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To keep costs down, Blue Shield of California next year will scale back on a program allowing members to receive a wide range of care beyond the stateâs borders. Customers with individual plans mostly wonât be able to get coverage out of state except for emergencies or other exceptional circumstances. Â
Patient advocates say the stateâs new staffing regulations are a good start toward better protecting the frail, but the nursing home industry contends theyâre too burdensome.
Itâs not clear why Asian-American college students have higher rates of compulsive gambling than their peers, but a nonprofit in the San Francisco Bay Area arms them with strategies to avoid getting hooked.
Having fled quickly â often without medications, wheelchairs or pets to comfort them â refugees from the Camp Fire manage as best they can in makeshift shelters miles from home. A virus is spreading, and medical attention is spotty.
More than half of mass shooters have serious mental health disorders, experts say, but the vast majority of mentally ill people are not violent. Some clinicians suggest strategic interventions, including closing loopholes in background checks to buy firearms and allowing family members to confiscate guns under temporary court orders for relatives at risk of doing harm.
As wildfires blaze in Northern and Southern California, millions of people outside of the burn zones are getting exposed to dangerous wildfire smoke. For those donning face masks for protection, only a specific mask will work.
For mothers in recovery from opioid addiction, narcotic pain relief during and after delivery can put sobriety at risk.
For over a decade, federal health officials have recommended the practice, known as expedited partner therapy. It is allowed in most states, but many doctors donât do it â either because of legal or ethical concerns, or because they are unaware of it.
In this episode of KHNâs âWhat the Health?â Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Rebecca Adams of CQ Roll Call and Joanne Kenen of Politico discuss the Trump administrationâs new birth control coverage rules and the potential impact of the midterm election results on health policy.
The dialysis industry raised nearly $111 million in a successful bid to defeat the measure, which also was opposed by hospitals and doctors. The union that sponsored the measure collected about one-sixth that amount.
Attorney General Xavier Becerra views his resounding Election Day win as a âclear signalâ from voters to continue his work defending the Affordable Care Act and pushing back against the Trump administration.
Even though Democrat Gavin Newsom campaigned for single-payer, itâs unlikely that he and other lawmakers will completely overhaul the stateâs health care system right away. Instead, they will likely propose incremental steps to provide more Californians with health insurance.
An âepidemicâ of robocalls timed to open-enrollment season are largely illegal, fraudulent or aim to rope you into insurance you donât need or canât use. They're also really annoying.
As politicians across the country toss about such health care catchphrases, sometimes interchangeably, many voters say theyâre âjust confused.â
Both sides in the contentious and expensive battle over Californiaâs Proposition 8 are cherry-picking the facts ahead of Tuesdayâs vote as dialysis companies spend record amounts to persuade voters through ads.
The money was paid on behalf of more than 400,000 people who may have been ineligible for the public program, a state audit found. One had been dead for four years before payments stopped.
Although dialysis provider DaVita Inc. has taken major financial hits this year, including a $383.5 million jury award in response to wrongful death lawsuits, it still rakes in profits. The company faces its biggest threat next month, when California voters weigh in on a ballot initiative that could force it to leave the state.
Union-backed initiatives in Palo Alto and Livermore, Calif., aim to cap charges by hospitals and doctors, seeking to build on national furor over rising medical bills. The measures arise in health care markets that are among the most expensive in the nation.
The front-runner in the California governorâs race, known for his political audacity, has officially endorsed the controversial move to create one public insurance program for all Californians. Yet he also faces formidable challenges, and liberal critics fear heâll retreat.
As rates of sexually transmitted diseases surge, public health officials want physicians to step up screening and treatment of patients.
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