News of the Month — June 2021
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Tennessee-based LifePoint Health is set to acquire post-acute healthcare services company Kindred Healthcare and invest $1.5 billion over three years across the combined organization. The purchase is set to close in the fourth quarter of 2021 and will add 62 long-term acute care facilities, 25 inpatient rehabilitation facilities, more than 100 acute rehabilitation facilities and two behavioral health facilities to LifePoint’s portfolio.
In a blow to labor, the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated a decades-old California rule inspired by César Chávez that allowed union organizers to meet with farmworkers at their place of work. Commercial growers applauded the conservative court’s ruling to uphold property rights while union representatives vowed not to be deterred. Two agricultural producers filed suit after organizers with the United Farm Workers sought to access their property to speak with farmworkers.
The Sacramento Bee looked at the challenges Sacramento County faces in staffing a new program that will respond to 911 calls involving homeless and mental health crises.
The City Attorney of San Diego sued Kaiser Permanente and two other insurers for maintaining “ghost networks” of providers. Kaiser, which has over 9 million Californians enrolled in health plans, has an overall inaccuracy rate of 19% and one of the worst rates for mental health listings with 32% of psychiatrists on the directory being false or inaccurate listings.
To capture the trauma of COVID-19 that will be with healthcare workers for years to come, an AP photojournalist turned to an unusual form of photography not typically used in the context of reporting the news. He employed a special exposure technique in photographing 10 nurses in areas of the isolation unit, now empty. The photos create the feeling that the nurses are both there, in the photo, in the present — and also somewhere else.