Latest California Healthline Stories
Never-Ending Costs: When Resolved Medical Bills Keep Popping Up
A bill one family considered paid wrongfully resurfaced, resurrecting painful memories. It’s a scenario that’s not uncommon but grievously unsettling.
California Handed Its Medicaid Drug Program to One Company. Then Came a Corporate Takeover.
The company awarded the state’s Medi-Cal Rx contract was taken over by another company, Centene. That left the state with a contractor it didn’t pick — one that has been accused of overbilling nine other state Medicaid programs and is now under investigation by California.
Why Black and Hispanic Seniors Are Left With a Less Powerful Flu Vaccine
Federal health officials haven’t taken a clear position on whether a high-dose influenza vaccine — on the market since 2010 — is the best choice for people 65 and older. Many in that group already opt for the costlier enhanced shot. Those who get the standard vaccine are disproportionately members of ethnic and racial minorities.
The End of the Covid Emergency Could Mean a Huge Loss of Health Insurance
It is a perilous time to throw low- and middle-income Americans off the insurance cliff: A new omicron subvariant is spreading, and a program that provided coronavirus testing and covid-19 treatment at no cost to the uninsured has expired.
$11M for North Carolina Work-Based Rehab Raises Concerns
As overdoses surge and opioid settlement dollars flow, funding to North Carolina rehab foreshadows national discussion about the best approaches to treatment.
Por qué adultos mayores de minorías no reciben la vacuna de alta dosis contra la gripe
Esta vacuna reforzada contra la influenza, podría ser más efectiva contra el virus, pero es más costosa. Y no suele estar disponible para las poblaciones más vulnerables.
ACA Sign-Ups for Low-Income People Roll Out Amid Brokers’ Concerns About Losing Their Cut
The Biden administration unveiled a new special enrollment option aimed at signing up low-income Americans for Affordable Care Act coverage — even if it is outside of the usual annual open enrollment period. But insurers are cutting broker commissions at the same time.
Doctors Trying to Prescribe Abortion Pills Across State Lines Stymied by Legislation
Some doctors are getting licensed in multiple states so they can use telemedicine and mail-order pharmacies to provide medication abortions to more women. At the same time, states are cracking down on telemedicine abortions, blunting the efforts of out-of-state doctors.
Tech Glitches at One VA Site Raise Concerns About a Nationwide Rollout
The more than $16 billion, decade-long effort by the Department of Veterans Affairs was designed to provide seamless electronic health records for patients from enlistment in the military past discharge.
Losing Sleep Over the Pandemic? Work Flexibility May Be a Boon for Night Owls’ Health
Many sleep scientists maintain that people who prefer to stay up late could improve their mental and physical health by synchronizing their natural sleep cycles with workday demands. The flexible work schedules that came with covid’s work-from-home trend, according to one new study, backs up this idea.