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State News

Kentucky

Below is a list of healthcare value news from Kentucky.

Kentucky ranked 29 out of 47 states plus DC, with a score of 30.6 out of 80 possible points in the Hub's 2021 Healthcare Affordability State Policy Scorecard.


Kentucky | Sep 4, 2024 | Report | Health Costs

Marketplace Coverage in Kentucky Offers Affordable Coverage; More Progress Needed

“Kentucky’s health insurance marketplace has been effective at providing affordable coverage
options on a consistent basis” according to an analysis at KyPolicy, Kentucky Center for
Economic Policy. Premium amounts have stayed relatively stable over the last ten years,
individual marketplace signups have remained stable, and the recent improved federal
subsidies have further lowered coverage costs. However, this analysis argues it remains very
expensive to use the coverage, with the out-of-pocket costs contributing to making using
health coverage unaffordable.


Kentucky | Jun 13, 2022 | News Story

Kentucky Promotes No-Cost Services to Combat Drug Addiction

The Kentucky governor announced the state’s efforts to establish counties as “Recovery Ready Communities,” to provide high-quality recovery programs across Kentucky, reports Spectrum News 1. Cities and counties can apply for certification upon offering transportation, support groups and employment services at no cost for people seeking treatment for drug or alcohol addiction. Kentucky’s Office of Drug Control Policy and other community partners, including Volunteers of America, is launching the certification program.


Kentucky | Sep 25, 2020 | News Story | Affordability Consumer Voices

Kentucky Man Faces Heartbreaking Bills, Lawsuit and Bankruptcy — Even With Insurance

A Kentucky man who needed emergency treatment for a heart condition was sued by Baptist Health Louisville and forced to declare bankruptcy in his 20s after he couldn’t pay his hospital bills, despite having insurance, reports Kaiser Health News. The man, who was covered by a high deductible health plan, owed more than a quarter of his annual income after a life-saving procedure and was unable to keep up with the payment plan established by the nonprofit hospital. The man is one of many U.S. residents who are “functionally uninsured,” meaning that their insurance deductibles are greater than their savings. His account demonstrates the harm that can arise from high-deductible health plans that appear attractive because of their low premiums and may be the only plans that people earning low incomes can afford.


Kentucky | Aug 15, 2020 | News Story | Health Costs Affordability

Survey Reveals 77 Percent of Kentuckians Worried About Healthcare Affordability

Three out of four Kentuckians (77 percent) are worried about affording healthcare, according to a survey conducted by the Healthcare Value Hub in collaboration with the ThriveKY campaign. Kentucky adults reported numerous affordability problems. Almost a third of respondents delayed going to the doctor and 1 in 5 rationed medicine in the past year due to cost. Additionally, dissatisfaction with the current healthcare system is both statewide and bipartisan. The majority of respondents (71 percent) agreed or strongly agreed that the healthcare system needs to change, and 69 percent of respondents identified healthcare as the priority issue the government should focus on. Respondents endorsed a number of strategies to lower healthcare costs, but the clear front-runner, at 91 percent, was to “expand health insurance options so that everyone can afford quality coverage.”


Kentucky | Jun 6, 2020 | News Story | Rural Healthcare

Bill to Assist Rural Hospitals in Financial Distress Becomes Law

Kentucky passed a law to provide financial aid to rural hospitals struggling to stay afloat while the state is battling COVID-19, according to Kentucky Today. The legislation allows the Cabinet for Economic Development to provide loans to struggling hospitals for a variety of purposes, including upgrading facilities, maintaining or increasing staff levels and providing healthcare services not currently available. The action follows reports that many rural hospitals in Kentucky are in poor financial health.


Kentucky | Mar 17, 2020 | News Story | Health Costs Consumer Voices

Insult to Injury: State Adds 32% When It Collects UK Medical Debt

An arrangement between UK HealthCare and the Kentucky Department of Revenue has come under scrutiny amidst reports that patients with unpaid medical bills are falling prey to predatory debt collection practices, according to WFPL. The Department of Revenue uses a number of methods to collect payment for UK HealthCare patients’ outstanding medical bills that private bill collectors are unable to use without a court order. Strategies include seizing state tax refunds, confiscating lottery winnings and garnishing paychecks. Additionally, the Department of Revenue adds a 25 percent collection fee to the original balance that patients are required to pay, as well as interest ranging from 5-7 percent. State data show that interest payments alone have added $4 million to the commonwealth’s general fund since 2009.


Kentucky | Oct 7, 2019 | News Story | Rural Healthcare

Study: 16 Rural Hospitals in KY at High Risk of Closing; 35 in Poor Financial Health

Roughly half of rural hospitals across Kentucky are in poor financial health – 16 of which are at high risk of closure, according to The Lane Report. Ten of the 16 hospitals are essential their communities, based on an analysis of trauma status, service to vulnerable populations, geographic isolation and economic impact. The financial strain on rural hospitals results from a number factors, including decreased demand for inpatient care and a loss of agricultural and manufacturing jobs in rural communities, leaving them with a shrinking population that tends to be older and poorer (and, therefore, more likely to be uninsured or on Medicaid or Medicare, which don’t pay for the total cost of care). Closures cost communities their immediate access to emergency and acute care and can also bring economic hardship from loss of employment. 


Kentucky | Jun 25, 2019 | News Story | Surprise Medical Bills

Data Dive: Surprise Medical Billing in Kentucky among Lowest in Nation

An analysis conducted by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation found that Kentucky has one of the lowest rates of surprise medical billing in the nation, reports Louisville Business First. The state has the eighth lowest rate for inpatient hospital stays and ninth lowest rate for emergency room visits with unexpected out-of-network charges in 2017, at 7 percent and 8 percent respectively. However, unlike other states, Kentucky lacks protections for residents who receive surprise medical bills as of 2019.


Kentucky | Jun 30, 2018 | News Story

Federal Judge Blocks Kentucky's Medicaid Work Requirements

A federal judge says Kentucky can't require poor people to get a job to keep their Medicaid benefits, chastising President Donald Trump's administration for rubber-stamping the new rules without considering how many people would lose their health coverage. According to Fox News, the decision is a setback for the Trump administration, which has been encouraging states to impose work requirements and other changes on Medicaid, the joint state and federal health insurance program for the poor and disabled. Kentucky was the first state in the country to get that permission, and the new rules were scheduled to take effect Sunday in a northern Kentucky suburb of Cincinnati.


Kentucky | May 20, 2018 | News Story

Poll: 72% of KY Adults Had Problems Paying for Health Care Last Year; Lawmakers Show Bipartisan Agreement on Some Approaches

After learning that nearly three-fourths of Kentucky adults reported having had one or more problems affording health care in the past year, two Democrats and one Republican in the legislature found they had much to agree on when it came to finding ways to address this problem, according to an article in Kentucky Health News. The lawmakers were part of a legislative panel at a Kentucky Voices for Health forum to discuss the results of the new healthcare affordability survey conducted by Altarum’s Healthcare Value Hub. The survey found that the 72 percent of Kentucky adults who struggled to pay for health care in the past year reported that their affordability issues largely centered on not being able to afford insurance, delaying or foregoing care because of cost, and struggling to pay medical bills. One in four participants said they had been contacted by a collection agency. The regional results showed that 80 percent of adults in Eastern Kentucky said they had had affordability burdens in the past year, the highest rate of any region.


Kentucky | May 8, 2018 | News Story

University of Kentucky Gets Big Boost to Help Pregnant Women in Opioid Fight

The University of Kentucky has received almost $5 million to expand and improve a program to help pregnant women with opioid dependence problems before, during and after delivery, according to an article in Lexington Herald Leader. The Perinatal Assistance and Treatment Home (PATHways) program is currently based in Lexington, helping pregnant women with medication, peer support and health services to reduce the number of babies born with an opioid addiction. The program continues after birth with peer counseling and health services. Kentucky has one of the highest rates in the nation of babies born with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), a rate that has climbed from 46 babies in 2001 to 1,115 in 2016, according to hospital discharge data collected annually by the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services. Between 2014 and spring 2017, more than 150 women received treatment through PATHways. Of those, 77 percent were admitted to labor and delivery without any illicit drugs in their systems.


Kentucky | Feb 14, 2018 | News Story

Bevin’s Medicaid Changes Actually Mean Kentucky will Pay More to Provide Health Care

According to an article in the Courier Journal, under Bevin's plan, it actually will cost Kentucky more to provide health coverage to people affected by the Medicaid changes than if the state did nothing. Cost savings come from the assumption that nearly 100,000 people will drop out of Medicaid by the end of the five-year project recently approved by the federal government. For those who remain, the monthly cost of care increases faster than it would have had the state made no changes, according to the administration's projections. Kentucky has added $186 million to the current budget and proposes $187 million in the next budget year starting July 1 for administrative costs, most of the money associated with the Medicaid changes. Part of the administrative costs added to this year's budget would go toward creating a Medicaid computer system required by the federal government.


Kentucky | Jan 12, 2018 | News Story

Kentucky Becomes the First State Allowed to Impose Medicaid Work Requirement

Federal health officials granted Kentucky permission to impose work requirements. Becoming the first-in-the-nation state to move forward with the profound change to the safety-net health insurance program is a victory for Kentucky’s Republican governor, according to an article in The Washington Post. Since Kentucky expanded Medicaid under the ACA four years ago, to include people with incomes of up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, nearly half a million newly eligible residents have joined the program. Aides to the governor estimated that about half of 350,000 able-bodied, working-age Medicaid recipients subject to the “community engagement” requirement already meet its terms to work at least 80 hours per month, volunteer or be in job training. Individuals will need to send documentation to prove their compliance.


Kentucky | Nov 11, 2017 | News Story

WellCare Targets Opioid Prescribing in Kentucky Medicaid Program

Kentucky has been hugely affected by the opioid abuse epidemic. Last year, 623 state residents died from the opioid fentanyl, up 6% compared with 2015. In 2015, the state experienced the third-highest rate of drug overdose deaths in the country, according to an article in Modern Healthcare. WellCare, one of the state's Medicaid insurers, has created a program that monitors members who are prescribed opioids.
Program participants are connected to one physician, one pharmacy and then a social worker who can help with addiction treatment and support services. The hope is to tackle pharmacy shopping, which is when patients use multiple pharmacies and prescriptions to obtain the same opioids.


Kentucky | Aug 16, 2017 | Report

Closing Kynect and Restructuring Medicaid Threaten Kentucky’s Health and Economy

Kentucky became the first state to announce both the closure and restructuring of a state health insurance marketplace and Medicaid expansion. Kentucky might be the test model for the rest of the nation for reversal of ACA-related health policies. A report published in the Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law examines the potential short-term and long-term impacts that may occur following changes in state health policy. The report offers potential strategies to ameliorate the expected negative impacts of disruption of both Kynect and Medicaid expansion.


Kentucky | Jul 21, 2017 | Report | Rural Healthcare

How Western Kentucky Leveraged Medicaid Expansion to Increase Access to Healthcare

Rural Western Kentucky is one of only a handful of U.S. regions to improve on a majority of measures tracked by the Commonwealth Fund’s Scorecard on Local Health System Performance. The most striking gains were tied to the state’s Medicaid expansion, which added nearly 500,000 low-income adults to the program, according to a report by the Commonwealth Fund. The coverage expansion helped recruit federally qualified health centers to the region. In addition, hospitals and other providers enhanced access through school-based clinics, offering urgent and behavioral health services.


Kentucky | Feb 22, 2017 | News Story | Health Costs

Poll: Kentucky Households Cite Cost as Barrier to Medical Care

The annual Kentucky Health Issues Poll revealed the cost of healthcare continues to prevent a significant number of Kentucky adults from obtaining needed medical care, as reported in the Lane Report. The poll found that 22 percent of adults in the state reported that a person in their household delayed or missed needed care due to cost. The rate has been essentially unchanged for the past three years.  


Kentucky | Dec 21, 2016 | News Story

Study Finds Kentucky Smoking Awareness Program Increased Use of High-Value Test

A study conducted by the University of Kentucky found that a community awareness program increased use of low-dose CT scans and prompted individuals to consider tobacco cessation, according to Kentucky Health News.  A low-dose CT scan is able to detect early signs of lung cancer and is recommended for people aged 55 to 77 who are at high risk such as current smokers. Kentucky has the highest smoking rate in the country.


Kentucky | Mar 2, 2016 | News Story

Kentucky’s Medicaid Expansion Closes Economic Gap For Insurance, Poll Says

WFPL Public Radio: A new poll shows more lower-income adults have become eligible for insurance since the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and the expansion of Medicaid. In 2013, before the expansion took effect, more than three in 10 adults earning less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level were uninsured.Uninsured rates are now about the same for all Kentucky adults regardless of income, according to the poll.


Kentucky | Feb 29, 2016 | News Story

New Medicaid Signup Site Opens as Kynect Starts to Wind Down

Kentucky Health News: As the new administration of Gov. Matt Bevin continues to move toward dismantling the state's Kynect health-insurance exchange, it has launched an online portal for Kentuckians to apply for Medicaid and other public assistance called Benefind. Benefind also provides an access point for the Kentucky Children’s Health Insurance Program.


Kentucky | Dec 16, 2015 | News Story

Can Kentucky's New Governor Undo Obamacare?

The Atlantic: Matt Bevin campaigned on a health-care pledge that would undo the work of his predecessor: to dismantle Kentucky’s popular insurance exchange and change up the even more popular Medicaid expansion. But as the Republican governor’s campaigning morphs into actual governing, he could find that pledge hard to stick to: not only because hundreds of thousands of Kentuckians now have insurance but also because his plans could be costly—and no one seems to know who would pay for all of it.


Kentucky | Dec 8, 2015 | Blog | Price Transparency

Healthcare Price Transparency: A Meeting Of The Minds In Kentucky

Health Affairs BlogThe Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky held its second healthcare price transparency symposium on October 16. This convening occurred a year after the foundation’s first symposium, in which state and national speakers discussed the need for price transparency in the collective effort of healthcare leaders to meet the unmet healthcare needs of Kentuckians through policy work. These symposia are part of the foundation’s broader Promoting Responsive Health Policy initiative, which has the goal of making policy more responsive to the health and healthcare needs of Kentuckians. Since the first price transparency symposium, the state of Kentucky has engaged the University of Kentucky in a process of creating a Kentucky-based and -designed all-payer claims database (APCD)


Kentucky | Aug 15, 2015 | News Story

Poverty and Lower Education Levels Associated with Poorer Health Outcomes, Study Shows

Kentucky Health News:  A report released by the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky and the University of Kentucky College of Public Health examined the relationship between health, income and education and found that poverty and lower education was consistently associated with poorer health outcomes.


Kentucky | Mar 16, 2015 | News Story

Health Initiative in Kentucky Yields Progress

The State Journal: According to a report released by KYHealthNow, more Kentuckians have health insurance, are covered by smoke-free policy, can access physical activity resources, seek care for heart disease and cancer prevention, and get dental services since the launch of kyhealthnow. The report showed Kentucky is moving towards meeting the wide-ranging goals laid out in the initiative, which was launched in February 2014.


Kentucky | Feb 24, 2015 | Report | Price Transparency

Price Transparency in Healthcare: Doing Care Differently in Kentucky

In October 2014, the Foundation for Healthy Kentucky convened over 60 Kentucky leaders in government, business, policy and healthcare, along with experts from national organizations , including Consumers Union, to explore ways to bring credible, objective cost and value information to consumers and others. This Foundation’s report recommends that the Commonwealth of Kentucky establish an All-Payer Claims Database as a necessary tool to change the way healthcare is delivered. Click here for the full report and executive summary.