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In a nation with one of the highest incarceration rates in the world, imprisonment speeds the aging process, research shows. Some experts complain the federal government isn’t collecting or releasing data that could identify disease patterns and prevent deaths.
Californians 85 and older are especially susceptible to malnutrition. They accounted for almost three in five malnutrition deaths in the state last year.
Persistent fatigue — the feeling of having no energy — can contribute to frailty and affects 40% to 74% of older patients with chronic illness. Yet its causes can be elusive.
Researchers are identifying new ways to assess older adults’ social circumstances and identify risks that can compromise their health. “It’s a more complete picture of older adults’ circumstances than any one factor alone,” one expert said.
The May 11 expiration of the federal government’s pandemic emergency declaration will affect patient care across a broad range of settings, including telemedicine, hospitals, and nursing homes.
In-person mental health care is hard to arrange in rural nursing homes, so video chats with faraway professionals are filling the gap.
Older people often aren’t being screened for anxiety disorders, even though it is a common affliction — one masked by other problems when growing old.
Medi-Cal serves more than one-third of the state’s population — offering a dizzying range of care to a diverse population. In the new “Faces of Medi-Cal” series, California Healthline will assess the program’s strengths and weaknesses through the lives and experiences of its enrollees.
States take drastically different approaches to recovering Medicaid money from deceased participants’ estates. Demands for repayment of Medicaid spending can drain the assets a person leaves behind, depending on where they lived.
California has enrolled into Medi-Cal more than 300,000 older immigrant adults lacking legal residency since May, but the state doesn’t know how many more might be eligible. Community workers are now searching for them.
KHN gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories.
Programs assisting people with dementia — and their caregivers — improve quality of life and care. But millions of unpaid family and friend caregivers may not know where or how to find help.
Rather than simply reward top-performing facilities, the state’s Medicaid program will hand bonuses to nursing homes — even low-rated ones — for hiring more workers and reducing staff turnover.
Lawmakers are considering creating standards to set Medicaid reimbursement rates. But industry observers wonder whether the move would be too little, too late to bolster a beleaguered industry.
CMS advanced two proposed changes that could affect Medicare Advantage plans. One would allow the government to recover past overpayments. As a result, it could reduce those insurers’ profits, leading them to increase enrollees' out-of-pocket costs or reduce benefits. But it's inaccurate to characterize the changes as "cuts."
The First Step Act was supposed to help free terminally ill and aging federal inmates who pose little or no threat to public safety. But while petitions for compassionate release skyrocketed during the pandemic, judges denied most requests.
When Medicare stops paying for a pricey drug that prolongs life, an Ohio man considers giving up treatment to spare his family enormous debt.
President Joe Biden’s 2023 State of the Union address leaned heavily on health care issues. Biden took a victory lap for recent accomplishments like capping prescription drug costs for seniors on Medicare. He also urged Congress to make permanent the boosted premium subsidies under the Affordable Care Act, and he sparred with Republicans on threats to cut Social Security and Medicare. Also this week, both sides in the abortion debate are bracing for a court decision out of Texas that could, at least temporarily, make the abortion pill mifepristone illegal nationwide. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Rachel Cohrs of Stat, and Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet join KHN chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews Kate Baicker of the University of Chicago about a possible middle ground in the effort to get universal health insurance coverage.
As he takes the reins of the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee, the independent from Vermont and implacable champion of “Medicare for All” maps out his strategy for negotiating with Republicans — and Big Pharma.
The industry has long relied on immigrants to bolster its ranks, and they’ll be critical to meeting future staffing needs, experts say. But as the baby boom generation fills beds, policymakers are slow to open new pathways for foreign workers.
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