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More than 100 rural hospitals have stopped delivering babies since 2021, including a South Dakota hospital that serves small towns, farming communities, and a Native American reservation. Patients there now travel at least an hour to give birth.
Patients seeking mental health care are more likely to be on Medicaid than patients in more profitable areas of care, such as cancer or cardiac treatment.
Roughly 20 states now have laws permitting families to place cameras in the rooms of loved ones. Facility operators are often opposed.
Union Health has made a new bid to buy its only rival hospital in Terre Haute, Indiana. The system passed one hurdle after lawmakers watered down a bill that threatened the proposed deal. That means the merger will now face a likely showdown with Indiana’s new governor.
Patients and providers say health insurers’ preapproval requirements lead to delays and denials of needed medical treatments. Insurers argue that prior authorization keeps costs down.
After rival hospitals in Terre Haute scuttled plans to merge, a state senator has introduced a bill to forbid similar mergers by repealing a state law he helped write.
The number of new and returning enrollees using healthcare.gov — the federal marketplace that serves 31 states — is well below last year’s as of early December. Also, a Biden administration push to give “Dreamers” access to Obamacare coverage and subsidies is facing court challenges.
Donald Trump’s second term is reigniting mistrust in health services among California immigrants, making it harder for community health workers to get people enrolled in Medi-Cal. Yet the president-elect is also seen as someone who could improve their lives with a better economy, even if that means forgoing health care.
A federal judge sided with 19 states seeking an injunction against a Biden administration rule allowing recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals to enroll in Affordable Care Act coverage and qualify for subsidies amid the annual open enrollment period.
Last winter, only 4 in 10 nursing home residents got an updated covid vaccine. The low uptake leaves a fragile population vulnerable. Some industry watchdogs say it could be a sign of eroding trust between nursing home residents and providers.
The National Indian Health Board has urged the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to declare a public health emergency as an alarming syphilis outbreak, which disproportionately affects Native Americans, continues. This is the latest plea for more resources from tribal leaders after previous requests went unanswered.
Voters in 10 states weighed in on abortion rights this election. Despite the results supporting abortion rights in seven of those states, much of the abortion landscape on abortion won’t change much immediately, as medical providers navigate the legal hurdles that remain.
Nineteen states are seeking to stall a Biden administration rule that would allow recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to enroll in ACA coverage and qualify for subsidies. DACA provides work authorization and temporary deportation protection to people brought to the U.S. as children without immigration paperwork.
Every year, Medicare officials encourage beneficiaries to shop around for their drug coverage. Few take the time. This year, it might be more important than ever.
Despite years of national strategies to address the suicide crisis in the U.S., rates continue to rise. A chorus of researchers and experts say the interventions will work — but that they’re simply not being adopted by state and local governments.
The Indian Health Service has a program that can pay for outside appointments when patients need care not offered at agency-funded sites. Critics say money shortages, complex rules, and administrative fumbles often block access, however.
The end of pandemic-era Medicaid coverage protections coincided with changes in more than a dozen states to expand coverage for lower-income people, including children, pregnant women, and the incarcerated.
For decades, state and federal agencies have restricted or delayed tribes and tribal epidemiology centers from accessing public health data, a blackout that leaves health workers in Native American communities cobbling together information to guide their work, including tracking devastating disease outbreaks.
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