Health Policy

RFK’s HHS cuts leave the U.S. open to a bioweapon attack

Health Policy

June 8, 2026

Both during and since the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple theorists and pundits have postulated that COVID-19 was being developed as a bioweapon, and was mistakenly (or purposely) released from a containment lab, purportedly in China. Other researchers say no. But, either way, the effects upon our country, our society, our health care delivery (with emergency departments and hospitals overwhelmed, while many clinics were forced to shut down), our …

Fragmented care is the gap digital health left open

Robert Nieves, JD, MBA, MPA, RN

Health Policy

June 6, 2026

One of the unintended consequences of digital health is that we became extraordinarily good at collecting information without spending nearly enough time teaching clinicians how to use it together.

For years, health care informatics focused largely on documentation itself. We trained clinicians to click, complete, reconcile, acknowledge, and navigate increasingly complex systems. Conversations emerged around reducing clicks, decreasing documentation burden, and improving workflow efficiency. Those things matter.

But somewhere along the way, …

End-of-life decision-making is never a solo act

Chinmeri Nwuba

Health Policy

June 5, 2026

Technological and biomedical advancements are undeniable blessings in today’s health sector. These advancements have improved life-prolonging technologies. So, clinicians can often sustain biological life long after meaningful recovery is unlikely. Consequently, there is a subtle shift happening in modern medicine, where we are no longer asking whether we can keep people alive but who gets to decide when not to.

This shift becomes clearer when viewed through Ronald Dworkin’s distinction between …

Neonatal care in humanitarian crises is conditional

Maddie Beans

Health Policy

June 4, 2026

Neonatal survival depends on continuity that modern health systems often assume as stable. Thermoregulation, oxygen delivery, infection control, trained clinical staffing, and reliable electricity must function together as an integrated system. When that system is intact, care follows a predictable sequence from delivery through stabilization and escalation when needed. When it is disrupted, survival becomes conditional rather than assured.

In Gaza and Lebanon, ongoing humanitarian conditions have placed neonatal services under …

Insurance consolidation is a patient safety problem

American Society of Anesthesiologists

Health Policy

June 4, 2026

Imagine a physician who has been practicing anesthesiology for 20 years. She is skilled, board-certified, well-liked, and respected by her team. She now works more hours than she did 10 years ago, covers more call, cares for sicker patients, and manages an …

Health care affordability is now a moral crisis

Narinder Singh Parhar, MD

Health Policy

June 4, 2026

“If gravity pulls everything down, why are my health insurance premiums and co-payments skyrocketing?”

The question sounds humorous, but beneath the humor lies frustration shared by millions of Americans. Health care spending in the United States continues to rise year after year. Medical technology has advanced dramatically. We have better imaging, more sophisticated procedures, and an ever-expanding list of medications. Yet many patients are finding health care increasingly difficult to afford. …

U.S. drug shortages threaten national health security

Anmol Gupta, MD, MPP

Health Policy

June 4, 2026

The third pharmacy turned him away. My patient had already driven across Northern Michigan in search of his life-saving cancer medication. The first pharmacy was out of stock. The second was out too. At the third, he was told they hadn’t received a shipment in weeks.

On the other end of this crisis are the physicians. We spend our late evening hours calling store after store, a desperate game of pharmacy …

The real reason value-based care has not delivered

Jeanne Cohen

Health Policy

June 3, 2026

It has been 20 years since the term “value-based care” (VBC) entered the health care lexicon.

VBC was supposed to transform health care. It promised to move the system away from fee-for-service (FFS), a model that rewards volume over outcomes, toward a future defined by prevention, efficiency, better patient results, reduced waste, and lower costs. Two decades later, that promise remains largely unfulfilled. Despite years of pilots, policy pushes, and payment …

RFK’s food pyramid is a win for industry, not health

Martha Rosenberg

Health Policy

May 27, 2026

When Robert Kennedy Jr. (RFK) was confirmed as HHS director last February, overseeing the CDC, NIH, CMS, and FDA, many worried that modern medicines would become unavailable or scarce.

Instead, industry has received unexpected windfalls and green lights from the new policies. Exhibit A: the exoneration of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) from its well-documented links to cancer and cardiovascular effects. The “timing theories” at Wake Forest that helped turn HRT on …

How cross-sector collaboratives cut health care costs

Christine Schuster, RN, MBA

Health Policy

May 22, 2026

Health care costs continue to rise, yet the conversation about why often feels like a loop. Hospitals point to insurers. Insurers point to hospitals. Pharmacy benefit managers cite manufacturers. Manufacturers point back across the system. Meanwhile, patients are left trying to make sense of bills that feel disconnected from the care they received. In Massachusetts, often viewed as a national model for health care coverage, the average total cost of …

Why health care accountability demands system readiness

Tiffiny Black, DM, MPA, MBA

Health Policy

May 22, 2026

Most conversations about failure in health care begin in the same place: What went wrong? A patient safety event. A staffing collapse. A breakdown in communication. A system failure that appears, at first glance, to be sudden and unexpected. But what if the more important question is not what went wrong, but what was already known?

Health care does not suffer from a lack of awareness. The signals are there: rising …

How Medicare reimbursement hurts independent physicians

James Albert, MD

Health Policy

May 21, 2026

Independent physicians, particularly in rural communities, have spent years navigating a steady stream of financial cuts, rising costs, and policy instability. Over time, these pressures have forced difficult decisions: scaling back services, reducing staff, and in too many cases, closing care centers altogether.

While there has been modest, temporary relief through adjustments in the Physician Fee Schedule (PFS), it has not been enough to reverse the broader trend. Many practices remain …

Medicare physician pay has fallen 33 percent since 2001

Kayvan Haddadan, MD

Health Policy

May 21, 2026

Patient care is getting squeezed. For years now, the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule has failed to give doctors the resources they need to keep up with rising costs and deliver high-quality care. The result is real strain on practices, especially smaller and independent ones, and growing risks for patients who rely on Medicare.

When you adjust for inflation, Medicare payment rates to physicians have dropped by about 33 percent …

Health insurance coverage loss threatens sick children

Mansi Kotwal, MD, MPH

Health Policy

May 18, 2026

In a group text with fellow pediatricians, I received a message asking if anyone knew where a child could get a blood draw that was not the emergency room. The question came from a colleague on behalf of another physician friend. She was worried her son might be anemic because of how he looked pale and was unusually fatigued.

She had just switched jobs and her son was not covered yet …

Independent physicians are missing from health care policy

Scott Tzorfas, MD

Health Policy

May 15, 2026

A new federal Health Care Advisory Committee has been announced to guide policy for Medicare, Medicaid, and other major health programs. Its mission is ambitious: improve outcomes, modernize care, and address the growing burden of chronic disease.

But there is a glaring omission. Not one independent, private practice physician, someone who manages chronic illness in the community every day, is represented. That is striking because at least one-quarter of all physicians …

How gold cards can drive California pain management reform

Kayvan Haddadan, MD

Health Policy

May 14, 2026

Key issues in California’s health care system highlight some structural problems that hit patients, doctors, and communities hard. These aren’t abstract policy debates; they are day-to-day realities in pain management, chronic care, and everyday practice. Core issues, which were pulled from the previously published articles, include but are not limited to:

Physician exodus and shortages: High taxes, aggressive board scrutiny, and a tough environment drive doctors out of California …
Read more…

How gold cards can drive California pain management reform

Medical malpractice risks persist even after saving a life

Chinmeri Nwuba

Health Policy

May 13, 2026

It is 2:17 a.m. in a crowded emergency room. A patient is rushed in. The patient is unconscious, unstable, and rapidly deteriorating. There is no time to obtain a detailed medical history, no opportunity for a careful discussion of risks, and obviously no time to seek consent. The doctor decides to take immediate action which saves the patient’s life. Weeks pass. The same doctor is served with a lawsuit.

At first …

A Medicare for All alternative that keeps insurers in

Ken Terry

Health Policy

May 12, 2026

An excerpt from Beyond Medicare For All: Cracking the Code of the Healthcare Affordability Crisis.

If our goal is high-quality, comprehensive, affordable health care for all, we must make health care less profitable. If health systems and corporations continue to control health care and their main goal is profit, health costs will continue to rise faster than the ability of society to pay, regardless of any reform efforts.

On the other …

Bridging the health equity gap with artificial intelligence

Judith Eguzoikpe, MD, MPH

Health Policy

May 9, 2026

Let us be honest about what is really happening: Automation is coming for medicine, and equity is still waiting in line. Across hospital systems, medical schools, and conference stages, a profession is holding its breath. The question consuming medicine right now is not about patients. It is about survival. About whether artificial intelligence (AI) will hollow out what took decades to build, whether the clinical judgment earned through sleepless residencies …

California’s governor race is missing a health care plan

Kayvan Haddadan, MD

Health Policy

May 7, 2026

As California gears up for its gubernatorial primaries and debates, the familiar issues dominate the conversation: housing affordability, crime, taxes, and economic pressures. Health care surfaces, but rarely as a central priority with concrete, actionable solutions. Candidates offer broad strokes on affordability or protecting programs from federal changes, yet the crushing realities of escalating costs, physician shortages, regulatory burdens, and a system skewed against preventive, relationship-centered care receive little more …

Health Policy

Most Popular

Past Week

Past 6 Months

Recent Posts

Subscribe to KevinMD and never miss a story!

Most Popular

Past Week

Past 6 Months

Recent Posts