Californians Headed to HBCUs in the South Prepare for College Under Abortion Bans
California Healthline
News on health care policy, politics and business in California, by KFF Health News for CHCF.
As high school graduates prepare to leave states like California that protect abortion rights for historically Black colleges in states where abortion is banned, they’re getting ready to safeguard their reproductive health during college.
Heat-related illness and deaths in California and the U.S. are on the rise along with temperatures, and an increase in drug use and homelessness is a significant part of the problem, according to public health officials and data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
California’s new lending program for distressed hospitals will provide Madera Community Hospital with interest-free loans of up to $52 million if it can agree on a viable reopening plan with Adventist Health. The state will offer an additional $240.5 million in interest-free loans to 16 other troubled hospitals.
Patient advocates have long alleged the Medical Board of California is ineffective at policing doctors. But a proposal to beef up the Board’s budget and overhaul procedures faces stiff resistance from the doctors’ lobby.
Community health workers, who often help patients get to their appointments and pick up prescriptions for them, have increasingly been recognized as an integral part of treating chronic illnesses. But state-run Medicaid programs don’t always reimburse community health workers equally, usually excluding those who work on tribal lands.
California Healthline senior correspondent Bernard J. Wolfson and Fresno Bee reporter Melissa Montalvo discuss community efforts to save a bankrupt hospital from liquidation. California Healthline contributing radio correspondent Stephanie O’Neill Patison reports how lawmakers won additional Covered California subsidies.
As hospitals are criticized for skimping on financial assistance, Santa Clara County has agreed to notify 43,000 former patients of possible billing reductions as part of a settlement. Some patients had sued, alleging the county’s hospital system sent them to collections for bills they shouldn’t have received.
领英推荐
A California Healthline analysis shows state authorities are ill-equipped to investigate discrimination complaints and often avoid fining hospitals that violate regulations. That highlights a big gap in California’s ability to hold doctors and hospitals accountable when it comes to reducing bias in maternal care.
A union is asking Los Angeles city voters to cap hospital executive pay at the U.S. president’s salary. However, hospitals accuse the union of using the proposal as political leverage, and policy experts question whether the policy, if enacted, would be workable.
Each year, Medicare punishes hospitals that have high rates of readmissions and high rates of infections and patient injuries. Check out which California hospitals have been penalized.
Pasha Wrangell has faced delays getting gender-affirming care because of red tape and limited providers. Over more than two years, Wrangell has received only about half the total electrolysis sessions recommended. Wrangell’s insurer through Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program, acknowledges the shortage of practitioners.
State attorneys general vowed that opioid settlement funds — unlike the tobacco settlement of the 1990s — would go toward tackling the underlying crisis. But in Mendocino County, officials have found a way to use some of its share to help fill a budget shortfall — a throwback to what agreement architects hoped to avoid.
More news you can use
Looking to catch up on the latest health care and health policy news? Check out California Healthline’s daily newsletter, the Daily Edition! You can subscribe here.