An innovative program allows elderly residents to remain in their own homes, rather than in a nursing home. At AltaMed's El Monte clinic, a 14-member interdisciplinary team coordinates each senior patient’s care, and vulnerable seniors are kept as busy and engaged as possible.
The 2015 California Health Journalism Fellowship kicked off with a wide-ranging conversation between Gerald Kominski of UCLA's Center for Health Policy Research and Anna Gorman of Kaiser Health News on the past and future of health reform.
The practice of physicians "self-referring" patients to facilities in which they or their families have a financial stake has dramatically increased in some specialties. The practice increases health costs for procedures and tests that are of questionable benefit to patients.
A series of reports has found that physicians who "self-refer" are following their financial interests and not always the best interests of their patients. The trend is driving up health care costs and potentially putting patients at risk from unnecessary services.
Geographic boundaries can have a big impact on health insurance options, particularly for people living in rural regions. Rural residents tend to fare better on premiums and choices when their area is grouped with an urban neighbor.
New Jersey was one of 28 states that opted to accept federal money to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. That expansion has added almost 400,000 people to the public health insurance program - without necessarily adding more doctors to see them.
Penalty programs created under the Affordable Care Act are intended to improve quality of care at hospitals. But will they succeed?
There are around 120,000 indigenous Mexican migrants living in California. Most of them are farmworkers, face poor living conditions and higher than normal rates of illnesses. Many don't speak English or Spanish and are living in the country illegaly. They typically don’t have access to health care.
At La Clínica de la Raza in Northern California, the surge of new Medicaid enrollees has made it difficult for the clinic to meet the demand for care. But the need to make the most of limited resources has also led the organization to adopt new innovations, such as the "morning huddle."
Even after Obamacare, millions of people still don't have health coverage in California. How are these remaining uninsured going to be taken care of? That question has yet to be answered, but the debate around the issue -- which is tricky politically and financially -- is bound to be contentious.
