Public Health

Latest California Healthline Stories

‘No One Is Ever Really Ready’: Aid-In-Dying Patient Chooses His Last Day

With its expansion to Hawaii this year, medical aid-in-dying is now approved in eight U.S. jurisdictions. Even when legal, the controversial practice of choosing to die after a terminal diagnosis is difficult, said one Seattle man who shared his final deliberations.

Clinicians Who Learn Of A Patient’s Opioid Death Modestly Cut Back On Prescriptions

A study published Thursday shows that doctors, dentists and other medical providers cut overall opioid dosages by nearly 10 percent after receiving notification of a death from a medical examiner and information on safe prescribing.

Lax Oversight Leaves Surgery Center Regulators And Patients In The Dark

A Kaiser Health News and USA Today Network investigation finds that a hodgepodge of state rules governing outpatient centers allow some deaths and serious injuries to go unexamined. And no rule stops a doctor exiled by a hospital for misconduct from opening a surgery center down the street.

In Weary Post-Storm Puerto Rico, Medicaid Cutbacks Bode New Ills

The island’s government must squeeze $840.2 million in annual savings from Medicaid by 2023, part of the U.S. territory’s agreement with the federal government as Puerto Rico claws its way back from fiscal oblivion. Experts warn such drastic cuts defy actuarial science.

The Pluses And Minuses Of Allowing Medical Marijuana At School

As more parents turn to medical marijuana to treat their sick children, a handful of states have changed the rules to allow them to administer the drug on campus. California is considering it — at the possible risk of losing federal funding.