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Guidance regarding the CARES Act says health care providers who take emergency funds aren't allowed to "balance bill" coronavirus patients ― and every patient is a possible COVID-19 patient.

A federal agency issued a proposed rule Friday that rolls back Obama-era protections for transgender patients. Advocates for transgender people say the rule leaves them vulnerable to discrimination.

The state official and former congressman would enter the job with a historic public health crisis raging. In his current role, Becerra has fought Trump efforts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act.

Farmworkers are among the groups disproportionately affected by stress and anxiety. Researchers and healthcare providers say the pandemic increased economic struggles and job pressures. Still, agricultural workers are not always aware that it could impact their mental health.

The Northeast Tri-County Health District on Friday announced that it has moved Ferry County back a step because of an outbreak, brought upon, at least in part, by two maskless parties at an Eagles’ Lodge in Republic in mid-April.

The only thing unique about this twice-weekly child play space, buried deep in a state Department of Social and Health Services office in Yakima, are its customers: families in crisis. "When they come into this room and are here for a while you see the shoulders drop," Maria Vasquez said. "They relax. They settle. They smile."

Since February 2017, 16 Washington nursing homes — from Seattle to Ritzville — have closed, announced they will close, or converted to assisted living. Each time a nursing home closes, it forces vulnerable residents to endure disruptive — and potentially dangerous — moves.

In recent months, court commissioners on both sides of the Cascades have found the state of Washington in contempt, and even imposed fines, over access to state psychiatric care for people with severe developmental disabilities. The cases involve people who’ve been found to pose an imminent risk to themselves or others, but are languishing in local hospitals.

Over the past eight years, Washington has lost 170 residential beds for hard-to-place foster youth. But now there’s a push in Olympia to nearly double provider reimbursement rates in an effort to reverse the trend.

It’s been more than a year since the state Department of Social and Health Services took the unprecedented step of shutting down a major in-home care provider for developmentally disabled adults. Now, 16 months after the provider’s sister company, Aacres Washington, took over care of many of those vulnerable adults, the cycle is repeating itself.