It prefers KFF, which is its business operating name, to reduce confusion because it is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente and it is no longer a foundation.
[6] In 2010, KFF began providing resources for consumers seeking information about the then new health insurance law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
[13] In 2020 and 2024, KFF Health News reporters were finalists for a Pulitzer Prize in Investigative Reporting for exposing how the Social Security Administration routinely reduced or suspended monthly checks to take back funds to pay off large debts that were often created by its own miscalculation of people’s benefits[14], and for exposing predatory bill collection by the University of Virginia Health System that relentlessly squeezed low-income patients – many into bankruptcy – forcing the non-profit, state-run hospital to change its tactics.
Under Greater Than HIV[20] (formerly Greater Than AIDS) – a national public information response to the U.S. epidemic launched in 2009 – KFF works with a broad cross-section of public and private partners[21] to increase knowledge, reduce stigma and promote actions to stem the spread of HIV.
[26] KFF is now an independent national organization with a Board of Trustees that have backgrounds in public service, academia, nonprofits, health care, and media.
[27] Starting in September 1990, KFF CEO Drew Altman directed "a complete overhaul of the Foundation's mission and operating style."
Altman changed a "sleepy grant-making organization" (some $30 million a year interest on the $400 million endowment), into a leading voice and repository for facts and information on health-care issues, [28] remaking the organization by establishing new programs, recruiting staff, becoming an operating foundation and then later, a public charity.