Category: Kaiser Health News

Postcard From The Edge: L.A. Street Vendors Who Can’t Stop Working

Foot traffic in L.A. has fallen off a cliff amid the COVID-19 crisis, driving many street vendors away. But some are still on the streets, peddling their wares out of economic necessity. Many are undocumented immigrants who won’t get any help from the recently approved $2 trillion federal assistance package.

‘When It Starts Getting Into Your Local Hospital, It Becomes Real’

Located about 45 minutes from New Orleans in one of the hardest-hit counties nationally, the 25-bed rural St. James Parish Hospital has hunkered down as staffers became infected, patient intake numbers have doubled, and intubations have skyrocketed. This is what it looks like inside a rural hospital when COVID-19 hits.

Pandemic Delays Federal Probe Into Medicare Advantage Health Plans

Government officials want to focus on fighting COVID-19 instead of recouping overcharges that run into the millions.

To Curb Coronavirus, What’s Behind The Wearing Of A Mask?

The CDC recommends that Americans wear facial masks when they go to public places, such as the grocery store. But this is only one part of a multipronged effort to stop the virus’s spread.

Nursing Homes Have Thousands Of Ventilators That Hospitals Desperately Need

The prospect raises a grim dilemma: Should doctors take people off life support in order to save COVID-19 patients who might recover?

Cancer Patients Face Treatment Delays And Uncertainty As Coronavirus Cripples Hospitals

As hospitals across the country are forced to delay or cancel certain medical procedures in response to the surge in patients with COVID-19, those hard choices are disrupting care for some people with serious illnesses.

Inside Meals On Wheels’ Struggle To Keep Older Americans Fed During A Pandemic

Its older volunteers are staying home and its clients, mostly age 75 and up, are more vulnerable than ever.

Dispatch From A Country Doctor: Seeing Patients Differently In The Time Of Coronavirus

Emergency rule changes by the federal government and some insurers have made telemedicine a useful tool.

After COVID-19: Doctors Ponder Best Advice As Patients Recover From Coronavirus

Doctors are making decisions about a patient’s recovery with an incomplete understanding of the disease caused by the coronavirus. Although federal officials have issued general guidelines, physicians said they can’t offer recovered patients who aren’t retested any guarantees about whether they could transmit the virus.

Second Time Around? Health Care Issues Trump Might Tackle If Reelected

KHN’s Julie Rovner examines what health care issues the administration might encounter if President Donald Trump wins in November.