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Medicare is cutting payments to 786 hospitals with the highest infection and complication rates. The list includes a third of the hospitals proclaimed as the nation's "best" in one prominent ranking.

Though it has been on the books for nearly a decade, the Affordable Care Act faces a big court challenge right now that could overturn it. Here's what happens if the federal health law goes away.

Offering health benefits can help elite restaurants hire and keep ace employees. But owners would rather focus on great food, they say, than drown in administrative costs. Is single-payer the answer?

Cities have tasked police and sanitation workers with dismantling homeless camps that they say pose a risk to health and safety. But that's meant some displaced people are losing needed medications.

The case centers on $12 billion in payments the federal government pledged to insurers to defray their losses in the first years of the health law. Did rescinding those payments send premiums soaring?

A young man averted disaster after a friend took him to the nearest hospital just before his appendix burst. But more than a year later, he's still facing a huge bill for his out-of-network surgery.

Nearly 20 rural hospitals closed in 2019, more than any year in the past decade. And more are expected to close. These rural hospitals often see too few patients to pay for their costs.

Medicare's incentive program to discourage nursing homes from discharging patients too quickly will also give bonuses to facilities that have fewer rehospitalizations.

The Government Accountability Office found breakdowns in the way the Food and Drug Administration evaluates drugs for rare diseases. The analysis came after an investigation by Kaiser Health News.

Rising costs have driven millions who don't get a subsidy for their Affordable Care Act health plan to drop the coverage or turn to cheaper, less comprehensive — and sometimes inadequate — insurance.

Molecular diagnostics are at the frontier of medical science. But along with precise information about health, the tests raise billing questions that can create a minefield for patients.

The specialized swabs required for coronavirus tests are quite different from your standard Q-tips. And U.S. hospitals are running out of them, creating another delay in efforts to expand testing.

If someone tells you, "I'd love to go to dinner, but I'm socially distancing," don't be offended. It's likely they are trying to do their part for public health.

Basic health insurance for most affected federal workers will stay in effect, but circumstances are murkier for contractors.

Hospitals and nursing homes in California and Illinois think that regional cooperation — and a particular soap — could help them all gain the upper hand against deadly superbugs.

Ski buff Sarah Witter will get $6,358 back from her hospital and insurer after a review of her bill following the NPR-Kaiser Health News story about her case.

Expect more aggressive regulatory action from the Trump administration while skirmishes continue in Congress and statehouses across the U.S. Many of these policies will ultimately land in court.

An air traffic controller is just one employee locked into the terms of a health plan because of the ongoing federal shutdown. It's meant his child's hospital bills are "out-of-network."

A ruling that the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional is likely to go to the Supreme Court. For now, the decision likely won't affect people who buy insurance on marketplaces created by the law.

As the number of people who inject drugs and share needles has soared, the rate of infection with hep C has climbed, too. Yet many drug treatment patients aren't tested for the liver-damaging virus.

Health insurer UnitedHealthcare plans to cut SilverSneakers, a popular fitness benefit, for 2.5 million people with the company's Medigap and Medicare Advantage coverage.

Pediatricians are struggling to keep their practices afloat financially during the stay-at-home shutdowns caused by the coronavirus epidemic.

Even after buying employer-provided health insurance, an Arizona couple incurred a mountain of medical debt since a new baby was born.

As the partial closure of the government continues, here's a look at the affected programs that have a bearing on health and health care.

Biologic drugs, often made with the help of living organisms, are especially lucrative because they have scant competition from biosimilars, drugs akin to generics. It's a different story in Europe.