Daily Edition for Friday, May 2, 2025
Grant To Support Students’ Mental Health Clawed Back: The West Contra Costa Unified School District Board has learned that the Department of Education intends to cut a five-year, $4.2 million grant to just one year. The Mental Health Services Professional Grant was supposed to enable the Bay Area district to address the mental health needs of its students. Read more from EdSource.
Government Watchdog Expects Medicaid Work Requirement Analysis by Fall
By Sam Whitehead and Renuka Rayasam
This fall, the U.S. Government Accountability Office expects to release a report on how much it costs to run Georgia Pathways to Coverage — the country’s only active Medicaid work requirement program — as other states and Congress consider similar programs.
Covered California Pushes for Better Health Care as Federal Spending Cuts Loom
By Bernard J. Wolfson
Monica Soni, Covered California’s chief medical officer, oversees an effort to hold health plans financially accountable for the quality of care they provide, including childhood vaccination rates, which have fallen in California and nationwide. She worries federal spending cuts could soon bring turbulence to the state’s Affordable Care Act marketplace.
Avanza análisis sobre el requisito de trabajo para Medicaid
By Sam Whitehead and Renuka Rayasam
La idea de un mandato nacional que requiera que los beneficiarios de Medicaid trabajen, estudien o realicen otras actividades que cumplan los requisitos para mantener la cobertura está ganando terreno.
KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': 100 Days of Health Policy Upheaval
Members of Congress are back in Washington, and Republicans are struggling to find ways to reduce Medicaid spending without cutting benefits. Meanwhile, confusion continues to reign at the Department of Health and Human Services. Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, and Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more.
Daily Edition for Thursday, May 1, 2025
LA County Offers Isolated Hospital A $3M Lifeline: Avalon-based Catalina Island Health received $3 million in one-time funding to help keep its doors open. The hospital faces serious financial challenges with insolvency predicted as early as July. Read more from Becker’s Hospital Review.
Federal Cuts Gut Food Banks as They Face Record Demand
By Jazmin Orozco Rodriguez
Food banks nationwide are being pinched by record demand, high food prices, and hundreds of millions of dollars in federal budget cuts. As the economy plods onto shaky ground, food bank leaders hope Congress patches the holes by passing a new farm bill.
California’s Primary Care Shortage Persists Despite Ambitious Moves To Close Gap
By Bernard J. Wolfson and Vanessa G. Sánchez
The state has in recent years embraced several initiatives recommended in an influential health care workforce report, including alternative payment arrangements for primary care doctors to earn more. Despite increasing residency programs, student debt forgiveness, and tuition-free medical school, California is unlikely to meet patient demand, observers say.
Daily Edition for Wednesday, April 30, 2025
LA County Worker Strike Disrupts Health Care, More: Nonurgent health clinics were closed Tuesday — and expected to remain closed today — as a sea of SEIU Local 721 workers descended on downtown L.A. over a contract dispute. Union members decried the industry's reliance on high-paid contractors. “How would you feel if someone comes into your hospital for three weeks and makes four times your salary and leaves you,” one person said. Read more from the Los Angeles Times.
The Patient Expected a Free Checkup. The Bill Was $1,430.
By Samantha Liss and Lauren Sausser
Carmen Aiken of Chicago thought their medical appointment would be covered because the Affordable Care Act requires insurers to pay for a long list of preventive services. But after the appointment, Aiken received a bill for more than $1,400.
