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Dignity Health is suing several patients and their advocates for “commercial blockade” for refusing discharge during the covid-19 pandemic. The lawsuits could set precedents for use of the California commercial blockade statute, conceived to constrain abortion protesters, and how hospitals handle discharges.
The financial and emotional toll of providing and paying for long-term care is wreaking havoc on the lives of millions of Americans. Read about how a few families are navigating the challenges, in their own words.
Treatments that don’t help patients, and may even harm them, are difficult to eliminate because they can be big sources of revenue.
The law, which takes effect Jan. 1, prohibits out-of-network ground ambulance operators from billing patients more than they would pay for in-network rides. It also caps how much the uninsured must pay.
Sleep deprivation in adolescents is linked to mental health struggles, worse grades, traffic accidents, and more. That’s why states such as California and Florida have mandated later high school start times. But opposition to later times is less about the science than it is about logistics and costs.
Providers and health care advocates warn a proposed rule change in Montana would jeopardize immunity levels in child care centers and communities. Efforts to change vaccination exemption rules are underway in other states, too.
As credit rating agencies have removed small unpaid medical bills from consumer credit, scores have gone up, a new study finds.
As Medicaid programs across the nation review enrollees' status in the wake of the pandemic, patients struggle to navigate the upheaval.
More than 16 million Americans who buy their own health insurance through state and federal marketplaces have until Jan. 15 to compare prices, change their coverage, or enroll for the first time.
The number of men in the state taking paid family leave to bond with a new child has risen nearly 20% since the start of the pandemic.
KFF Health News senior correspondent Angela Hart discusses big developments in street medicine, both statewide and nationally.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation expanding paid sick leave to five days, extending bereavement leave to miscarriages and failed adoptions, and approving an eventual $25-an-hour health care minimum wage. Still, in a possible sign of national ambitions, the Democrat vetoed free condoms in schools and refused to decriminalize psychedelic mushrooms.
In Los Angeles and elsewhere, some parents are having trouble finding the new pediatric covid shot, especially for young children. Not all pediatricians or pharmacies have it and can administer it, even if vaccines.gov says they can.
The legislation bans the use of four additives that are already prohibited in many other countries but remain in popular U.S. foods. Advocates say states need to act because the FDA has done little.
This month, the federal government started paying for treatments delivered outside hospitals and clinics, expanding funding for “street medicine” teams that treat homeless patients. California led the way on the change, which could help sick and vulnerable patients get healthy, sober, and, in some cases, into housing.
As homelessness explodes across California, so does the number of expectant mothers on the streets. Street medicine doctors are getting paid more by Medicaid and offering some of those mothers-to-be a chance to overcome addiction and reverse chronic diseases so they can have healthy babies — and perhaps keep them.
School nurses treat children daily for a wide range of illnesses and injuries, and sometimes serve as a young patient’s only health provider. They also function as a point person for critical public health interventions. Yet many states don’t require them, and school districts struggle to hire them.
KFF Health News senior correspondent Angela Hart leads a discussion about the role women play as California grapples with a shortage of health care providers.
The American College of Emergency Physicians agreed to withdraw its 2009 white paper on excited delirium, removing the only official medical pillar of support left for the theory that has played a key role in absolving police of culpability for in-custody deaths.
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