Pallavi Somusetty

Nonprofit MedShare repurposes unused medical tools by donating to local clinics

Many times a day, in Bay Area operating rooms like those at Kaiser Permanente Oakland, nurses lay out a set of surgical tools from which doctors can choose. Surgeons often pick one or two instruments from the bunch, leaving the rest to be discarded. Rather than clog local landfills, those unused surgical tools now can make their way to Roots Community Health Center in Oakland or Brighter Beginnings Family Health Clinic in Richmond —  thanks to MedShare, a nonprofit with…

Unverified Bay Area residents at risk of losing Covered California insurance

On Wednesday, Covered California, the state’s public health exchange, plans to end coverage for thousands of Bay Area residents who didn’t submit timely documents proving that they’re legal residents of the state. More than a quarter of the termination notices—or roughly 27,000 letters about the impending cutoff—went to Bay Area families out of the 98,000 notices sent statewide in early September. But in the East Bay, immigration specialists say language barriers and email glitches may complicate this week’s deadline, and…