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The proportion of money that California hospitals spent on free and discounted care for low-income people dropped by more than half from 2013 to 2017 — even for nonprofit hospitals. Hospitals say there’s less demand for charity care because more people now have health insurance, but consumer advocates counter that people still need help.
Enrollment among undocumented immigrant children in California’s Medicaid program started strong before stagnating and then falling. Although this decline is similar to an enrollment decline among all children in Medicaid nationwide, experts believe there are different reasons behind it.
As the rural town of Fort Scott, Kan., grapples with the closure of its hospital, cancer patients face new challenges as they try to continue their treatments in different locations.
More than 10% of residents in 12 California counties don’t have safe drinking water, according to a California Healthline analysis of state water data. State lawmakers have pledged $130 million a year to help bring clean drinking water to Californians who need it.
Experts credit the lowest U.S. unemployment rate in 50 years, along with a more flexible work culture and tighter oversight of who qualifies for federal disability benefits.Â
Buprenorphine is becoming an increasingly popular choice among doctors in California for treating opioid addiction. Use of methadone, while still more common, has not gained ground in recent years.
Crowded emergency rooms are likely to blame. In 2017, the median ER wait time for patients before admission as inpatients to California hospitals was 336 minutes — or more than 5½ hours.
In California, people who are black or Latino are more than twice as likely as whites to undergo amputations related to diabetes, a Kaiser Health News analysis found. The pattern is not unique to California.
Deaths of homeless people in Los Angeles County have jumped 76% in the past five years, outpacing the growth of the homeless population, according to a Kaiser Health News analysis of the coroner’s data. Experts say drug and alcohol abuse are significant factors.
Scientists say drought can spur transmission of the disease and that wetter winters since 2015 have helped reduce the number of infections in California. In the long term, however, climate change could mean more drought — and more infections.
In California, medical exemptions to skip childhood vaccinations are on the rise. The trend underlines how hard it is to get parents to comply with vaccination laws meant to protect public safety when a small but adamant population of families and physicians seems determined to resist.
The organ transplant from a living donor opens up the universe of available organs.
For almost two decades, device makers have sent reports of incidents to databases hidden from public view.
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