Latest California Healthline Stories
Pandemic Imperiled Non-English Speakers More Than Others
Covid patients who did not speak English well were 35% more likely to die, data from one Boston hospital shows.
La pandemia ha puesto más en peligro a los que no hablan inglés
Al comienzo de la pandemia, médicos del Brigham and Women Hospital observaron lo que se sería una siniestra estadística: los pacientes que sabían poco o nada de inglés tenían un 35% más de posibilidades de morir.
From Hospital Profits to Gender Gaps, Journalists Are on the Case
KHN and California Healthline staff made the rounds on national and local media this week to discuss their stories. Here’s a collection of their appearances.
KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Picking Up the Pace of Undoing Trump Policies
The Biden administration has started to speed efforts to reverse health policies forged under Donald Trump. Most recently, the administration overturned a ban on fetal tissue research and canceled a last-minute extension of a Medicaid waiver for Texas. That latter move may delay the Senate confirmation of President Joe Biden’s nominee to head the Medicare and Medicaid programs, as Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) seeks to fight back. Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, Rachel Cohrs of Stat and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Plus, for extra credit, the panelists recommend their favorite health policy stories of the week they think you should read, too.
UVA Health Will Wipe Out Tens of Thousands of Lawsuits Against Patients
The Virginia hospital giant had already stopped suing patients with less than $107,000 in household income.
A Year Into Pandemic, Federal Officials Move to Better Protect Front-Line Workers
Changes would allow N95 sales for industries other than healthcare and signal an end to the hospital practice of reusing the masks considered essential for worker safety.
Covid Spawns ‘Completely New Category’ of Organ Transplants
Nearly 60 organ transplants have been performed after the coronavirus “basically destroyed” patients’ hearts and lungs.
Orange County Hospital Seeks Divorce From Large Catholic Health System
Frustration with the standardization of care across 51 hospitals, loss of local control and restrictions on reproductive health care have pitted Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian against the Providence chain.
Families With Sick Kids on Medicaid Seek Easier Access to Out-of-State Hospitals
Many state Medicaid programs pay out-of-state providers much less than in-state facilities, often making it hard for families with medically complex children to get the care they seek.
Despite Covid, Many Wealthy Hospitals Had a Banner Year With Federal Bailout
As the crisis crushed smaller providers, some of the nation’s richest health systems thrived, reporting hundreds of millions of dollars in surpluses after accepting huge grants for pandemic relief. But poorer hospitals — many serving rural and minority populations — got a smaller slice of the pie and limped through the year with deficits and a bleak fiscal future.