Daily Edition for Friday, August 9, 2024
Clean Up Homeless Camps Or Lose Funding, Newsom Warns: California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday had a message for local governments: Clean up homeless encampments now or lose out on state funding next year. “If we don’t see demonstrable results, I’ll start to redirect money," he said. "This is a crisis. Act like it.” Read more from the Los Angeles Times and Bay Area News Group.
Nurses and Residents Confront Rampant Violence in Dementia Care Facilities
By Jordan Rau
Clashes between residents — verbal, physical, and sexual — can be spontaneous and too unpredictable to prevent. But the chance of an altercation increases when memory care homes admit and retain residents they can’t manage, according to a California Healthline examination of inspection and court records and interviews with researchers.
KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': The Walz Record
Vice President Kamala Harris this week officially became the Democratic nominee for president and named Minnesota governor and former U.S. congressman Tim Walz as her running mate. Meanwhile, a new study finds the number of abortions taking place since the overturn of “Roe v. Wade” continued to rise into early this year, despite the imposition of abortion bans around the country. Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Call and Shefali Luthra of The 19th join KFF Health News chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more.
Daily Edition for Thursday, August 8, 2024
Californians Face Long Wait Times When Calling Medi-Cal, Analysis Finds: Researchers found that it takes almost an hour to get someone on the line. However, one public social services official says their figures show shorter wait times. Read more from the Los Angeles Times.
How Little Denmark Got Homegrown Giant Novo Nordisk To Lower Ozempic Prices
By Arthur Allen
As Congress pushes for Medicare to cover payment for anti-obesity drugs, Denmark — Ozempic maker Novo Nordisk’s home — has limited coverage of the drug after cost overruns “emptied all the money boxes in the entire public health system.
Daily Edition for Wednesday, August 7, 2024
LA County May Require Hospitals To Disclose Debt Collection Activity: Hospitals must promptly report to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health every time they try to collect medical debt from patients, under an ordinance backed Tuesday by county supervisors. Read more from the Los Angeles Times.
Small-Town Patients Face Big Hurdles as Rural Hospitals Cut Cancer Care
By Charlotte Huff
For rural patients, getting cancer treatment close to home has always been difficult. And now chemotherapy deserts are expanding across the United States as hospitals winnow services to save money, creating financial and logistical hurdles for people seeking lifesaving care.
Medi-Cal’s Dental Care Gap: Getting a Tooth Pulled Is Easy — Much Harder To Get an Implant
By Molly Castle Work
California is among a growing number of states that offer dental benefits to low-income residents, but some lawmakers want the state to go further by covering more cleanings and costlier implants. Dentists and health experts worry the approach doesn’t address the root of the problem: Many providers don’t accept Medicaid.
Daily Edition for Tuesday, August 6, 2024
Harris Picks Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz As Her Running Mate, Sources Say: Tim Walz’s state is home to several health care heavyweights, including the Mayo Clinic, UnitedHealth Group, and Medtronic. Here’s what to know about his views on health care issues such as drug costs, abortion rights, medical debt, and more. Read more from Becker’s Hospital Review and the San Francisco Chronicle. Scroll down for more election news.
Native American Public Health Officials Are Stuck in Data Blind Spot
By Jazmin Orozco Rodriguez
For decades, state and federal agencies have restricted or delayed tribes and tribal epidemiology centers from accessing public health data, a blackout that leaves health workers in Native American communities cobbling together information to guide their work, including tracking devastating disease outbreaks.
