KFF Health News

As Colorado looks at ways to weed out false reporting of child abuse and neglect, New York and California are reworking the policies, too.

The department counts more than 500 prisoners with serious vision problems and about 80 with severe hearing problems, though attorneys think both are undercounts.

A new California law allows trained physician assistants, also called physician associates, to perform first-trimester abortions without the presence of a supervising doctor. The legislation is part of a broader effort by the state to expand access to abortion care, especially in rural areas. Some doctor groups are wary.

The new numbers are a big setback for state officials, who poured resources into overdose prevention efforts after a record 64 overdose deaths in 2019 gave California prisons the highest drug overdose death rate of any state correctional system in the United States.

The Medical Board of California, which licenses MDs, is developing a program to evaluate, treat, and monitor doctors with alcohol and drug problems. But there is sharp disagreement over whether those who might volunteer for the program should be subject to public disclosure and over how much participants should pay.

California is spending almost $5 billion to address a growing youth mental health crisis. In Los Angeles County, a contract with teletherapy provider Hazel Health is funding free therapy sessions for all interested students.

Studies suggest official numbers vastly underestimate heat-related injuries and illness on the job. To institute protections, the government must calculate their cost — and the cost of inaction.

The use of systems to analyze opioid-prescribing data has sparked questions over whether they have undergone enough independent testing outside of the companies that developed them, making it hard to know how they work.

Tattoos are more popular than ever. About a third of Americans have at least one. A scientist-entrepreneur, together with a celebrity tattoo artist, believes that ink could be doing a lot more.