 health. A year after the Trump administration eliminated the program, federal officials created an alternative plan that favors companies.
The Trump administration鈥檚 move to give deportation officials access to Medicaid data is forcing hospitals and states to consider alerting immigrant patients that information from emergency medical coverage applications could be used in efforts to remove them from the country.
Breakups between insurers and health systems, on top of plan cuts, left more than 3.7 million Medicare Advantage enrollees facing a tough choice last year: find new insurance or new doctors. But hospital systems say their Advantage plans can avert such upheaval, giving patients peace of mind.
Two Trump administration regulatory rollbacks affect nursing home staffing and home care workers, and a new AI experiment in Medicare has alarmed eldercare advocates and congressional Democrats.
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