News Articles

  ‘This can only go on so long.’ Patients needing routine care pack MLK emergency department Esmeralda Avendano, right, sits with her son Xavier Gomez, 9, left, inside a tent outside the emergency department at MLK Community Hospital in South Los Angeles. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times) BY EMILY ALPERT REYESSTAFF WRITER  Photography by […]

With the help of a consulting firm, the Providence hospital system trained staff to wring money out of patients, even those eligible for free care.

Politicians on both sides of the aisle spent the midterms telling us that more police and prisons will make us safer. Voters didn’t bite—and perhaps they know better.

Insurers SCAN Group and CareOregon would form HealthRight, covering Medicare and Medicaid enrollees. Two nonprofit health plans focused on government-backed coverage are planning to combine in a deal that aims to create a sizable new player in the rapidly growing business of managed Medicare and Medicaid. SCAN Group, based in Long Beach, Calif., and CareOregon,

CALIFORNIA Plaintiff whose insurer delayed surgery is awarded $14 million over opioid dependency   Health Net was ordered to pay $14.4 million in damages after an L.A. County jury found it had delayed or denied care without proper cause. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times) BY CHRISTIAN MARTINEZSTAFF WRITER  DEC. 15, 2022 5:30 AM PT

As Americans are overwhelmed with medical bills, patient financing is now a multibillion-dollar business, with private equity and big banks lined up to cash in when patients and their families can’t pay for care.

United States. The ALS community rejoiced; the drug’s authorization was described as a “long-sought victory for patients.” But the next day, the price of the medicine was revealed: $158,000 a year. This was far higher than what the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, an independent nonprofit that analyzes health care costs, had estimated would be a reasonable price, which

BY CARMEN CARTAGENA AUG. 24, 2022 3:45 PM PT Vote Yes on Proposition 29 on the Nov. 8 ballot would make California dialysis clinics have certain reporting requirements, ownership disclosures and at least one physician, nurse practitioner or physician assistant on-site while patients are being treated. Here, two essays argue for and against the ballot

September 28, 20225:01 AM ET PROSPER, Texas — Almost everything about the opening of the 2019 Prosper High School Eagles’ football season was big. The game in this Dallas-Fort Worth suburb began with fireworks and a four-airplane flyover. A trained eagle soared over the field. And some 12,000 fans filled the team’s new stadium, a