Latest California Healthline Stories
Doctors at UC Hospitals Want Stronger Protections in Contracts With Faith-Based Hospitals
The public university’s health system is renewing contracts with outside hospitals and clinics even as some doctors and faculty say clearer language is needed to protect physicians performing abortions and gender-affirming treatments.
The Decision of Where to Seek Care Is Complicated by the Multitude of Options
The proliferation of care options — particularly urgent care centers and free-standing emergency departments — can make the head spin. Facilities have little incentive to clear up the confusion of where to go. But for patients, the wrong choice can mean big bills and possibly poor health outcomes.
Hospitals’ Use of Volunteer Staff Runs Risk of Skirting Labor Laws, Experts Say
Hospitals using volunteers is commonplace. But some labor experts argue that deploying unpaid workers to do work that benefits the organization’s bottom line lets for-profit hospitals skirt federal labor laws, deprives employees of work, and potentially exploits the volunteers.
Behavioral Telehealth Loses Momentum Without a Regulatory Boost
As flexible treatment options spurred by the covid pandemic wane, patients relying on medications classified as controlled substances worry that without action to extend the loosened rules, it’ll be harder to get their meds.
Listen: Who Investigates Suspicious Deaths in Your Area — And Why It Matters
KHN senior correspondent Samantha Young appeared on the “Apple News Today” podcast and KOA, a public radio station in Denver, to discuss the difference between coroners and medical examiners and why it matters.
California Senate’s New Health Chair to Prioritize Mental Health and Homelessness
California state Sen. Susan Talamantes Eggman of Stockton has been appointed chair of the Senate’s influential health committee. A licensed social worker, Eggman said she will make mental health care and homelessness front-burner issues.
Listen: Noise Pollution, a Private Equity Lawsuit, and College Health Fees
California Healthline journalists report on a lawsuit against private equity-backed Envision Healthcare, the medical insurance and health service fees charged by colleges, and how our increasingly noisy lives may harm our health.
During In-Flight Emergencies, Sometimes Airlines’ Medical Kits Fall Short
U.S. airlines have response plans for passengers who run into health issues in flight, but planes carry limited and sometimes incomplete medical supplies that can put travelers at risk.
KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Year-End Bill Holds Big Health Changes
The year-end spending bill passed by Congress in late December contains a wide array of health-related provisions, including a structure for states to begin to disenroll people on Medicaid whose coverage has been maintained through the pandemic. Meanwhile, the Biden administration is taking steps to make the abortion pill more widely available. Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico, Rachel Cohrs of Stat, and Rachel Roubein of The Washington Post join KHN’s chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner to discuss these topics and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews Mark Kreidler, who reported and wrote the latest KHN-NPR “Bill of the Month” feature about a billing mix-up that took about a year to sort out.
NY Docs Are Now Required to Prescribe Naloxone to Some Patients on Opioid Painkillers
This strategy — now in place in at least 10 states — is part of an effort to curb accidental opioid overdose deaths by patients who take these powerful medications.