Daily Edition for Friday, April 4, 2025
Fullerton Making Switch To In-House Ambulance Service: Fullerton is expected to roll out its own ambulances next April after city officials voted to transition to an in-house program they say will save the city hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. The city will spend about $2 million on ambulances and equipment. Read more from Voice of OC.
Immigration Crackdowns Disrupt the Caregiving Industry. Families Pay the Price.
By Vanessa G. Sánchez and Daniel Chang
Families, nursing facilities, and home health agencies rely on foreign-born workers to fill health care jobs that are demanding and do not attract enough American citizens. The Trump administration’s anti-immigration policies threaten to cut a key source of labor for the industry, which was already predicting a surge in demand.
KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': American Health Gets a Pink Slip
The Department of Health and Human Services underwent an unprecedented purge this week, as thousands of employees from the National Institutes of Health, the FDA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other agencies were fired, placed on administrative leave, or offered transfers to far-flung Indian Health Service facilities. Altogether, the layoffs mean the federal government, in a single day, shed hundreds if not thousands of combined years of health and science expertise. Lauren Weber of The Washington Post, Rachel Cohrs Zhang of Bloomberg News, and Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss this enormous breaking story and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews KFF Health News’ Julie Appleby, who reported and wrote the latest “Bill of the Month” feature about a short-term health plan and a very expensive colonoscopy.
Daily Edition for Thursday, April 3, 2025
SF Makes Major Change To Drug Policy: San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie on Wednesday announced that the city would no longer give users free paraphernalia to consume drugs without providing treatment counseling. The move marks a shift away from the standing policy of providing supplies for people to use drugs in a safer manner, including clean foil and needles. Read more from CBS News San Francisco and The San Francisco Chronicle.
What’s Lost: Trump Whacks Tiny Agency That Works To Make the Nation’s Health Care Safer
By Arthur Allen
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has helped improve health care safety in a country where thousands die of medical errors each year. It was effectively dissolved Tuesday.
Trump’s DEI Undoing Undermines Accommodations for Disabled People
By Stephanie Armour
From halting diversity programs that benefit disabled workers to making federal staffing cuts, the Trump administration has taken a slew of actions that harm people with disabilities.
Daily Edition for Wednesday, April 2, 2025
California Misses Deadline For Doctor Rate Increases: Officials for Gov. Gavin Newsom's administration blew past a federal deadline Monday for doctors to get paid more to see low-income patients, effectively leaving millions of dollars unclaimed. Read more from CalMatters.
How Much Will That Surgery Cost? 🤷 Hospital Prices Remain Largely Unhelpful.
By Daniel Chang
Health care price transparency is one of the few bipartisan issues in Washington, D.C. But much of the information that hospitals and health plans have made available to the public is not helpful to patients, and there’s no conclusive evidence yet that it’s lowering costs or increasing competition.
Hit Hard by Opioid Crisis, Black Patients Further Hurt by Barriers to Care
By Melba Newsome
The rate of overdose deaths from opioids has grown significantly among Black people. Yet, even after a nonfatal overdose, this group is half as likely to be referred to or get treatment compared with white people. Advocates and researchers cite implicit bias, insurance denials, and other systemic issues.
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