Health Industry

Latest California Healthline Stories

‘Not Accountable to Anyone’: As Insurers Issue Denials, Some Patients Run Out of Options

Health insurers issue millions of prior authorization denials every year, leaving many patients stuck in a convoluted appeals process, with little hope of meaningful policy change ahead. For doctors, these denials are frustrating and time-consuming. For patients, they can be devastating.

KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': RFK Jr. Upends Vaccine Policy, After Promising He Wouldn’t

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. this week did something he had promised not to do: He fired every member of the scientific advisory committee that recommends which vaccines should be given to whom. And he replaced them, in some cases, with vaccine skeptics. Meanwhile, hundreds of employees of the National Institutes of Health sent an open letter to the agency’s director, accusing the Trump administration of policies that “undermine the NIH mission.” Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet, and Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico Magazine join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more.

Four Ways Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ Would Undermine Access to Obamacare

The combination of the House-passed spending and tax bill and the Trump administration’s regulatory action could change Affordable Care Act enrollment and the cost of insurance. The result, according to the Congressional Budget Office, is that millions of people may become uninsured.

As Federal Health Grants Shrink, Memory Cafes Help Dementia Patients and Their Caregivers

Memory cafes are small social gatherings for individuals with memory loss and their caregivers. The events are cheap to run and can offer measurable benefits. Memory loss experts say they may become an even more important tool in the face of federal cuts to health programs.

Two Patients Faced Chemo. The One Who Survived Demanded a Test To See if It Was Safe.

Worried that President Donald Trump’s FDA might not act, a panel of cancer experts recommended that doctors consider testing before dosing patients with a commonly used but sometimes deadly cancer drug. It came too late for many patients.

Ballad Health’s Hospital Monopoly Underperformed. Then Tennessee Lowered the Bar.

Ballad Health, a state-sanctioned hospital monopoly in Tennessee and Virginia, can now be deemed a “clear and convincing” benefit to the public with performance that would earn a “D” on most grading scales, according to Tennessee state documents.