Mental Health Crisis Teams Aren’t Just for Cities Anymore
In many cities, social workers and counselors are responding to mental health emergencies that used to be solely handled by police. That approach is spreading to rural areas even though mental health professionals are scarcer and travel distances are longer.
Turned Away From Urgent Care — And Toward a Big ER Bill
Russell Cook was expecting a quick and inexpensive visit to an urgent care center for his daughter, Frankie, after she had a car wreck. Instead, they were advised to go to an emergency room and got a much larger bill.
Buy and Bust: After Platinum Health Took Control of Noble Sites, All Hospital Workers Were Fired
Two Missouri towns are without operating hospitals after private equity-backed Noble Health left both facilities mired in debt, lawsuits, and federal investigations. The hospitals’ new operator, Platinum Health, agreed to buy them in April for $2 and laid off the last employees in early September.
Many Refugees Dealing With Trauma Face Obstacles to Mental Health Care
Refugees are arriving in the U.S. in greater numbers after a 40-year low, prompting some health professionals to rethink ways to provide culturally competent care amid a shortage of mental health services.
As State Institutions Close, Families of Longtime Residents Face Agonizing Choices
Iowa, under federal pressure to improve care for people with intellectual or developmental disabilities, is set to join 45 other states that have closed most or all of their state institutions for such residents.
Journalists Delve Into Inflation Policy, Hospital Closures, and Needle Exchanges
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.
Hospitals Cut Jobs and Services as Rising Costs Strain Budgets
More than two years into the pandemic, hospital budgets are beginning to crack. One of the biggest drivers of financial shortfalls has been the cost to find workers.
Rural Americans Have Difficulty Accessing a Promising Cancer Treatment
Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy has eliminated tumors in some late-stage cancer patients, but the cost and complexity of care mean rural Americans have trouble accessing the treatment.
A Needle Exchange Project Modeled on Urban Efforts Aims to Save Lives in Rural Nevada
Five years after HIV tore through a rural Indiana town as a result of widespread drug use, a syringe and needle exchange program was set up in rural Nevada to prevent a similar event.
For Kids With Kidney Disease, Pediatric Expertise Is Key — But Not Always Close By
A study published in JAMA leads to questions about the uneven distribution of pediatric nephrologists nationwide. Children with end-stage kidney disease feel the impact.
Some Rural Hospitals Are in Such Bad Shape, Local Governments Are Practically Giving Them Away
Coming out of the pandemic, many rural hospitals are in even rougher shape than before. So rough that some are now practically being handed to investors for little more than a pledge to keep them open.
Public Health Agencies Adapt Covid Lessons to Curb Overdoses, STDs, and Gun Violence
Know-how gained through the covid pandemic is seeping into other public health areas. But in a nation that has chronically underfunded its public health system, it’s hard to know which changes will stick.
Buy and Bust: Collapse of Private Equity-Backed Rural Hospitals Mired Employees in Medical Bills
The U.S. Labor Department investigates Noble Health after former employees of its shuttered Missouri hospitals say the private equity-backed owner took money from their paychecks and then failed to fund their insurance coverage.
Para las familias médicamente vulnerables, la presión de la inflación es inevitable
Para millones de familias que viven con enfermedades crónicas, trastornos cardíacos, diabetes y cáncer, u otras condiciones debilitantes, la inflación está demostrando ser un doloroso flagelo que podría perjudicar su salud.
‘Still a Lot of Pain’: Four Years After Mass Shooting, Texas Community Grapples With Fallout
Santa Fe, Texas, was a mental health care desert until a 17-year-old gunman killed 10 people at the local high school in 2018. Now the city, which sits in a rural stretch between Houston and Galveston, has a resiliency center, where anyone affected by the shooting can get free counseling. But even with an influx of mental health care, the community struggles with the aftermath.
For Medically Vulnerable Families, Inflation’s Squeeze Is Inescapable
Inflation hasn’t hit Americans like this in decades. And families living with chronic diseases have little choice but to pay more for the medicine, supplies, and food they need to stay healthy.
Community Health Centers’ Big Profits Raise Questions About Federal Oversight
Nonprofit federally funded health centers are a linchpin in the nation’s health care safety net because they treat the medically underserved. The average profit margin is 5%, but some have recorded margins of 20% or more in three of the past four years.
Abortion Is Just the Latest Dividing Line Between the Twin Cities of Bristol and Bristol
The community of Bristol straddles the border between two states with very different abortion laws. Tennessee prohibits most abortions at about six weeks and will soon ban them nearly outright. Virginia allows them at least through the second trimester. To maintain abortion access in the area, staff at a clinic on the Tennessee side of the state line are helping open a clinic about a mile down the road on the Virginia side.
EPA Action Boosts Grassroots Momentum to Reduce Toxic ‘Forever Chemicals’
Experts say the EPA’s recent declaration that some PFAS chemicals are unsafe at detectable levels in drinking water signals acceleration in efforts to curb exposure to compounds found in nearly every American’s blood.
Tribe Embraces Recreational Marijuana Sales on Reservation Where Alcohol Is Banned
The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota allows people to buy and use recreational marijuana but not alcohol. Some tribal citizens say cannabis is safer than alcohol, meth, and opioids — which have wreaked havoc on the state’s Indigenous communities.
