Latest California Healthline Stories
States Watching as Massachusetts Takes Aim at Hospital Building Boom and Costs
A Massachusetts health care cost watchdog agency helped block plans of the state’s largest hospital system to expand into the suburbs. Now, other states are looking at whether Massachusetts’ decade-old model of controlling health costs is worth emulating.
KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: It’s Health Costs, Stupid (2022 Edition)
As the pandemic wanes, for now, the ever-rising cost of health care is again taking center stage. Meanwhile, a year into the Biden administration, the FDA finally has a Senate-confirmed commissioner, Dr. Robert Califf. Tami Luhby of CNN, Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet, and Rachel Cohrs of Stat join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews Hannah Wesolowski of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, about how the pandemic has worsened the nation’s mental health crisis and what can be done about it.
What Does It Say About Your Neighborhood If the Supermarket Isn’t So Super?
A mother-and-daughter team went comparison-shopping to see what grocery store shelves revealed about inequity in America.
Resistance to a Boston Hospital’s Expansion Centers on Rising Prices
Mass General Brigham’s $2.3 billion expansion plan is raising state officials’ concerns that it will reduce competition and raise the price of care in Massachusetts. It also signals a national shift from a focus on hospital mergers and purchases of physician practices — which boost the cost of care — to individual hospitals’ expansions to gain a bigger share of the market.
3 States Limit Nursing Home Profits in Bid to Improve Care
Following the devastating impact of covid-19 on nursing homes, state lawmakers want to be sure that government and private payments primarily go to improve care and staffing.
Florida Spine Surgeon and Device Company Owner Charged in Kickback Scheme
Dr. Kingsley R. Chin and SpineFrontier were the subject of a recent KHN “Spinal Tap” investigation.
As Covid Vaccinations Slow, Parts of the US Remain Far Behind 70% Goal
Vermont and Massachusetts lead the nation, with more than 70% of adults having had at least one dose of a covid-19 vaccine. Southern states like Tennessee lag far behind.
Mientras baja la vacunación contra covid, partes de EE.UU. están lejos de la meta del 70%
El 4 de julio no fue la celebración que esperaba el presidente Joe Biden. La nación no alcanzó el objetivo de la Casa Blanca de dar al menos una primera dosis de la vacuna contra covid al 70% de los adultos para el Día de la Independencia.
No Vacancy: How a Shortage of Mental Health Beds Keeps Kids Trapped Inside ERs
What’s known as emergency room boarding of psychiatric patients has risen between 200% and 400% monthly in Massachusetts during the pandemic — and the problem is widespread. The CDC says emergency room visits after suicide attempts among teen girls were up 51% earlier this year as compared with 2019.
‘I Just Feel Like Myself’: A Nonbinary Child in Their Own Words
When they were 6, Hallel told their parents they are a boy-girl. At 9, they are helping their parents, grandparents and friends understand what it means to be nonbinary.