Center in the News

Related Project
Featured Staff
Year
San Diego Union-Tribune

Community organization working to expand health care services in southeastern San Diego

That data shows that central-region residents are least likely of any other HHSA region in the county to have a usual place to go when sick or needing health advice, according to the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. Southeastern San Diego specifically has the second-highest proportion of residents with no health insurance — 12.2 percent — in the central region.

California Health Interview Survey (CHIS)
Newswise

UCLA-led Evaluation Shows Improved Outcomes for Medi-Cal Patients Under a Demonstration Program for Public Hospitals

Features report "Final Summative Evaluation of California’s Public Hospital Redesign and Incentives in Medi-Cal (PRIME) Program"

Nadereh Pourat
KNX News

Hospital costs set to rise

A number of hospitals are now seeking to raise their treatment prices by as much as 15 percent. They say they've been hit by salary increases for nurses. It comes as local health care workers are on strike at Cedars Sinai. So, are we going to see inflation in health care costs? How much will premiums go up?

Jack Needleman
Politico

California Playbook PM: Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act (MICRA) analysis

An analysis released today by UCLA researchers suggests that California’s longtime cap on pain-and-suffering awards in malpractice cases could actually have contributed to an increase in malpractice cases over the past 50 years — potentially by weakening the deterrent effect of being sued.

UCLA researchers reviewed state Medi-Cal data on potential malpractice cases from huge screw-ups like mismatched blood-type infusions or objects left inside patients. The researchers found more of these preventable mistakes — about 16 percent more — in states where such caps exist.

Since California spent

Jack Needleman
Freakonomics

Bad News — It's Your Surgeon's Birthday

Podcast featured Tsuguke's BMJ study "Patient mortality after surgery on the surgeon’s birthday: observational study."

Yusuke Tsugawa
Sacramento Bee

45% of undocumented Californians are going hungry. How CalFresh might fill the gap

“The findings in this brief weren’t necessarily surprising, but they are pretty stark,” said Susan Babey of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, which helped create the report, during a virtual press conference April 29.

Food Insecurity
California Healthline

California opens Medicaid to Older Unauthorized Immigrants

In addition to the current law, all immigrants without papers who meet the financial criteria can obtain a limited coverage of Medi-Cal, which includes emergency and embarrassment services and, in some cases, long-term attention. “It’s a key moment, when fours are incorporating all these undocumented immigrants who have advanced to the medical attention system,” said Arturo Vargas Bustamante, professor of politics and health management at the School of Public Health at Fielding. If you have extended your chronic, dice attachments, they will simply end up in the emergency room and will be more

Arturo Vargas Bustamante
Public News Service

Groups Press to Include Undocumented in CA Food Assistance

Children who experience food insecurity are more likely to be in overall poor health, said Babey. "They have an increased risk for depression and anxiety, and food insecurity is also associated with lower academic achievement."

Food Insecurity
KPBS

San Diego ID policy makes vaccinating the undocumented harder

“Denying a segment of our population access to vaccines because of paperwork” won’t end the pandemic any sooner, Ponce said.

Ninez A. Ponce
KBPS

San Diego County ID policy makes vaccinating the undocumented harder

Despite state policy that says immigration status does not affect vaccine eligibility, the county requires a photo ID and proof of age to receive a vaccine at its clinics, according to its policies published on the county’s website. Ninez Ponce, a professor at UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health, said the county’s photo ID policy, and the chilling effect it could have on vaccination rates among undocumented. “Denying a segment of our population access to vaccines because of paperwork” won’t end the pandemic any sooner, Ponce said. People should be concerning for everyone in the community.

Ninez A. Ponce