Video visits are not always adequate substitutes for in-person, human-to-human connection. Our expert on end-of-life care reflects on how to strike the right balance.

Stories That Caught Our Attention This Week: In California and around the nation, expectant women of color prefer that doulas help them before, during, and after childbirth — and public agencies are launching programs to make it happen.

Compiling a patient’s complete health record still requires a herculean effort involving multiple web portals, reams of data files, and, yes, fax machines. As new means of data-sharing begin to change that, the safety net should not be left behind.

Telehealth can help solve California's rural health workforce shortage by more quickly and conveniently connecting patients to distant providers, cutting long travel times and wait lists.

Stories That Caught Our Attention This Week: Health policymakers in Sacramento and Washington, DC, are taking renewed interest in restraining one of the most stubborn challenges facing the nation — surging consumer health costs.

CHCF has launched Medi-Cal Explained, a project that will include papers and briefings describing how the nation’s largest Medicaid program organizes, finances, and provides care for low-income people in California.

Stories That Caught Our Attention This Week: The state with the nation's mightiest economy is in the grip of a homelessness crisis that has so far outstripped the ability of state and local governments to cope with it.

A conversation with California author Katy Butler, whose new book spotlights the perverse financial incentives that promote overtreatment and overdiagnosis of patients while failing to reward relationships, thoughtfulness, and harm reduction.

Stories That Caught Our Attention This Week: California needs a robust mental health workforce. The California Future Health Workforce Commission recommends practical ways to solve the state’s behavioral health workforce shortages.

A new report from the California Future Health Workforce Commission charts a clear path to ensure that our state has the right people in the right places to deliver the care that is needed most.

Stories That Caught Our Attention This Week: During the five-week government shutdown, federal contractors, new hires, and workers who recently changed health plans due to life events faced lapsed insurance, unfilled prescriptions, and unpaid medical bills.

Stories That Caught Our Attention This Week: Nadine Burke Harris, MD, MPH, has been appointed as California's first-ever surgeon general. She brings a career of expertise on the effects of childhood adversity to her new role.

A statewide poll reveals that Californians are deeply aware of the state's lack of mental health providers — and they're worried about how to pay for care.

Stories That Caught Our Attention This Week: If knowledge is power, patients across the country got stronger on January 1, when a new national health care transparency policy took effect. But will consumers really benefit?

An innovative program in Washington connects peer support counselors whose personal experience of recovery from mental illness or addiction helps them deliver behavioral health services to patients — at pivotal moments in their lives.