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Until this spring, Michigan was the only state that had a broad criminal ban on surrogacy. Many families say that left them in limbo: forcing them to leave the state to have children, finding strangers on Facebook who would carry their child, or going through the legal hassle of having to adopt their biological children.
New data on substance use among young adults suggests that many former teen e-cigarette users are continuing the habit.
Puff inhalers can be lifesavers for people with asthma and other respiratory diseases, but some types release potent greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. That, in turn, worsens wildfires, contributes to air pollution, and intensifies allergy seasons — which can increase the need for inhalers. Some doctors are helping patients switch to more eco-sensitive inhalers.
Some of the nearly 130,000 Montanans who have lost Medicaid coverage as the state reevaluates eligibility are homeless. That’s in part because Montana kicked more than 80,000 people off the program for technical reasons rather than income ineligibility. For unhoused people who were disenrolled, getting back on Medicaid can be extraordinarily difficult.
Nurses are telling lawmakers that there are not enough of them working in hospitals and that it risks patients’ lives. California and Oregon legally limit the number of patients under a nurse’s care. Other states trying to do the same were blocked by the hospital industry. Now patients’ relatives are joining the fight.
The surge in overdose deaths among teens is opening a new path to treatment: pediatricians. A doctor in Massachusetts shows how it works with a 17-year-old patient.
A shortage of primary care providers is driving more people to seek routine care in emergency settings. In Rhode Island, safety-net clinics are under pressure as clinicians retire or burn out, and patients say it’s harder to find care as they lose connections to familiar doctors.
A California law that takes effect this summer will grant minors on public insurance the ability to get mental health treatment without their parents’ consent, a privilege that their peers with private insurance have had for years. But the law has become a flashpoint in the state’s culture wars.
The pain and trauma from repeated needle sticks leads some kids to hold on to needle phobia into adulthood. Research shows the biggest source of pain for children in the health care system is needles. But one doctor thinks he has a solution and is putting it into practice at two children’s hospitals in Northern California.
A pill form of an effective drug for postpartum depression hit the market in December, but most insurers do not yet have a policy on when or whether they will pay for it. The hurdles to obtain its predecessor medication have advocates worried.
Cities are experimenting with new ways to meet the rapidly increasing demand for behavioral health crisis intervention, at a time when incidents of police shooting and killing people in mental health crisis have become painfully familiar.
Intermountain Residential in Montana is one of the only facilities in the United States that offer long-term residential behavioral treatment for kids as young as four. Now, administrators say they’re not sure how long it can keep its doors open.
Supply problems, a high price tag, and bureaucratic obstacles are slowing the distribution of a therapy that can protect infants from the respiratory syncytial virus. That will leave them unnecessarily at risk of hospitalization this winter, pediatricians fear.
Safe storage maps show gun owners where to put their firearms for safekeeping if they experience a mental health crisis. The idea has support among some gun enthusiasts, but legal obstacles threaten wider adoption.
In Los Angeles and elsewhere, some parents are having trouble finding the new pediatric covid shot, especially for young children. Not all pediatricians or pharmacies have it and can administer it, even if vaccines.gov says they can.
Michigan is one of the few remaining abortion havens in the Midwest. But getting an abortion in that state is still more difficult than it should be, providers say.
Narcan is available without a prescription. Addiction treatment experts hope this move will increase access to the medication, which can reverse opioid overdoses. But hurdles remain: cost and stigma.
In Orange County, California, officials are threading a delicate needle. They want to persuade people with psychosis to accept treatment without coercion as the state’s new CARE Courts roll out in October.
High-risk patients from states that heavily restrict abortion are coming to hospitals in states such as Illinois that protect abortion rights. The journey can mean more medical risks and higher bills.
Hollywood actors and writers who qualify for their union health plans get a very good deal compared with other Americans. But not working during the strike threatens their eligibility in the system.
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