Category: Kaiser Health News

Governor’s ‘Mental Health Czar’ Seeks New Blueprint For Care In California

Thomas Insel, who ran the National Institute of Mental Health for 13 years before casting his lot with Silicon Valley, is taking a temporary break from his senior position at a health care startup to advise Gov. Gavin Newsom on how to remake mental health care in the Golden State.

In India’s Slums, ‘Painkillers Are Part Of The Daily Routine’

As the Indian government reluctantly loosens its prescription opioid laws after decades of lobbying by palliative care advocates desperate to ease their patients’ pain, the nation’s sprawling, cash-fed health care system is ripe for misuse.

In India’s Burgeoning Pain Market, U.S. Drugmakers Stand To Gain

What began in India as a populist movement to bring inexpensive morphine to the diseased and dying poor has paved the way for a booming pain management industry. Now, new customers are being funneled to U.S. drugmakers bedeviled by a government crackdown back home.

In Rural Utah, Preventing Suicide Means Meeting Gun Owners Where They Are

In Utah, 85% of deaths from firearms are suicides. To help people who might be vulnerable, outreach workers are discussing suicide prevention at gun shows and firearms classes.

Mysterious Vaping Lung Injuries May Have Flown Under Regulatory Radar

Doctors who saw patients with a mysterious lung illness in the past suspected vaping as the cause but didn’t know where to report such cases.

Judge Cites Opioid ‘Menace,’ Awards Oklahoma $572M In Landmark Case

The state judge ruled that drugmaker Johnson & Johnson contributed to the opioid epidemic that has claimed the lives of 6,000 Oklahomans.

Coming Out About Mental Health On Social Media

Talking about your mental health on social media is a thing, and it could actually help.

Why Red Wyoming Seeks The Regulatory Approach To Air Ambulance Costs

Wyoming is taking on expensive air ambulance bills by trying to expand Medicaid to cover transport for all patients. This is a big change: a red state seeking to control what’s been a growing free-market bonanza.

Doctors Fight Legislation Prompted By Sex Abuse Scandals

In response to recent high-profile sex abuse cases, some California lawmakers want doctors to give patients more information about pelvic exams, and then get a signature proving they did. Doctors in the Golden State and beyond are pushing back.

Years Ago, This Doctor Linked A Mysterious Lung Disease To Vaping

In an exclusive interview, a West Virginia physician says that back in 2015 he had a sense a patient’s illness “probably wasn’t the first case ever seen nor would it be the last.” Was it a sentinel event?