New Medicare Advantage Plans Tailor Offerings to Asian Americans, Latinos, and LGBTQ+
By Stephanie Stephens
As more seniors opt for Medicare Advantage, a few small insurers have begun offering plans that provide culturally targeted benefits for cohorts including Asian Americans, Latinos, and LGBTQ+ people. The approach, policy researchers say, has potential and perils.
Nuevos planes de Medicare Advantage adaptan ofertas para asiáticos, latinos y LGTBQ+
By Stephanie Stephens
A medida que Medicare Advantage gana popularidad entre los adultos mayores, tres compañías del sur de California están lanzando nuevos planes que se enfocan en comunidades culturales y étnicas, con ofertas especiales y profesionales que hablan su idioma nativo.
UC Physician Training Program Adds Diversity, but Where Do Graduates End Up?
By Stephanie Stephens
Researchers found that, while a University of California medical training program has diversified the system’s pool of medical students, there’s not enough long-term data to know whether graduates return to practice where they’re needed most.
Programa forma médicos multiculturales, pero no siempre ejercen en áreas vulnerables
By Stephanie Stephens
Investigadores han descubierto que el programa ha logrado diversificar la inscripción, pero no hay suficiente seguimiento a largo plazo para saber si estos graduados ejercen en las regiones donde más se necesitan.
Nurses and Docs at Long Beach Center ‘Consider It an Honor’ to Care for Migrant Children
By Stephanie Stephens
Health care workers find it easy to empathize with Central American children after their painful journeys to the U.S.
Using Stories To Mentally Survive As A COVID-19 Clinician
By Stephanie Stephens
The practice of narrative medicine helps health care professionals hear the life stories behind a patient’s immediate complaints. Some doctors are finding that these skills also provide an alcove of needed reflection amid the pandemonium of COVID-19.
‘Warm’ Hotlines Deliver Help Before Mental Health Crisis Heats Up
By Stephanie Stephens
“Warmlines” are phone lines or electronic chat options for people who are not having a full-blown mental health crisis but who could use support to stave off one. They are a growing trend in mental health outreach to supplement existing hotlines, with one successful warmline in the Bay Area recently expanding to cover all of California.
When That Supposedly Free Annual Physical Generates a Bill
By Julie Appleby
Completing a routine depression screening questionnaire during an annual checkup is cost-free under federal law. But, as one woman discovered, answering a doctor’s follow-up questions might not be.
Girls in Texas Could Get Birth Control at Federal Clinics, Until a Christian Father Objected
By Sarah Varney
A Donald Trump-appointed federal judge agreed that even the possibility that the father’s daughters might access contraception without his permission violated the tenants of his Christian faith.
Reentry Programs to Help Former Prisoners Obtain Health Care Are Often Underused
By Renuka Rayasam
More than 600,000 people are released from prisons every year, many with costly health conditions but no medications, medical records, a health care provider, or insurance.