Posts Tagged: California Hospital Association

Opinion

Patients suffer at hands of insurance companies

Image by uphaksorn Thongwongboot

OPINION – There is a brewing crisis in Orange County, one where the most vulnerable — seniors with disabilities, single mothers, families living below the poverty line — have lost access to vital health care services. The focus for all involved right now must be on patients — those who are facing upheaval, worse health outcomes, farther distances to travel for care, and a much greater burden on their families. For these vulnerable Californians, their worst fears have come true.

News

Hospitals’ double whammy: more patients, fewer workers

The USC Medical Center in Los Angeles, a major California hospital. (Photo: TonelsonProductions, via Shutterstock)

Last year during the winter’s peak, hospitals in the state had an estimated 54,000 patients, with roughly 22,000 of them testing Covid positive. Today, similar numbers reflect the hospitals’ overcrowding. But now, there is an overall 20 percent reduction in health care workers, and the combination of the two has seriously stressed hospitals. 

News

Amid pandemic, hospitals face financial peril

A pushes a gurney stretcher along a hospital corridor. (Photo: Spotmatik Ltd, via Shutterstock)

California’s hospitals are experiencing unprecedented financial stress due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with net losses projected to hit $14.6 billion by the end of 2020. The losses are “way above anything anyone could have anticipated… the costs have been nothing like we have ever seen before,” said Jan Emerson-Shea, a spokeswoman for the California Hospital Association, which represents about 400 hospitals, large and small.

Podcast

Capitol Weekly Podcast: Carmela Coyle on hospitals, coronavirus

The coronavirus. Illustration from the Centers for Disease Control

Carmela Coyle, president of the California Hospital Association, joins John and Tim on the Capitol Weekly Podcast to talk about the challenges that hospitals face as they deal with this once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, “an order of potential magnitude that we just haven’t seen before.”

News

Health care: Nurse practitioners push for greater role

A medical practitioner checks the blood pressure on an older patient. (Photo: Alexander Raths, via Shutterstock)

As California contends with a shortage of primary care doctors, some legislators are pushing to have nurse practitioners fill in the gaps. Assembly Bill 890, which is now headed to the Senate, would remove the requirement that nurse practitioners practice under a physician’s supervision.

News

CW Interview: Carmela Coyle, California Hospital Association

Carmela Coyle, incoming president of the California Hospital Association. (Photo: CHA)<

Carmela Coyle is the incoming president of the California Hospital Association, a major player in the state’s intensifying debate over health care. Capitol Weekly caught up with Coyle recently in the midst of her hectic schedule relocating to Sacramento from Maryland.

Opinion

Disputed legislation threatens hospital services

A hospital hallway and emergency room. (VILevi, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: AB 1250 would jeopardize access to care for millions of Californians by scrambling the current system, burying hospitals with new bureaucratic mandates, blizzards of paperwork and unnecessary red tape. Hospitals would be forced to divert limited financial and human resources from their mission of caring for patients.

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