The Trump administration is denying reporting by The Guardian that said VA hospitals could refuse care to veterans based on factors like marital status and political affiliation due to an executive order by President Trump. The Guardian earlier Monday published a report saying VA hospitals are implementing new rules in response to Trump's executive order in January, which would permit workers to deny care to veterans based on characteristics not protected by federal law.
Companion bills have recently been introduced in the House of Representatives and the Senate that seek to make violent attacks on employees of hospitals and healthcare organizations a federal crime.
Doctors at VA hospitals nationwide could refuse to treat unmarried veterans and Democrats under new hospital guidelines imposed following an executive order by Donald Trump. The new rules, obtained by the Guardian, also apply to psychologists, dentists and a host of other occupations. They have already gone into effect in at least some VA medical centers. Medical staff are still required to treat veterans regardless of race, color, religion and sex, and all veterans remain entitled to treatment. But individual workers are now free to decline to care for patients based on personal characteristics not explicitly prohibited by federal law.
Disruption has been a defining characteristic of medicine whose history is defined by advances in treatment and care. What is happening today is different, as broad forces reconfigure every aspect of care, everywhere, all at once.
President Donald Trump's administration has provided deportation officials with personal data -- including the immigration status -- on millions of Medicaid enrollees, a move that could make it easier to locate people as part of his sweeping immigration crackdown. An internal memo and emails obtained by The Associated Press show that Medicaid officials unsuccessfully sought to block the data transfer, citing legal and ethical concerns.
The U.S. logged fewer than 30 measles cases this week as Ohio health officials confirmed three outbreaks in two counties were over. There have been 1,197 confirmed measles cases this year, the CDC says. Health officials in Texas, where the nation's biggest outbreak raged during the late winter and spring, confirmed two cases in the last week.