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Hundreds of thousands of people will be able to appeal hospitals’ decisions to classify them as “observation care” patients instead of inpatients, under a ruling last week in a class action suit.
Older adults are at serious risk during this pandemic and have been advised to avoid contact with others. Yet many still need essential services, and programs are scrambling to adapt.
This online map shows which of the 15,000 nursing homes in the U.S. have been cited for infection-control violations and how serious those infractions are.
More nursing homes have been faulted for failing to follow practices designed to prevent and control infections than for any other type of error. Such lapses have become matters of heightened concern with the spread of the coronavirus this spring, especially as the virus is a bigger threat to the elderly.
Seema Verma, administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, calls on state and federal health inspectors to focus on how facilities keep infections from spreading, especially in areas that have reported coronavirus cases.
In advance of the Super Tuesday primary, California's Los Angeles County is rotating new touch-screen voting machines among 41 locations, including adult day care centers and jails, to increase voting among populations with historically low turnout.
A federal audit of 19 California nursing homes released today found hundreds of violations of safety and emergency standards, putting vulnerable nursing home residents at increased risk of injury or death during a wildfire or other disaster.
Dozens of frail nursing home residents have been informed by their Medi-Cal managed care plans that they are no longer eligible for long-term care. Some health care advocates and legal aid attorneys fear that such terminations will increase as the state implements mandatory managed care for nursing home residents.
By 2030, an estimated 1 in 5 Californians will be 65 or older, and the state is creating a “master plan” to address their needs. Lawmakers, advocates, local officials and others gathered in Sacramento on Monday to tackle issues of greatest concern, such as long-term care and housing for low-income seniors.
Facing billions of dollars in legal claims for the role its equipment has played in a spate of deadly wildfires, California utility giant Pacific Gas & Electric plans to step up efforts to cut power to broad regions of the state during high-risk weather conditions. The potential for prolonged blackouts has prompted disaster preparations by hospitals, nursing homes and home care providers.
Before “Medicare for All,” there was just Medicare, the federal program that provides insurance to 60 million Americans. This week, KHN’s Julie Rovner talks to Tricia Neuman of the Kaiser Family Foundation about how Medicare works and whom it serves. Then, Joanne Kenen of Politico, Paige Winfield Cunningham of The Washington Post and Kimberly Leonard of the Washington Examiner join Rovner to talk about some current Medicare issues being debated in Washington, D.C.
Medicare beneficiaries under observation care in the hospital can face higher costs for treatment and are not covered for nursing home care when discharged. A federal trial in Hartford, Conn., will determine whether the government’s ban on appeals involving observation care coverage is fair.
Running counter to the efforts of suicide prevention experts and many religious and social norms, some seniors are quietly exploring the option of turning to suicide when they feel they've lived long enough.
In reaction to an investigation by Kaiser Health News and the Chicago Tribune, the Illinois legislature has passed a new law to impose fines on nursing homes that fail to meet minimum staffing requirements.
For a generation of LGBTQ people who lived through unprecedented social change, getting older poses new challenges — lack of services, discrimination, neglect and even abuse.
For the first time, the federal government is measuring the quality of rehab services in nursing homes for the millions of older adults who need post-hospitalization care.
Kaiser Health News gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories.
In its latest update to the Nursing Home Compare website, the government gave 1,638 homes its lowest star rating for staffing — one star on its five-star scale. Most were downgraded because payroll records reported no registered-nurse hours at all for at least four days.
Use this tool to see staffing levels at skilled nursing homes in the U.S.
Hospitals and nursing homes in California and Illinois hope that regional cooperation — and a special soap — will help them gain the upper hand against deadly antibiotic-resistant superbugs.
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