Latest California Healthline Stories
Malpractice Premiums Price Small Clinics Out of Gender-Affirming Care for Minors
Even in states where laws protect minors’ access to gender-affirming care, malpractice insurance premiums are keeping small and independent clinics from treating patients.
Listen to ‘Tradeoffs’: How the Loss of a Rural Hospital Compounds the Collapse of Care
Six years ago, the hospital in Fort Scott, Kansas, shuttered, leaving residents in the small community without a cornerstone health care institution. In the years since, despite new programs meant to save small hospitals, dozens of other communities have watched theirs close.
Woman Petitions Health Insurer After Company Approves — Then Rejects — Her Infusions
Even people with good insurance aren’t guaranteed affordable care, as this California Healthline follow-up to one patient’s saga shows.
Doctors Are as Vulnerable to Addiction as Anyone. California Grapples With a Response.
The Medical Board of California, which licenses MDs, is developing a program to evaluate, treat, and monitor doctors with alcohol and drug problems. But there is sharp disagreement over whether those who might volunteer for the program should be subject to public disclosure and over how much participants should pay.
Los médicos son tan vulnerables a la adicción como cualquier persona
El alcohol es una droga muy común entre los médicos, pero su fácil acceso a los analgésicos es también un riesgo particular.
Can Family Doctors Deliver Rural America From Its Maternal Health Crisis?
Family medicine doctors already deliver most of rural America’s babies, and efforts to train more in obstetrics care are seen as a way to cope with labor and delivery unit closures.
¿Pueden los médicos de familia salvar a las zonas rurales de la crisis de obstetras?
El número de bebés que murieron antes de cumplir su primer año aumentó el año pasado; y más de la mitad de los condados rurales no tienen servicios hospitalarios para partos.
An Arm and a Leg: When Hospitals Sue Patients (Part 2)
Why do hospitals sue patients who can’t afford to pay their medical bills? On this episode of “An Arm and a Leg,” host Dan Weissmann investigates such lawsuits and covers new laws and regulations that may change this practice.
RFK Jr.’s Campaign of Conspiracy Theories Is PolitiFact’s 2023 Lie of the Year
Debate and speculation are heating up over whether Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign will factor into the outcome of the 2024 election. But one thing is clear: Kennedy’s political following is built on a movement that seeks to legitimize conspiracy theories.
In Year 6, KFF Health News-NPR’s ‘Bill of the Month’ Helps Patients in a Changing System
In the sixth year of the KFF Health News-NPR’ “Bill of the Month” series, patients shared more than 750 tales of medical billing problems, and reporters analyzed more than $730,000 in charges — including more than $215,000 owed by 12 patients and their families.