WASHINGTON — President-elect Joe Biden is naming Susan Rice as director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, giving her broad sway over his administration’s approach to immigration, health care and racial inequality and elevating the prominence of the position in the West Wing. The move marks a surprising shift...
GOP Tries Again to Get High Court to Ax Health Care Law
WASHINGTON — A week after the 2020 election, Republican elected officials and the Trump administration are advancing their latest arguments to get rid of the Affordable Care Act, a long-held GOP goal that has repeatedly failed in Congress and the courts. In arguments scheduled for Tuesday, the Supreme Court will hear its...
Health Care Is Focus as Barrett Supreme Court Hearing Opens
WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats branded Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett a threat to Americans' health care during the coronavirus pandemic Monday at the start of a fast-tracked hearing that Republicans are confident will end with Barrett's confirmation to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg before Election Day. In a competing effort to approvingly...
Making Care More Welcoming to LGBTQ by Training Clinicians, Doctors
Zoyer Zendel said transitioning from female to male was difficult enough without having to explain over and over to his insurance provider or convince a doctor why a hysterectomy was needed for a healthy 24-year-old. “It makes you feel invalidated emotionally and intellectually,” he said. That worry of being misunderstood...
New Clinic Works to Reduce Valley’s Lower Life Expectancy for Sickle Cell Patients
Once a month Ragina Bell travels to UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in Oakland for a blood transfusion that literally keeps her alive by replacing her faulty red blood cells with healthy ones. The trip requires an overnight stay and she must find someone to watch her two sons while she’s...
Group Prenatal Care Aims to Reduce Healthcare Disparities for Black Mothers
Before she became pregnant, Darnisha Wiley-Scott had been going door-to-door on the west side of Fresno surveying women about pregnancy and childbirth as part of a community project and study. “Come to find out that African-American women are more likely to have premature babies than any other ethnicity in Fresno....
Some California Hospitals Are Overwhelmed by Virus Cases
SACRAMENTO — Teams of military doctors, nurses and other health care specialists are being deployed to eight California hospitals facing staffing shortages amid a record-breaking surge of coronavirus cases across the state. The Air Force, at California's request, assigned 160 people to increase capacity in intensive care units. Some teams...
Want to ‘Fly Through’ Medical School? Here’s Your Chance.
Next month, a group of 75 future doctors will begin four years of rigorous study and training while attending the Valley's new medical school just east of Fresno. But on Tuesday, the public can "fly through" the College of Osteopathic Medicine's 90,000 square-foot building in Clovis as part of the...
White House Wins Ruling on Health Care Price Disclosure
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration won a court ruling Tuesday upholding its plan to require hospitals and insurers to disclose the actual prices for common tests and procedures in a bid to promote competition and push down costs. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar called the decision in federal...
New Doctors Say They’ll Stay Local to Address Valley Health Needs
Dr. Kenya Covarrubias didn't speak English when she began 10th grade at Washington Union High School in the small Fresno County town of Easton. But that obstacle didn't stop the motivated young woman from becoming valedictorian of her graduating class. She then went on to double major in chemistry and...