After the Pandemic Hit Nursing Homes Hard, California Lawmakers Push to Tighten Licensing Rules

When Johanna Trenerry found a nursing home for her husband after his stroke, she expected his stay would be temporary. He never came home. Arthur Trenerry died at Windsor Redding Care Center in Northern California in October 2020. The 82-year-old great-grandfather is among more than 9,900 California nursing home residents who have died of covid-19. The nursing ...

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Post-COVID Jobs Recovery In Bay Area, California Lags Other States

Even as other states surpass their pre-pandemic job levels, the Bay Area and California have recuperated from coronavirus-linked business shutdowns and closures at a mediocre pace. The feeble rebound means a full recovery from COVID-spawned job losses remains months away, and has prompted some experts to warn that the Golden State and Silicon Valley aren’t ...

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Rising Google Searches For Procedures Suggest Recovering Demand, Analysts Say

Dive Brief: * Searches on Google for 20 common, nonemergent procedures are above pre-pandemic levels, providing another data point that indicates demand is recovering, according to analysts at Needham. * The analysts believe Google Trends data may indicate the level of consumer interest in certain procedures, leading them to track the resource to understand changes over ...

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Major Vaccine Bills Are Dying In The California Legislature. Here’s Why

When it comes to passing legislation to mandate or urge more people to get COVID-19 vaccines, there seems to be a common refrain at the California Capitol: Maybe next year. Lawmakers still have months left in their 2021 session, but an ambitious slate of vaccine bills proposed by Democrats is on life support. Its two ...

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Medical Malpractice Deal Could Replace Ballot Measure, Still Raise Monetary Awards

After years of multimillion-dollar battles over medical malpractice awards, California legislators  passed a deal increasing the monetary amount patients could claim in lawsuits while also averting a costly November ballot battle. The deal, which passed both chambers with near unanimous votes, replaced a ballot measure with legislation raising the cap for a patient’s “non-economic damages,” or ...

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NAHU CEO: ‘Medicare For All’ Moves From Congress To The States

Congress has backed off "Medicare for All" for the time being. But legislators in several states are now taking up the charge.

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Employee Productivity Is Up, But So Is Burnout

Remote work has resulted in a boost in productivity, according to a new report, but worker burnout has also skyrocketed. That’s according to a survey of 175 HR executives in the U.S. recently released by The Conference Board. Sixty-two percent of organizations with primarily remote workforces said they’ve seen productivity grow since the start of the pandemic, the report said. ...

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New Covered California Leader Urges Renewal of Enhanced Federal Aid for Health Premiums

When she was Pennsylvania’s insurance commissioner, Jessica Altman, the appointee of a Democratic governor, often bumped against the political limits of health care policy in a state where Republicans controlled the legislature. Despite the constraints of a divided government, Altman played a key role in persuading lawmakers in 2019 to join Gov. Tom Wolf in passing ...

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Employers Pay Hospitals Billions More Than Medicare

Employers and private insurance plans in 2020 paid hospitals 224% of what Medicare paid for the same services, with rates for inpatient and outpatient care varying widely from site to site, a new report from RAND finds.

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Unprecedented Budget Surplus Is Focus of May Revision

To nobody’s surprise, Governor Gavin Newsom on Friday announced another upward revision in the state’s general revenues—a $55 billion bump since January. To the surprise of many, this means that discretionary surpluses for three consecutive fiscal years will top $100 billion.

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