Category: Press Release

The CMS hospital-at-home waiver and Medicare telehealth flexibilities would continue under a $1.2 trillion spending package released Jan. 20 by the House Appropriations Committee. The three-year, omnibus government funding bill would extend acute hospital care at home through Sept. 30, 2030, and Medicare telehealth policies through Dec. 31, 2027. Both programs are otherwise set to […]

Sacramento, Calif.-based Sutter Health expects several measurable returns from AI in 2026, including the flagging of an additional 17,000 patients with potentially serious conditions. The 27-hospital system is anticipating the benefits after deploying an enterprise AI operating system from startup Aidoc in 2025. “We’re leading the way in applying AI to deliver faster, smarter and […]

About a year after West Texas reported a large measles outbreak, South Carolina has the most measles cases of any U.S. state so far in 2026.  The CDC is reporting 145 confirmed measles cases in South Carolina as of Jan. 13, while the state’s health department is counting 558 cases as of Jan. 16. Most […]

Los Angeles-based Prospect Medical Holdings said it plans to move forward with a $1 million sale of its shuttered Springfield (Pa.) Hospital to KQT Aikens Partners 2 after the original bidder failed to close the transaction.  Prospect, which sought Chapter 11 protection in January 2025, closed Springfield Hospital in 2022. The company received approval in […]

In a review of 258 patients with Type 2 diabetes who underwent metabolic bariatric surgery or medical and lifestyle interventions, including GLP-1 drugs, surgery was superior regardless of social determinants of health.  The research, published Jan. 20 in Annals of Internal Medicine, pulls from randomized clinical trials conducted across four U.S. academic medical centers. These […]

When a “Make America Healthy Again” summit was held at the posh Waldorf Astoria in Washington, the line of attendees stretched down the block. The daylong, invitation-only event in November featured a who’s who of MAHA luminaries. Vice President JD Vance attended, as did Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the leader […]

Letters to the Editor is a periodic feature. We welcome all comments and will publish a selection. We edit for length and clarity and require full names. KFF Health News received dozens of letters in response to an article last month describing how state budget shortfalls have led to cuts targeting therapies that many families of autistic people […]

Cynthia Freeman, una artista de 61 años que vive en Nueva York, lleva tiempo tratando de encontrar la manera de mantener el plan médico de la Ley de Cuidado de Salud a Bajo Precio (ACA, en inglés) del que dependen ella y su esposo. “Si no tuviéramos problemas de salud, volvería a lo que hacía […]

Incentivizing high nursing home staffing levels in the U.S. could result in 6,142 fewer hospitalizations each year, according to a study published Jan. 16 in JAMA Health Forum.  The study was conducted by researchers from Bethlehem, Pa.-based Lehigh University, Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins University, Washington, D.C.-based Georgetown University and the University of California, Los Angeles.  Researchers […]

As rural hospitals across the nation continue to face mounting financial challenges and closures, East Adams Rural Healthcare’s Ritzville (Wash.) Hospital is emerging as a success story through aggressive operational and financial changes, with hopes to become the state’s first rural emergency hospital by April 1. “We just don’t have a big enough population to […]