by Jordan Rau Kaiser Health News Most nursing homes had fewer nurses and caretaking staff than they had reported to the government, according to new federal data bolstering the long-held suspicions of many families that staffing levels were often inadequate. The records for the first time reveal frequent and significant fluctuations in day-to-day staffing, with…
by Judith Graham California Healthline THE kidney doctor sat next to Judy Garrett’s father, looking into his face, her hand on his arm. There are things I can do for you, she told the 87-year-old man, but if I do them I’m not sure you will like me very much. The word “death” wasn’t mentioned,…
by Blake Farmer Nashvilla Public Radio VICKI Bartholomew started a support group for wives who are caring for a husband with Alzheimer’s disease because she needed that sort of group herself. They meet every month in a conference room at a new memory-care facility in Nashville called Abe’s Garden, where Bartholomew’s husband was one of…
Los Angeles County is facing a public health crisis: More than one-quarter of its 53,000 homeless residents struggle with mental illness. “When you’re homeless on the street, your life is about survival. It’s hard to be focused on mental health,” said Maria Funk, a county mental health clinic program manager. “We are failing in many…
by Jordan Rau Even as many Republicans continue to back a repeal of the Affordable Care Act, a majority of GOP voters want to retain a core consumer protection of the law that prohibits insurers from denying care or charging more to people with histories of health problems, according to a poll released Wednesday, June…
by Christina Jewett and Shefali Luthra As the White House faces court orders to reunite families separated at the border, immigrant children as young as 3 are being ordered into court for their own deportation proceedings, according to attorneys in Texas, California and Washington, D.C. Requiring unaccompanied minors to go through deportation alone is not a new…
California’s cities and counties will be barred from adopting soda taxes for the next 12 years under a legislative deal that marks a big victory for the influential beverage industry — one that state lawmakers said holds Californians “hostage.” On Thursday, June 28 the state legislature rushed to approve the last-minute, quid pro quo deal between one…
by Shefali Luthra and Marisa Taylor The Trump administration has detained 2,322 children 12 years old or younger amid its border crackdown, a Department of Health and Human Services official told Kaiser Health News on Wednesday. They represent almost 20 percent of the immigrant children currently held by the U.S. government in the wake of…
By Barbara Feder Ostrov / California Healthline Covered California’s premiums are expected to rise significantly next year, but the head of the state’s insurance exchange said the Trump administration’s legal bid to dismantle protections for people with preexisting medical conditions will likely not contribute to the increases. Health plans will only be “pricing for the changes…
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra pledged on Friday, June 8, to redouble his efforts as the Affordable Care Act’s leading defender, saying attacks by the Trump Administration threaten health care for millions of Americans. Becerra’s pledge came in response to an announcement from the administration Thursday that it would not defend key parts of the…
by Chad Terhune, Pauline Bartolone,Ana B. Ibarra and Alex Leeds Matthews IN the state that’s leading the opposition to many of President Donald Trump’s health policies, California voters will face a stark choice on the November ballot: keep up the resistance or fall in line. The results of Tuesday, June 5’s primary have set up general-election contests between…
by Pauline Bartolone The person who wins the four-way race to become California’s next insurance commissioner will inherit a job with broad authority over policies that cover homes, businesses, cars and even airplanes. But medical insurance? Not so much. The commissioner’s direct control over health insurers is limited, because the California Department of Insurance —…
Attorney General Xavier Becerra uses a well-worn refrain to describe his role as the state’s chief law enforcement officer: to defend California’s values. “If that translates into fighting Donald Trump, then so be it,” he said in a recent interview. Becerra has been one of the leading voices in California’s charge against the federal government,…
by April Dembosky, KQED Covered California, the state’s health insurance marketplace under the Affordable Care Act, has devised what could be a powerful new way to hold hospitals accountable for the quality of their care. Starting in less than two years, if the hospitals haven’t met targets for safety and quality, they’ll risk being excluded…
California’s children’s hospitals say they’re struggling to keep up with advances in medical care and a growing demand for their services, and they’re asking taxpayers to help — again. The California Children’s Hospital Association wants voters to pass a $1.5 billion bond measure to upgrade infrastructure and equipment at the state’s 13 children’s hospitals. It…
By Anna Gorman Los Angeles County unlawfully dropped an estimated 22,000 people from California’s Medicaid program, including low-income seniors and disabled residents who couldn’t get vital medications and medical care after their coverage was terminated, according to a court ruling late last week. The May 10 decision, by Superior Court Judge James C. Chalfant, ordered…
by Pauline Bartolone California’s leading gubernatorial candidates agree that health care should work better for Golden State residents: Insurance should be more affordable, costs are unreasonably high, and robust competition among hospitals, doctors and other providers could help lower prices, they told California Healthline. What they don’t agree on is how to achieve those goals…
by Anna Gorman California health regulators have allowed poor care to proliferate at nursing homes around the state, and the number of incidents that could cause serious injury or death has increased significantly in recent years, according to a stinging state audit released this week. The state auditor singled out the California Department of Public…
WASHINGTON — For today, there are no doctor’s visits. No long afternoons with nothing to do. No struggles over bathing — or not. At the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., a group of older adults — some in wheelchairs, some with Alzheimer’s — and their caregivers sit in a semicircle around a haunting…
by Anna Gorman and Harriet Rowan Millions of low-income Californians eligible for food stamps are not receiving the benefit, earning the state one of the lowest rankings in the nation for its participation in the program. Just three states — all much more conservative than the Golden State — have lower rates of participation, according to the latest…
There are already more than a dozen reasons people can use to avoid paying the penalty for not having health insurance. Now the federal government has added four more “hardship exemptions” that let people off the hook if they can’t find a marketplace plan that meets not only their coverage needs but also reflects their…
Among the young people known as “Dreamers,” Ever Arias belongs to a select group. Of the roughly 700,000 unauthorized immigrants who have temporary but tenuous protection from deportation, only 99 are in medical school. Fewer still have made it to their final year. Arias is one of them and, come June, will start his medical…
California signed up an estimated 450,000 people under Medicaid expansion who may not have been eligible for coverage, according to a report by the U.S. Health and Human Services’ chief watchdog. In a Feb. 21 report, the HHS’ inspector general estimated that California spent $738.2 million on 366,078 expansion beneficiaries who were ineligible. It spent…
