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A recent court decision that overturns one of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s few pandemic rules — masks required on public transportation — spotlights how little power remains in federal hands to enforce public health protections.
Legislators in Kansas are pushing bills to expand exemptions for school vaccines, allowing religious exemptions for all vaccine requirements in the state's schools without families having to provide any proof of their beliefs. Similar bills are being introduced around the nation as the anti-vaccine movement gains traction among politicians.
Just as Texas has tightened its laws surrounding abortion, Mexico has gone the opposite direction, compelling people to seek potentially less-safe procedures south of the border.
Kentucky nurse Jacqueline Brewster is accused of tampering with opioids in Tennessee and West Virginia, possibly contaminating drugs given to hospital patients.
Some U.S. states have reduced use of the procedure, including by sharing C-section data with doctors and hospitals. But change has proved difficult in the South, where women are generally less healthy heading into their pregnancies and maternal and infant health problems are among the highest in the U.S.
As states prepare for the end of the covid public health emergency, they are making plans to reevaluate each Medicaid enrollee’s eligibility. They will rely primarily on mail and email because not many states can text enrollees.
Congenital syphilis rates keep climbing, according to newly released federal data. But the primary funding source for most public health departments has been largely stagnant, its purchasing power dragged even lower by inflation.
Loan closets are playing an important role as supply chain issues and the rising price of aluminum have led to shortages in medical equipment such as wheelchairs, walkers, crutches, and knee scooters.
Nearly all psychiatric residential treatment centers for children in South Carolina operate as for-profit businesses — some backed by private equity — and many prioritize out-of-state kids because it’s better for the bottom line. The scramble to secure treatment for children and teenagers has become so competitive that South Carolina will spend millions more each year as of April 1 to keep out-of-state patients from flooding the state's treatment facilities.
To contain the spread of covid, hospitals and nursing homes barred visits. The separation and isolation took a toll on patients and families. Florida is one of the latest states to ensure access for visitors.
President Joe Biden welcomed former President Barack Obama back to the White House this week to announce a new policy for the Affordable Care Act that would make subsidies available to more families with unaffordable employer coverage. Meanwhile, Congress struggled to find a compromise for continued federal funding of covid-19 vaccines, testing, and treatments. Tami Luhby of CNN, Shefali Luthra of The 19th, and Jessie Hellmann of CQ Roll Call join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more.
About 50% of the covid-19 patients who got the last-ditch life support treatment at Vanderbilt University Medical Center died. Researchers wanted to know what happened to the many patients they had to turn away because ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) machines and the specialized staffers needed were in short supply. The grim answer: 90% of those turned away perished.
A bill one family considered paid wrongfully resurfaced, resurrecting painful memories. It’s a scenario that’s not uncommon but grievously unsettling.
As overdoses surge and opioid settlement dollars flow, funding to North Carolina rehab foreshadows national discussion about the best approaches to treatment.
Some doctors are getting licensed in multiple states so they can use telemedicine and mail-order pharmacies to provide medication abortions to more women. At the same time, states are cracking down on telemedicine abortions, blunting the efforts of out-of-state doctors.
The former Tennessee nurse faces prison time for a fatal error. Reaction from her peers was swift and fierce on social media and beyond ― and it isn’t over.
The pandemic crisis has overwhelmed understaffed state Medicaid agencies, already delaying access to the insurance program in Missouri. As the public health emergency ends, low-income people nationwide could find it even harder to have coverage.
KHN and California Healthline staff made the rounds on national and local media this week to discuss their stories. Here’s a collection of their appearances.
Black students at many predominantly white colleges are speaking out about the racial hostility they’ve experienced, which contributes to depression, elevated stress levels, and anxiety. But the students are often not getting the mental health help they need on campus.
As states expand Medicaid’s dental benefits, they’re running up against a shortage of dentists willing to work on those patients, especially in rural communities. So Tennessee is helping dental schools expand and offering to pay off student loans for those who work in high-need areas.
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