Latest California Healthline Stories
Website Errors Raise Calls For Medicare To Be Flexible With Seniors’ Enrollment
Members of Congress and others complain Medicare’s revamped Plan Finder had problems. Federal officials say they can help consumers who got bad information change their plans next year. But details about how switching will work are yet to come.
As His Wife’s Caregiver, A Doctor Discovers What’s Missing At Health Care’s Core
Harvard psychiatrist Arthur Kleinman shed his “veil of ignorance” during 11 years serving as the primary family caregiver for his wife, who had a rare form of early Alzheimer’s disease. In a new book, “The Soul of Care,” he offers suggestions for transforming health care ― just as caregiving transformed him.
‘I Feel Like I’m In Jail’: Hospital Alarms Torment Patients
As alarms proliferate, hospitals in California and across the nation are working to sort through the cacophony that can overwhelm staff and cause them to overlook real signs of harm.
Readers React: UVA Doctors Outraged Over Their Own Health System’s Billing Practices
Kaiser Health News gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories.
Facebook Live: Intimate Lessons From The Front Lines Of Family Caregiving
Family caregivers are the backbone of our nation’s system of long-term care for older adults. Every year, more than 34 million unpaid caregivers — mostly family members — provide essential aid to adults age 50 and older, helping with tasks such as bathing or dressing and, increasingly, performing complex medical tasks such as managing medications, dressing wounds and operating medical equipment.
Must-Reads Of The Week From Brianna Labuskes
Newsletter editor Brianna Labuskes wades through hundreds of health care policy stories each week, so you don’t have to.
When Caring For A Sick Spouse Shakes A Marriage To The Core
A long illness creates a real risk: that the relationship will be undermined and essential emotional connections lost.
California Nursing Home Residents Told To Find New Homes
Dozens of frail nursing home residents have been informed by their Medi-Cal managed-care plans that they are no longer eligible for long-term care. Some health care advocates and legal aid attorneys fear that such terminations will increase as the state implements mandatory managed care for nursing home residents.
For Boomers Reframing Aging, Age-Proofing A Home Won’t Come Cheap
More baby boomers look forward to aging in place — in their homes, rather than in a care facility. But the costs of retrofitting a house is likely prohibitive for many Americans.
‘Fear Of Falling’: How Hospitals Do Even More Harm By Keeping Patients In Bed
In what experts call an “epidemic of immobility,” older hospital patients remain stuck in bed, their movements tracked by loud and ineffective bed alarms, losing muscle mass that’s key to their health and daily functioning.