Category: states

As LA County Sets New Infection Record, State Leaders’ Behavior Sends Mixed Messages

Even as L.A.’s stay-at-home restrictions began, leaders across California took heat for their do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do pandemic behavior.

During ACA Open Enrollment, Picking a Plan Invites New COVID Complications

COVID-19’s “long haulers” — patients with lingering effects of the disease — have joined the ranks of Americans with preexisting conditions. For those shopping for health coverage on the individual market, here’s help navigating an uncharted insurance landscape.

As Hospitals Fill With COVID Patients, Medical Reinforcements Are Hard to Find

More than 93,000 COVID patients are hospitalized across the country. But beds and space aren’t the main concern for hospital administrators — It’s the health care workforce.

OSHA Let Employers Decide Whether to Report Health Care Worker Deaths. Many Didn’t.

Four workers died at a facility with one of the largest U.S. outbreaks, but the Occupational Safety and Health Administration never conducted an inspection. It’s a pattern that’s played out across the nation, a KHN investigation finds.

Thousands of Doctors’ Offices Buckle Under Financial Stress of COVID

Across the nation, primary care practices that were already struggling are closing, victims of the pandemic’s financial fallout. And this is reducing access to health care, especially in rural and other regions already short on doctors.

Why Employers Find It So Hard to Test for COVID

COVID-19 cases are surging across the U.S., and most workplaces are still open for business. As workers fear catching the disease while on the clock, why aren’t more companies footing the bill for testing employees?

Rural Areas Send Their Sickest Patients to Cities, Straining Hospitals

Critically ill rural patients are often sent to city hospitals for high-level treatment, and as their numbers grow, some urban hospitals are buckling under the added strain. Meanwhile, mask-wearing and other pandemic prevention measures remain spotty in rural counties.

New Legal Push Aims to Speed Magic Mushrooms to Dying Patients

A proposal in Washington state would use right-to-try laws to allow terminally ill patients access to psilocybin — the famed magic mushrooms of America’s psychedelic ’60s — to ease depression and anxiety.

Need a COVID-19 Nurse? That’ll Be $8,000 a Week

A shortage of nurses has turned hospital staffing into a sort of national bidding war, with hospitals willing to pay exorbitant wages to secure the nurses they need. That threatens to shift the supply of nurses toward more affluent areas.

Surging LA

Eight months after California Healthline’s Heidi de Marco photographed LA under lockdown, she returned to the same iconic spots. Vehicle and foot traffic are up — as are coronavirus cases.