- Health Care System
Overflowing Emergency Room: A Reflection of Our Ailing Health System
Last summer, officials at Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital in South Los Angeles made a decision: If they didn’t start yelling for help, their facility was headed for a total shutdown. In the abstract, the problem seemed to make no sense. How could this hospital be in trouble? Not only is MLK (as locals often call it) a newer facility with consecutive five-star ratings from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, but it also fills a desperate need in a federally certified health care desert and practically overflows with patients. (Kreidler, 2/15)
- Disparities
Report Reveals Health Care Disparities Amidst Widespread Discrimination, According to USA Today
Younger and Black or Latino health care workers were more likely than their older or white counterparts to say they noticed discrimination against patients. Among the key findings in the survey: 47% of U.S. health care workers said they witnessed discrimination against patients, and 52% said that racism against patients was a major problem. (Alltucker, 2/15)
- Women’s Health
Report from The Hill: Doulas Enhance Health Results for Pregnant Medicaid Recipients
Doula care improves health outcomes for pregnant women with Medicaid, according to a new report from public policy institute Elevance Health. The country’s worsening maternal health crisis has stirred interest in using doulas as an additional support for expecting mothers, especially Black women, who have the highest maternal mortality rate in the U.S. But most insurance companies do not cover doula care, and only 13 states, along with Washington D.C., offer reimbursed doula care through Medicaid. (O'Connell-Domenech, 2/15)
Axios: "Promising" Start for Postpartum Depression Pill Prescriptions
At least 120 prescriptions were written for the first pill treating postpartum depression in the days following its launch, drugmaker Sage Therapeutics disclosed in its year-end earnings report on Wednesday. Postpartum depression affects an estimated 500,000 people each year. But with a launch price of $15,900 for the drug Zurzuvae, analysts had expressed uncertainty about its potential market and how insurers may cover the treatment. (Reed, 2/15)
- Child Nutrition
AP: The Reason 14 GOP-Led States Rejected Federal Funds for Feeding Low-Income Children
Lower-income families with school-age kids can get help from the federal government paying for groceries this summer, unless they live in one of the 14 states that have said no to joining the program this year. The reasons for the rejections, all from states with Republican governors, include philosophical objections to welfare programs, technical challenges due to aging computer systems and satisfaction with other summer nutrition programs reaching far fewer children. (Mattise and Mulvihill, 2/16)
- Children’s Health
Los Angeles Times: Unveiling of Children's Hospital Los Angeles' New Fetal Cardiac Clinic
Children’s Hospital Los Angeles has opened its new Fetal Cardiac Clinic, a unique space for expectant mothers and the fetal patient population to continue receiving the highest level of comprehensive care during pregnancy, birth and beyond. Located next door to CHLA at Hollywood Presbyterian Doctors Tower, the Fetal Cardiac Clinic is home to CHLA’s world-class team of specialists trained in diagnosing and treating congenital heart defects and heart diseases before birth. (2/14)
San Diego Union-Tribune: Increase in Kawasaki Disease Cases at Rady Children's Hospital, Cause Still Unknown
After experiencing a lull during the COVID-19 pandemic, clinicians at Rady Children’s Hospital have been somewhat surprised at the number of young children diagnosed with Kawasaki disease in the new year. (Sisson, 2/13)
Axios: Vaccine Expert Warns Measles Comeback is a "Canary in the Coal Mine" for U.S.
The return of measles is a "canary in the coal mine" for the country's ability to fight the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases, vaccine expert Paul Offit warned in an interview with Axios. That's among the many consequences of vaccine misinformation and politicization that exploded during the pandemic, Offit writes in a new book out Tuesday, "Tell Me When It's Over: An Insider's Guide to Deciphering COVID Myths and Navigating Our Post-Pandemic World." (Reed, 2/12)
The New York Times: Heart Risks May Confront Children of Mothers with Pregnancy Complications
Women who develop high blood pressure or diabetes in the course of pregnancy are more likely to give birth to children who develop conditions that may compromise their own heart health at a young age, scientists reported on Monday. By the time they are 12 years old, these children are more likely to be overweight or to be diagnosed with high blood pressure, high cholesterol or high blood sugar, compared with children whose mothers had complication-free pregnancies. (Rabin, 2/12)
The Hill: Report Finds Climate Change Increasing Danger for Children Playing Outdoors
Blistering heat waves and more frequent wildfires are reversing a generation of U.S. clean air gains, a new study has found. The peer-reviewed research by the climate analytics firm First Street Foundation projected that by midcentury, the increased levels of microscopic soot particles and ozone molecules entering Americans’ lungs will be back to the levels they were at in 2004 — before a decades-long federal campaign to clean up the air. ... Falling air quality has driven up the number of days when children in the U.S. West can’t safely play outside nearly fivefold since 2000. (Elbein, 2/12)
- Medi-Cal
KFF Health News: Nearly 2 Million on Medi-Cal Find Financial Relief in New Eligibility Rules
Millions of Medi-Cal beneficiaries can now save for a rainy day, keep an inheritance, or hold on to a modest nest egg, without losing coverage, thanks to an eligibility change phased in over the past year and a half. It also has opened the door for thousands who previously did not qualify for Medi-Cal, the health insurance program for low-income residents that covers over one-third of California’s population. Until Jan. 1, 3 million Medi-Cal beneficiaries, mainly those who are aged, blind, disabled, in long-term care, or in the federal Supplemental Security Income program, faced limits on the value of financial accounts and personal property they could hold to qualify for coverage. Now, nearly 2 million of them will no longer face these restrictions, putting them on par with the roughly 12 million other Medi-Cal beneficiaries who don’t have asset limits. (Wolfson, 2/15)
New Medi-Cal Eligibility Rules Offer Financial Relief to Nearly 2 Million
Nearly 2 million Medi-Cal enrollees, mainly people who are aged, disabled, or in long-term care, can now accumulate savings and property without limitations and still qualify for the state’s health insurance program for low-income residents. They join an additional roughly 12 million enrollees who already had no asset limits. (Bernard J. Wolfson, 2/14 )
- Mental Health
The Hill: Over Half of Black Transgender Youth Have Contemplated Suicide in the Last Year
More than half of Black transgender and nonbinary young people reported having seriously considered suicide in the past year, and more than 20 percent said they had attempted suicide, according to data released Tuesday by The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ youth suicide prevention organization. Black LGBTQ young people experience elevated rates of discrimination related to both their race and ethnicity and their LGBTQ identities, according to Tuesday’s report, which analyzed survey responses from over 28,000 LGBTQ teens and young adults in the U.S. (Migdon, 2/13)
NPR: Request Made to Influencers to Assist in Halting the Spread of Mental Health Misinformation
Harvard public health researchers recruited social media influencers who discuss mental health issues, and trained them to present better information to audiences. (Muraskin, 2/12)
AP: Schools Seek to Increase Student Access to Therapy, But Not All Parents Approve
Derry Oliver was in fifth grade when she first talked to her mom about seeing a therapist. She was living in Georgia with her uncle and grandparents while her mom was in New York scoping out jobs and apartments ahead of moving the family. It was a rough year apart. Oliver, now 17, was feeling depressed. A school staffer raised the idea of a therapist. Oliver’s mom, also named Derry Oliver, questioned the school’s assessment and didn’t give consent for therapy. “You’re so young,” the mom recalled thinking. “There’s nothing wrong with you. These are growing pains.” (Elsen-Rooney, 2/10)
- Nursing Shortage
Proposal Would Permit Select Community Colleges to Provide Bachelor’s Degree Programs in Nursing: Lawmakers in California have introduced a bill to create a pilot program that would allow up to 15 community colleges in the state to offer a Bachelor of Science in nursing. Read more from Becker’s Hospital Review.