The Los Angeles Department of Health Services will start approving hepatitis C drugs for active IV drug users. Until now, the department had withheld approval for anyone who had not been drug-free for at least six months.
"It's our obligation to offer treatment in a manner that's rational and logical," said the county's chief medical officer. "We identify the individuals for initial treatment right now, based on how we can offer the most care to the most people, who are going to benefit from it the most now."
How one reporter "fell down a data rabbit hole" while investigating how many Medicaid patients were denied costly hep C drugs, and what she'll do differently next time.
Calif.’s revised eligibility rules for new hep C drugs appear to be easing Medicaid patients’ access to the medications, yet the vast majority of Medicaid patients with hep C still aren't getting the costly drugs, state health officials say.
When extremely expensive new hepatitis C medications arrived on the market more than two years ago, private health insurers limited access to the very sickest. Now, two new analyses say that approach is shortsighted and counterproductive.
Project: School or Survival?
Some kids born into the gangster lifestyle live to survive. If they want a different future, they will struggle to break free. One charter school aims to rehabilitate such students. This story is part of the Class Dismissed documentary from Capital Public Radio.
Joy - I cover similar issues here in the San Joaquín Valley, and have often been tempted to do...