Homeless patients accounted for about 100,000 visits to California hospitals in 2017, marking a 28% increase from just two years earlier. Health officials attribute the surge to the overall rise in California’s homeless numbers and the large proportion of people living on the streets with mental illness.
Psychiatric treatment for children in Medicaid managed-care plans in Missouri has declined and suicide risks are up, reveals a study sponsored by the state hospital association.
Work helps make people healthier, CMS chief Seema Verma said in approving Utah’s waiver request to tie government health benefits to employment or volunteer work. But Judge James Boasberg has said that isn’t the goal of Medicaid.
It’s been a wild week for health policy, mostly because of developments surrounding two different legal cases. Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Joanne Kenen of Politico and Kimberly Leonard of the Washington Examiner join KHN’s Julie Rovner to sort it out with a discussion of a setback for Medicaid work requirements and the Trump administration’s decision to back a lawsuit claiming the entire Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional. Also, Rovner interviews filmmaker Mike Eisenberg about his movie “To Err Is Human: A Patient Safety Documentary.”
With Scott Gottlieb making his exit from the Food and Drug Administration’s top spot, city and country health officials call for backup in the fight to curb teen use of e-cigarettes.
The decision applies only to Kentucky and Arkansas, and many experts expect the administration and other conservative states to continue to move forward on rules that would limit coverage for people who don’t work.
In the wake of a KHN investigation, Scott Gottlieb says releasing the records is in the public interest.
For almost two decades, device makers have sent reports of incidents to databases hidden from public view.
The action comes in the lawsuit brought by Republican attorneys general and governors challenging Obamacare. The Justice Department had originally argued that the law should stand but that its protections against preexisting conditions be overturned.
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), head of the influential HELP committee, wants to make it easier to share and store detailed medical histories.
