A complaint filed by NUHW about how Kaiser Permanente in Southern California continues to commit many of the same violations for which it was fined $50 million last year has generated coverage by several media outlets. The Los Angeles Times published a story regarding the 54-page complaint and the violations that led to the $50 million fine last year. The article was republished in the Sacramento Bee and also covered by Becker’s Hospital Review.
Capitol Public Radio reported on NUHW members’ three-day strike at Sutter Center for Psychiatry in Sacramento. Becker’s Hospital Review, KOVR-13 and KCRA-3 also covered the strike.
NUHW’s Patient Advocacy Coordinator, Jessica Early, was quoted in a story in a California Healthline story about the Newsom Administration reaching a compromise on protections for indoor workers from extreme heat, which exclude prison and jail employees, and prisoners due to costs. The rules adopted by a state workers safety board will apply to warehouses, kitchens and other hot job sites. “These are not overly cumbersome things to implement, and they are easy ways to keep people safe and healthy,” Early said. “Now is the urgent time to make our workplaces safer and more resilient in the face of rising temperatures.”
Cierra Thlang, X-ray technologist at MarinHealth Medical Center, was quoted in this KQED story about the one-day strike held by NUHW members who are fighting for fair pay and to preserve their health benefits. The Marin Independent Journal, CBS Radio and KTVU also covered the strike.
Local leaders and residents are demanding the reopening of Seton Coastside’s emergency room, which is closed for nine months for repairs, according to NBC Bay Area. Patients are being referred to Seton Daly City, which is more than a 20-minute drive from Seton Coastside, depending on the traffic. San Mateo County Attorney Rebecca Archer sent a letter to AHMC Healthcare–Seton’s owners–demanding they reopen the emergency department, citing that the closure violates an agreement in which funding was provided for seismic retrofitting.
Doctors, hospitals and health insurance companies in California will be limited to annual price increases of 3 percent starting in 2029 under a new rule state regulators approved in the latest attempt to corral the ever-increasing costs of medical care in the United States, reported the Associated Press. The money Californians spent on health care went up about 5.4 percent each year for the past two decades. The 3 percent cap, approved by the Health Care Affordability Board, would be phased in over five years, starting with 3.5 percent in 2025.
