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He Thinks His Wife Died in an Understaffed Hospital. Now He’s Trying to Change the Industry.
For the past year, police Detective Tim Lillard has spent most of his waking hours unofficially investigating his wife’s death. The question has never been exactly how Ann Picha-Lillard died on Nov. 19, 2022: She succumbed to respiratory failure after an infection put too much strain on her weakened lungs. She was 65. For Tim Lillard, the question has been why. Lillard had been in the hospital with his wife every day for a month. Nurses in the intensive care unit had told him they were short-staffed, and were constantly rushing from one patient to the next. Lillard tried to pitch in where he c...
California Healthline
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Newsom Offers a Compromise to Protect Indoor Workers from Heat
SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration has compromised on long-sought rules that would protect indoor workers from extreme heat, saying tens of thousands of prison and jail employees — and prisoners — would have to wait for relief. The deal comes a month after the administration unexpectedly rejected sweeping heat standards for workers in sweltering warehouses, steamy kitchens, and other dangerously hot job sites. The rules had been years in the making, and a state worker safety board voted to adopt them March 21. But in a controversial move, the administration upended the process by ...
California Healthline
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Too Big To Fail? Now It’s ‘Too Big To Hack’
The Host Mary Agnes CareyKFF Health News @maryagnescarey Read Mary Agnes' stories. Lawmakers in Washington this week held the first congressional hearing on the Change Healthcare cyberattack, a breach that sent shock waves through the health care system as payments for care ground to a halt and left some providers in financial trouble. Republicans and Democrats alike zeroed in on how big health care conglomerations — like Change’s parent company, UnitedHealth Group — are leaving patients vulnerable. And nearly 1 in 4 adults who lost Medicaid coverage in the past year are now uninsured, accordi...
California Healthline
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Medicare’s Push To Improve Chronic Care Attracts Businesses, but Not Many Doctors
Carrie Lester looks forward to the phone call every Thursday from her doctors’ medical assistant, who asks how she’s doing and if she needs prescription refills. The assistant counsels her on dealing with anxiety and her other health issues. Lester credits the chats for keeping her out of the hospital and reducing the need for clinic visits to manage chronic conditions including depression, fibromyalgia, and hypertension. “Just knowing someone is going to check on me is comforting,” said Lester, 73, who lives with her dogs, Sophie and Dolly, in Independence, Kansas. At least two-thirds of Medi...
California Healthline
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In San Francisco’s Chinatown, a CEO Works With the Community To Bolster Hospital
SAN FRANCISCO — Chinese Hospital, located in the heart of this city’s legendary Chinatown, struggles with many of the same financial and demographic challenges that plague small independent hospitals in underserved areas across the country. Many of its patients are aging Chinese speakers with limited incomes who are reliant on Medicare and Medi-Cal, which pay less than commercial insurance and often don’t fully cover provider costs. And due to an arcane federal rule, Chinese Hospital receives a lower rate of reimbursement than many other hospitals that treat a large number of low-income patien...
California Healthline
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FDA Announces Recall of Heart Pumps Linked to Deaths and Injuries
A pair of heart devices linked to hundreds of injuries and at least 14 deaths has received the FDA’s most serious recall, the agency announced Monday. Patients Facing Death Are Opting for a Lifesaving Heart Device — But at What Risk? The HeartMate 3 is considered the safest mechanical heart pump of its kind, but a federal database contains more than 4,500 reports in which the medical device may have caused or contributed to a patient’s death. Read More The recall comes years after surgeons say they first noticed problems with the HeartMate II and HeartMate 3, manufactured by Thoratec Corp., a ...
California Healthline
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Paris Hilton Backs California Bill Requiring Sunshine on ‘Troubled Teen Industry’
Related Articles State Laws Aim to Regulate ‘Troubled Teen Industry,’ but Loopholes RemainJan 21, 2022Montana Is Sending Troubled Kids to Out-of-State Programs That Have Been Accused of AbuseMar 25, 2022Montana Adds Protections for Kids in Private Residential Treatment ProgramsJul 6, 2023Celebrity hotel heiress Paris Hilton is backing California lawmakers’ push to increase the transparency of residential teen therapeutic centers by requiring these programs to report the use of restraints or seclusion rooms in disciplining minors. “We shouldn’t be placing youth in facilities without knowing wha...
California Healthline
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Conservative Justices Stir Trouble for Republican Politicians on Abortion
Abortion opponents have maneuvered in courthouses for years to end access to reproductive health care. In Arizona last week, a win for the anti-abortion camp caused political blowback for Republican candidates in the state and beyond. The reaction echoed the response to an Alabama Supreme Court decision over in vitro fertilization just two months before. The election-year ruling by the Arizona Supreme Court allowing enforcement of a law from 1864 banning nearly all abortions startled Republican politicians, some of whom quickly turned to social media to denounce it. The court decision was yet ...
California Healthline
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Lawsuit Alleges Obamacare Plan-Switching Scheme Targeted Low-Income Consumers
A wide-ranging lawsuit filed Friday outlines a moneymaking scheme by which large insurance sales agency call centers enrolled people into Affordable Care Act plans or switched their coverage, all without their permission. According to the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, two such call centers paid tens of thousands of dollars a day to buy names of people who responded to misleading advertisements touting free government “subsidies” and other rewards. In turn, sales agents used the information to either enroll them in ACA plans or switch their existing...
California Healthline
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California Health Workers May Face Rude Awakening With $25 Minimum Wage Law
SACRAMENTO — Nearly a half-million health workers who stand to benefit from California’s nation-leading $25 minimum wage law could be in for a rude awakening if hospitals and other health care providers follow through on potential cuts to hours and benefits. A medical industry challenge to a new minimum wage ordinance in one Southern California city suggests layoffs and reductions in hours and benefits, including cuts to premium pay and vacation time, could be one result of a state law set to begin phasing in in June. However, some experts are skeptical of that possibility. The California Hosp...
California Healthline
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