Latest California Healthline Stories
California To Drug Users: We’ll Pay For You To Test Your Dope
Fentanyl, a significant cause of overdoses and deaths across the country, has begun showing up in California street drugs. State health officials have responded with a bold but controversial policy: paying for test strips so users can check their stash.
La muerte de un tío por sobredosis impulsa a oficial de Medicaid a actuar
Un oficial de los Servicios de Medicare y Medicaid se enteró casi dos años después que uno de sus tíos más queridos había muerto víctima de las drogas. Esa verdad lo impulsó a un cambio de rumbo.
Opioid Crisis Hits Home: An Uncle’s Overdose Spurs Medicaid Official To Change Course
Andrey Ostrovsky, who until last month was chief medical officer for Medicaid, quit his job so he could more directly fight the stigma of drug addiction.
Hospital Honchos Hone New Message In Wake Of Opioid Crisis: Expect Pain
“We really do have a lot of responsibility and culpability,” says one hospital official who is part of a working group trying to address the opioid epidemic. Patients have to expect more pain after surgery and understand the risk of addiction, says another doctor.
Readers Have Bones To Pick, From Health System Flaws To Covering Marijuana Beat
Kaiser Health News gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories.
Drug Overdose Deaths Plateau In California, Soar Nationally
Fatalities are climbing in states that have been flooded by the deadly opioid fentanyl, but are remaining flat — or even falling — in many Western states, where it has not yet overwhelmed the drug supply.
Pharmacists Slow To Dispense Lifesaving Overdose Drug
Laws in California and most other states allow pharmacists to provide naloxone to patients or their friends without a doctor’s prescription. But many don’t do so, citing lack of demand and awareness among patients, their own fears of insufficient compensation and the challenges of treating opioid users.
Reverberations From War Complicate Vietnam Veterans’ End-Of-Life Care
Vietnam veterans’ wartime experiences — and their lasting psychological toll — can make it harder to treat their physical and emotional pain as they approach death.
Stopping Opioid Addiction At One Key Source: The Hospital
Based on research conducted at the University of Michigan’s medical center, a group of surgeons developed a strategy to help post-surgical patients from misusing or abusing their prescription painkillers.
Treating The New Hep C Generation On Their Turf
One Northern California physician is a foot soldier in the fight against a surge of hepatitis C, mainly among young drug users who share infected needles.