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State legislatures nationwide, including several in the South, are spending millions to improve rural health outcomes and access. For years, though, most Southern states have refused billions of federal dollars to provide public health insurance to more low-income adults. That isn’t likely to change with Trump back in office.
Telehealth startups including Ro and Nurx are spending millions to promote themselves as easy dispensers of medicines. Some companies offer care for birth control, sexual dysfunction, and more complex conditions, including behavioral health disorders and obesity.
Mississippi, Tennessee, and West Virginia — states with some of the worst health outcomes — also have some of the highest childhood vaccination rates. But doctors and health officials worry a rising tide of vaccine skepticism is causing those public health bright spots to dim.
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.
From addiction treatment to toy robot ambulances, we uncovered how billions in opioid settlement funds were used by state and local governments in 2022 and 2023. Find out where the money went.
The helicopter evacuation of 70 people from a Tennessee hospital during Hurricane Helene is considered a success story. The building was destroyed by floodwaters, but no one died. In hindsight, why was it built next to a river?
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.
Ballad Health, with the largest state-sanctioned hospital monopoly in the nation, has failed for years to meet many quality-of-care goals, leaving some patients afraid of their local hospitals but with no other nearby options.
Florida discovered a glitch in its Deloitte-run Medicaid eligibility system. The problem, alleged in court testimony, led to new mothers wrongly losing their insurance coverage.
Two Indiana hospital rivals withdrew their application to merge after facing pushback from the Federal Trade Commission and the public.
Hundreds of people and the Federal Trade Commission weighed in on a proposed hospital merger in Terre Haute, Indiana, with most arguing that the creation of a monopoly would increase costs and worsen patient care.
Pregnant women are being asked to make large cash payments months before they deliver their babies. Some patient advocates worry this billing practice allows providers to hold treatment hostage.
Ballad Health, a 20-hospital system with the nation's largest state-sanctioned hospital monopoly, serves patients in Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky, and North Carolina.
Every family has secrets. I spent the past few years reporting about racial violence in Sikeston, Missouri. Interviewing Black families there helped me uncover my family's traumatic past, too.
As states wait for Deloitte to make fixes in computer systems, Medicaid beneficiaries risk losing access to health care and food.
In many places, victims of the opioid epidemic are silenced in decision-making about how to use opioid settlement money, a first-of-its-kind survey conducted by KFF Health News and Spotlight PA found.
“Certificate of need” laws, largely supported by the hospital industry, limit health facility construction in 35 states and Washington, D.C. Georgia lawmakers decided its law was complicating the reviving of two hospitals critical to their communities.
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.
The percentage of people who say they’ve tried to end a pregnancy without medical assistance increased after "Roe v. Wade" was overturned. One of the most common reasons for seeking a self-managed abortion was privacy concerns.
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