California Legislators Debate Froot Loops and Free Condoms
By Don Thompson
California state lawmakers this year are continuing their progressive tilt on health policy, debating bills banning an ingredient in Froot Loops and offering free condoms for high schoolers.
Unsheltered People Are Losing Medicaid in Redetermination Mix-Ups
By Aaron Bolton, MTPR
Some of the nearly 130,000 Montanans who have lost Medicaid coverage as the state reevaluates eligibility are homeless. That’s in part because Montana kicked more than 80,000 people off the program for technical reasons rather than because of income ineligibility. For unhoused people who were disenrolled, getting back on Medicaid can be extraordinarily difficult.
Biden Administration Sets Higher Staffing Mandates. Most Nursing Homes Don’t Meet Them.
By Jordan Rau
The staffing regulation was disparaged by the industry as unattainable. Patient advocates say it doesn’t go far enough. Labor unions welcomed the requirement.
Daily Edition for Monday, April 22, 2024
Abortion travel, homelessness case before Supreme Court, emergency care, covid, cybersecurity, measles, and more are in the news.
Rural Jails Turn to Community Health Workers To Help the Newly Released Succeed
By Lillian Mongeau Hughes
To reduce recidivism, some rural counties are hiring community health workers or peer support specialists to connect people leaving custody to mental health resources, substance use treatment, medical services, and jobs.
Medical Providers Still Grappling With UnitedHealth Cyberattack: ‘More Devastating Than Covid’
By Samantha Liss
Medical providers say they’re still coping with the Change Healthcare cyberattack disclosed in February even though parent company UnitedHealth Group reported that much is back to normal and its revenue is up over last year.
Daily Edition for Friday, April 19, 2024
Heat protections for workers, homelessness, covid and flu data, Medicare, maternal care, drug shortages, and more are in the news.
He Thinks His Wife Died in an Understaffed Hospital. Now He’s Trying to Change the Industry.
By Kate Wells, Michigan Public
Nurses are telling lawmakers that there are not enough of them working in hospitals and that it risks patients’ lives. California and Oregon legally limit the number of patients under a nurse’s care. Other states trying to do the same were blocked by the hospital industry. Now patients’ relatives are joining the fight.
Newsom Offers a Compromise to Protect Indoor Workers from Heat
By Samantha Young
After rejecting proposed rules to protect millions of workers in sweltering warehouses, steamy kitchens, and other hot workplaces, California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration has offered a compromise to allow the protections to take effect this summer. But state and local correctional workers — and prisoners — would have to wait even longer.
KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Too Big To Fail? Now It’s ‘Too Big To Hack’
Congress this week had the chance to formally air grievances over the cascading consequences of the Change Healthcare cyberattack, and lawmakers from both major parties agreed on one culprit: consolidation in health care. Plus, about a year after states began stripping people from their Medicaid rolls, a new survey shows nearly a quarter of adults who were disenrolled are now uninsured. Jessie Hellmann of CQ Roll Call, Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet, and Lauren Weber of The Washington Post join KFF Health News’ Mary Agnes Carey to discuss these stories and more. Also this week, KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner interviews Caroline Pearson of the Peterson Health Technology Institute.
