Pauline Bartolone

Pauline Bartolone is news and features editor for Capital Public Radio. Prevously, she was a radio and print journalist for almost 20 years, most recently covering state health policy from California’s capital. Previously, Pauline wokred for California Healthline, CALmatters and Capital Public Radio, where she covered health care, water and other key policy issues for the last four years. During that time, she also was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio and Kaiser Health News. Pauline has won three regional Edward R. Murrow awards, national recognition from the Society of Professional Journalists, and a first place prize from the Association of Health Care Journalists. Pauline has also freelanced from throughout Latin America, where her coverage of climate change in the Ecuadorian Andes co-won a 2006 George Polk award in radio. Pauline holds a BA in media and cultural studies from Goddard College and an MJ in new media from the University of California, Berkeley’s School of Journalism.

Articles

Mary O’Connor, 24, of Sacramento, who voted “yes” on California’s proposition 61, looks at a voter guide she used to help her fi

California’s drug price initiative: Will voters ‘send a signal to Washington’?

California's Prop 61 faces strong opposition from the pharmaceutical industry, which has poured at least $109 million into defeating it.

High drug prices are an issue in Medi-Cal coverage

Getting to the bottom of Calif.’s drug-spending increases means overcoming data hurdles

The secretive world of pharmaceutical pricing is mired in opacity. To investigate how pricey drugs are impacting California’s budget, reporter Pauline Bartolone found she had to be creative, flexible and persistent in her data sleuthing.

Health Insurance and Costs

Max Bros joins others in 2012 at Gilead Sciences in Foster City to protest against high drug prices. Gilead has since introduced more high-priced drugs. PHOTOGRAPH BY PHOTOGRAPH BY NOAH BERGER/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Healthcare Systems & Policy

Community & Public Health

Would a California ballot measure cut drug costs? Nobody knows

What looks like a straightforward framework to protect California’s budget from escalating drug costs has policy experts perplexed, and potential allies on the sidelines.

Health Insurance and Costs

Chronic Disease

Denise Gibson, a hepatitis C patient, takes her first dose of Sovaldi at a neighborhood clinic in Sacramento. (Photograpy by Carl Costas for CALMatters)

Healthcare Systems & Policy

Community & Public Health

What's California's prescription for rising drug costs?

Despite recent cost-cutting measures, California’s spending on pharmaceuticals has gone up, and so has the number of pricey drugs it is covering. It’s not clear state agencies have the means to balance drug cost pressures with the best interests of patients, taxpayers and public health.

Health Insurance and Costs

Chronic Disease

Healthcare Systems & Policy

The other ‘high-cost’ drugs: What specialty drugs mean for California

The specialty drug Orkambi, for cystic fibrosis, has a sticker price of $259,000 per year. What's driving these astronomical costs for specialty drugs? And can California's budget cope?

Health Insurance and Costs

Healthcare Systems & Policy

Community & Public Health

California doles out hefty payments for Hepatitis C drugs

“Dollars that were intended for a wide array of medical services started being gobbled up by just one drug,” said Charles Bacchi, president of an industry trade group.

Health Insurance and Costs

Chronic Disease

Healthcare Systems & Policy

The obscurity of drug spending in California's Medicaid program

An unlikely coalition of health insurers, labor and consumer advocates are pushing for controls on high-cost drugs in the nation's most populous state. “California is truly ground zero for this fight,” one advocate said. “It is clear Congress as a whole is not going to take meaningful action."

Health Insurance and Costs

Gov. Brown’s first budget proposal this year penciled in an additional $300 million dollars just for high-cost drugs like those that treat hepatitis C.

Have high-cost drugs left the state of California scrambling?

California says the expense of new hep C drugs has nothing to do with who is prescribed them. But the question lingers: With some 200,000 people living with hep C in Medi-Cal, how much of a factor is cost in determining which patients receive treatment?

Health Insurance and Costs

When Isolation Hinders Health: Reporting in Rural California

<div style="width: 600px;"><p>When I left for a week of reporting in rural California in late February, I didn't know I would come back with two stories about the devastating health consequences of isolation.</p><p>I'm not just talking about the geographic isolation one finds in a remote area. From the hilly evergreen landscape of eastern Shasta County, to the agricultural flatlands of Tulare County in the South Central Valley, I witnessed how isolation can leave people in the dark about keeping healthy, lead to emotional despair, and pose real barriers to quality of life.</p></div>

Migrant Workers and Nutrition: Working in "The Garden," But Not Eating From It

<p>California's Central Valley has by far the highest agricultural production in the country. But those who work the land often don't benefit from the fresh fruits and vegetables they harvest.</p>

Reporting Topics

Reporting Topics

Reporting Topics

Reporting Topics

Reporting Topics

Pauline Bartolone

Articles

California’s drug price initiative: Will voters ‘send a signal to Washington’?

Getting to the bottom of Calif.’s drug-spending increases means overcoming data hurdles

Would a California ballot measure cut drug costs? Nobody knows

What's California's prescription for rising drug costs?

The other ‘high-cost’ drugs: What specialty drugs mean for California

California doles out hefty payments for Hepatitis C drugs

The obscurity of drug spending in California's Medicaid program

Have high-cost drugs left the state of California scrambling?

When Isolation Hinders Health: Reporting in Rural California

Migrant Workers and Nutrition: Working in "The Garden," But Not Eating From It