New York City joined other localities this week in pledging to buy up and forgive residents' unpaid medical bills. The trend started in Cook County, Ill., and is spreading around the country.

Spoiler: There are some decreases this year, too. Here's an overview of the changing prices and what to make of them.

The Biden administration unveiled regulations that potentially would help tens of millions of people who have medical debt on their credit reports.

The suits pursued patients and their families, sometimes putting liens on homes. "I know my house will never be mine. It is going to be the hospital's," said Donna Lindabury, 70, who lost her case.

The shift to electronic medical payments gave rise to a new kind of health care middlemen, who now charge 1-5% every time insurers pay doctors. Here's how lobbyists convinced regulators this was OK.

Virtual access to doctors is a huge plus for patients. But it's a lot of new work for physicians. And the health care business model hasn't caught up with this new reality.

More than 50 consumer and patient groups want the Biden Administration to aggressively protect Americans from medical bills and debt collectors. The effort follows a KHN/NPR investigation.

Increasingly, private equity firms shape staffing decisions at hospital emergency rooms, research shows. One apparent effect: Hiring fewer doctors and more health care practitioners who earn far less.

Drugmakers will be required to pay Medicare back for price increases that outpace inflation. The industry is expected to put up a fight over implementation.

JPMorgan's cheery confab returned to San Francisco, but the health care capitalists had economic anxiety, too.

A hospital's cost calculator said her procedure would be $1,400 for patients without insurance. Instead, the bill was almost $18,000 and, her part was more than $5,000 — the balance of her deductible.

The U.S. health system now produces debt on a mass scale, a new investigation shows. Patients face gut-wrenching sacrifices.

After baby Dorian Bennett arrived two months early and spent more than 50 days in the neonatal ICU, his parents received a bill of more than $550,000 — despite having health insurance.

A student sought counseling help after panicking over a tuition bill. A weeklong stay in a psychiatric hospital followed — along with a $3,413 bill. The hospital soft-pedaled its charity care policy.

A new federal health care rule requires hospitals to publicly post prices for every service they offer and break down those prices by component and procedure.