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In Alleged Health Care ‘Money Grab,’ Nation’s Largest Hospital Chain Cashes In on Trauma Centers

By Jay Hancock June 14, 2021 KFF Health News Original

HCA charges patients an “activation fee” of up to $50,000 for trauma teams at centers located in half its 179 hospitals — and they often don’t need trauma care, an analysis of insurance claims data shows.

Montana Med School Clash Revives For-Profit Vs. Nonprofit Flap

By Victoria Knight June 7, 2021 KFF Health News Original

Two medical schools vie to open in Montana, highlighting the rapid spread of for-profit schools and their previously tarnished business model.

Caring for an Aging Nation

By Lydia Zuraw and Carmen Heredia Rodriguez May 28, 2021 KFF Health News Original

The number of Americans 65 and older is expected to nearly double in the next 40 years. Finding a way to provide and pay for the long-term health services they need won’t be easy.

Stark Racial Disparities Persist in Vaccinations, State-Level CDC Data Shows

By Hannah Recht and Rachana Pradhan and Lauren Weber May 20, 2021 KFF Health News Original

Black Americans’ vaccination rates still trail all other groups, while Hispanics show improvement. Native Americans show the strongest rates nationally.

Homicides Surge in California Amid Covid Shutdowns of Schools, Youth Programs

By Phillip Reese May 17, 2021 KFF Health News Original

California endured a brutal spike in homicides in 2020 across large swaths of the state, registering the largest year-over-year increase in victims in three decades. Experts cite as one significant factor a rise in gang violence fueled by pandemic shutdowns of schools, sports leagues and programs for at-risk youth.

In Appalachia and the Mississippi Delta, Millions Face Long Drives to Stroke Care

By Aneri Pattani and Hannah Recht and Jamie Grey, InvestigateTV May 4, 2021 KFF Health News Original

Across Appalachia and the Mississippi Delta, where death rates from stroke are above the national average, routing patients from rural areas to the right level of care can be an intricate jigsaw puzzle. The closest hospital might not offer the full scope of stroke treatments, but hospitals with more advanced care could be hours away.

As Vaccine Demand Slows, Political Differences Go on Display in California Counties

By Anna Almendrala May 3, 2021 KFF Health News Original

California officials are optimistic they can vaccinate millions more before hitting a hard wall of vaccine resistance.

Public Health Experts Worry About Boom-Bust Cycle of Support

By Michelle R. Smith, The Associated Press and Lauren Weber and Hannah Recht April 19, 2021 KFF Health News Original

Congress has poured tens of billions of dollars into public health since last year. While health officials who have juggled bare-bones budgets for years are grateful for the money, they worry it will soon dry up, just as it has after previous crises such as 9/11, SARS and Ebola. Meanwhile, they continue to cope with an exodus from the field amid political pressure and exhaustion that meant 1 in 6 Americans lost their local health department leader.

Despite Covid, Many Wealthy Hospitals Had a Banner Year With Federal Bailout

By Jordan Rau and Christine Spolar April 5, 2021 KFF Health News Original

As the crisis crushed smaller providers, some of the nation’s richest health systems thrived, reporting hundreds of millions of dollars in surpluses after accepting huge grants for pandemic relief. But poorer hospitals — many serving rural and minority populations — got a smaller slice of the pie and limped through the year with deficits and a bleak fiscal future.

Montana Sticks to Its Patchwork Covid Vaccine Rollout as Eligibility Expands

By Katheryn Houghton Photos by Tailyr Irvine April 5, 2021 KFF Health News Original

Montana’s overstretched counties and tribal governments have developed a mishmash of policies and plans that require ingenuity and mutual support to work. A reporting project by KHN, Montana Free Press and the University of Montana School of Journalism finds the biggest test of that disparate system looms as vaccine eligibility expands. Plus: a county-by-county guide to vaccine availability in Montana.

Getting a Prescription to Die Remains Tricky Even as Aid-in-Dying Bills Gain Momentum

By Katheryn Houghton March 30, 2021 KFF Health News Original

Access to physician-assisted death is expanding across the U.S., but the procedure remains in Montana’s legal gray zone more than a decade after the state Supreme Court ruled physicians could use a dying patient’s consent as a defense.

How Covid Has Changed Our Movement, as Revealed by Your Cellphone

By Phillip Reese March 16, 2021 KFF Health News Original

Californians are venturing out to shop, dine and work far more now than a year ago, when state officials issued the first sweeping stay-at-home order. But we’re still sticking to home way more than before the pandemic, according to mobile phone tracking data.

One Year In: How Covid’s Toll Compares With Other Causes of Death

By Louis Jacobson, PolitiFact March 11, 2021 KFF Health News Original

Covid-19 has become the country’s third-leading cause of death, and isn’t far behind cancer.

California’s Rural Counties Endure a Deadly Covid Winter

By Phillip Reese February 5, 2021 KFF Health News Original

In the past two months, covid-related infection and death rates have jumped exponentially in California’s least populated counties. The winter surge has scarred corners of the state that went largely unscathed for much of 2020.

High-Poverty Neighborhoods Bear the Brunt of COVID’s Scourge

By Phillip Reese December 15, 2020 KFF Health News Original

COVID infection rates in California are consistently higher in low-income neighborhoods than more affluent areas, according to an analysis by ZIP code. Our findings underscore the heightened risks borne by millions of low-wage workers whose jobs are deemed essential.

Pandemic Backlash Jeopardizes Public Health Powers, Leaders

By Anna Maria Barry-Jester and Hannah Recht and Michelle R. Smith, The Associated Press and Lauren Weber December 15, 2020 KFF Health News Original

At least 181 public health leaders in 38 states have resigned, retired or been fired amid the turmoil of the pandemic. The departures come as backlash against public health is rising with threats to officials’ personal safety and legislative and legal efforts to strip their governmental public health powers.

Dialysis Industry Spends Millions, Emerges as Power Player in California Politics

By Samantha Young December 10, 2020 KFF Health News Original

Over the past four years, the dialysis industry has spent $233 million on both political offense and defense in California. Most of it went toward protecting its revenues against ballot initiatives, but the industry also strategically worked the corridors of the state Capitol.

As Anxieties Rise, Californians Buy Hundreds of Thousands More Guns

By Phillip Reese October 28, 2020 KFF Health News Original

Gun sales are surging in California, where handgun-related FBI background checks this spring and summer were up 83% over 2019. Whether pro or con on gun control, experts agree the trend has been fueled by pandemic-related unrest.

COVID Crackdowns at Work Have Saved Black and Latino Lives, LA Officials Say

By Anna Almendrala October 15, 2020 KFF Health News Original

Strict enforcement of coronavirus protocols at factories and shops where some of the worst outbreaks have occurred has reduced the racial and ethnic disparities in COVID deaths and illness, say public health officials. They want to expand the effort by creating workplace safety councils.

California’s Deadliest Spring in 20 Years Suggests COVID Undercount

By Phillip Reese September 21, 2020 KFF Health News Original

California’s death count for the first five months of the pandemic was 13% higher than average for the same period during the prior three years. Subtract the deaths officially attributed to COVID-19 and experts say that still leaves scores of “excess” deaths among people of color that likely were mistakenly excluded from the coronavirus death tally.

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