Katheryn Houghton, CaliforniaHealthline

Katheryn Houghton

CaliforniaHealthline

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Recent:
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Past:
  • CaliforniaHealthline
  • KFF Health News

Past articles by Katheryn:

Schools Struggle With Lead in Water While Awaiting Federal Relief

President Joe Biden said in his State of the Union address that federal funds will pay to replace lead pipes in hundreds of thousands of schools and child care centers. In the meantime, schools are… → Read More

As States Seek to Limit Abortions, Montana Wants to Redefine What Is Medically Necessary

Montana officials are looking to tighten rules around medically necessary abortions for those who use Medicaid as their health insurance. Reproductive health advocates and Democratic lawmakers have… → Read More

Why People Who Experience Severe Nausea During Pregnancy Often Go Untreated

Because morning sickness is common, severe nausea in pregnancy can be minimized by doctors or the patients themselves. Untreated, symptoms can worsen — and delays lead to medical emergencies. → Read More

Montana Backs Away From Innovative Hospital Payment Model. Other States Are Watching.

Montana has been a national model for how employers could gain control and transparency over medical bills. Upcoming changes to its model have health care price experts wondering whether the state … → Read More

Montana Health Officials Aim to Boost Oversight of Nonprofit Hospitals’ Giving

Montana is one of the latest states seeking to increase oversight of nonprofit hospitals’ giving to ensure they justify their tax-exempt status. → Read More

Hospitals Cut Jobs and Services as Rising Costs Strain Budgets

More than two years into the pandemic, hospital budgets are beginning to crack. One of the biggest drivers of financial shortfalls has been the cost to find workers. → Read More

Public Health Agencies Adapt Covid Lessons to Curb Overdoses, STDs, and Gun Violence

Know-how gained through the covid pandemic is seeping into other public health areas. But in a nation that has chronically underfunded its public health system, it’s hard to know which changes will… → Read More

When Mental Illness Leads to Dropped Charges, Patients Often Go Without Stabilizing Care

When criminal suspects are deemed too mentally ill to go through the court process and their charges are dropped, they can be left without stabilizing treatment — and sometimes end up being charged… → Read More

Montana Clinics That Provide Abortions Preemptively Restrict Pill Access for Out-of-State Patients

Montana is an island of legal abortion, but four of the state’s five clinics are limiting access to abortion pills for out-of-state patients in an effort to protect themselves and patients from leg… → Read More

Some People in This Montana Mining Town Worry About the Dust Next Door

Residents of a Butte neighborhood are concerned about the dust from a nearby open-pit mine that can coat their homes and vehicles. In a city where past mining left a legacy of soil and water pollut… → Read More

Montana Hires a Medicaid Director With a Managed-Care Past

Montana, one of about a dozen states still managing its own Medicaid programs, has a new Medicaid director who championed handing the management of the program to private companies in Iowa and Kans… → Read More

Abortion Politics Lead to Power Struggles Over Family Planning Grants

Conservative-leaning states and nonprofit reproductive health care providers are competing over control of states’ Title X funding for family planning programs. → Read More

A Year In, Montana’s Rolled-Back Public Health Powers Leave Some Areas in Limbo

Montana lawmakers stripped authority from local health boards, leading to power struggles between cities and counties and leaving public health officers to wonder to whom they answer. → Read More

Biden Administration Announces Boost for Rural Health Care in Midterm Election Push

President Joe Biden’s Cabinet members are fanning out across the county to promote benefits coming to rural America from covid relief and infrastructure legislation. → Read More

The Pandemic Exacerbates the ‘Paramedic Paradox’ in Rural America

Emergency medical services are a lifeline in regions with scarce medical care. But paramedics, trained to respond to patients with life-threatening injuries, are in short supply where they’re neede… → Read More

Long Waits for Montana State Hospital Leave Psychiatric Patients in Jail

A backlog at Montana’s psychiatric hospital for those facing criminal charges has left people with serious mental illness behind bars for months without adequate treatment. In some cases, judges ha… → Read More

Two Years In, Covid Leaves Montana Public Health Officials Feeling ‘Watched’

Montanans engage in plenty of spirited political disagreements. But debates about covid-19, public health, and personal liberties have reached a fever pitch, tugging at tightknit towns and making s… → Read More

Dangerous Levels of Lead Were Found in the Water of About Half the Schools Tested in Montana

Officials testing water found high lead levels in more than 100 of the state’s nearly 600 school buildings. But as of mid-February, half the state’s schools had yet to provide samples. → Read More

Covid Aid to Protect Montana Prisons and Jails Sits Unused

Montana has yet to start spending nearly $2.5 million in federal aid to boost covid detection and mitigation in the state’s prison and jails. → Read More

‘Heart’ of Little Shell: Newest Federally Recognized Tribe to Open First Clinic

The Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians of Montana plans to open the nation’s newest Indian Health Service clinic in Great Falls on Jan. 31 — marking the first time the tribe will have its cultu… → Read More