Latest California Healthline Stories
States Watching as Massachusetts Takes Aim at Hospital Building Boom and Costs
A Massachusetts health care cost watchdog agency helped block plans of the state’s largest hospital system to expand into the suburbs. Now, other states are looking at whether Massachusetts’ decade-old model of controlling health costs is worth emulating.
At US Hospitals, a Drug Mix-Up Is Just a Few Keystrokes Away
After a Tennessee nurse killed a patient because of a drug error, the companies behind hospital medication cabinets said they’d make the devices safer. But did they?
Shopping for Space, Health Systems Make Over Malls
Dying malls have turned out to be good places to care for the living. During the pandemic, mall-to-medicine transitions accelerated, with at least 10 health systems moving in where retail has moved out.
Despite Losing Federal Money, State Is Still Testing Uninsured Residents for Covid — For Now
Federal funding that paid for covid testing, treatment, and vaccines for uninsured people has run out. While some states struggle to make up the difference, California is relying on other state and local programs to continue free testing.
Heartbeat-Tracking Technology Raises Patients’ and Doctors’ Worries
As Google joins Apple in adding heart rhythm sensors to wearable devices, and millions of people gain access to alerts that flag when their hearts might have skipped a beat, cardiologists are wondering what to do with all the information.
Why Cheap, Older Drugs That Might Treat Covid Never Get Out of the Lab
The hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin fiascoes have soured many doctors on repurposing drugs for covid. A few inexpensive old drugs may be as good as some of the new antivirals, but they face complex obstacles to get to patients.
Battle Lines Are Drawn Over California Deal With Kaiser Permanente
A controversial proposal to grant HMO giant Kaiser Permanente a no-bid statewide Medi-Cal contract is headed for its first legislative hearing amid vocal opposition from a coalition of counties, competing health plans, community clinics, and a national health care labor union.
Attendance Plummets at LA Covid Vaccination Events
Across Los Angeles County, few people are showing up at covid vaccination drives even though nearly 2 million residents remain unvaccinated.
Se desploma la asistencia a eventos de vacunación contra covid en Los Ángeles
A medida que las infecciones por covid han ido disminuyendo, también lo ha hecho el interés en las vacunas, a pesar de que estas dosis son altamente efectivas para evitar enfermarse de gravedad y morir a causa del virus.
KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: News You Might Have Missed
Congress is in recess, so the slower-than-average news week gives us a chance to catch up on underreported topics, like Medicare’s coverage decision for the controversial Alzheimer’s disease drug Aduhelm and ominous new statistics on drug overdose deaths and sexually transmitted diseases. Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Joanne Kenen of Politico and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Plus, for extra credit, the panelists recommend their favorite health policy stories of the week they think you should read, too.