The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
521 - 540 of 948 Results
A foster care program on the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota is attracting attention from officials elsewhere as they search for ways to reduce trauma inflicted on Indigenous families, who鈥檝e faced generations of high rates of family separation.
Missouri and Montana are the only states without distracted driving laws for all drivers. With traffic fatalities rising significantly nationwide, some Missouri lawmakers and advocates for roadway safety are eyeing bills in the new legislative session that would crack down on texting while driving in the Show Me State.
States are trying to reach millions of Medicaid enrollees to make sure those still eligible remain covered and help others find new health insurance.
Just outside St. Louis, a cemetery for children sits on a hill. A wooden, weather-worn sign welcomes mourners to 鈥淏aby Land.鈥 The gravediggers who made the special spot work quietly in the shadows.
A baby spent more than a month in a Chicago NICU. A big bill revealed she was treated by out-of-network doctors from the children鈥檚 hospital next door. Her parents were charged despite a state law protecting patients from such out-of-network billing 鈥 and sent to collections when they didn鈥檛 pay up.
More states are moving to specialized managed-care contracts solely to handle medical and behavioral services for foster kids. But child advocates, foster parents, and even state officials say these and other care arrangements are shortchanging foster kids鈥 health needs.
Many small-town care facilities that remain open are limiting admissions, citing a lack of staff, while a wave of others shutter. That means more patients are marooned in hospitals or placed far away from their families.
Abortion is a top issue for state lawmakers meeting for their first full sessions since Roe v. Wade was overturned.
Howard Buffett, son of billionaire investor Warren Buffett and chairman of his own charitable foundation, gave $30 million to build an addiction treatment center in the central Illinois community where he farms. But the money was a one-time gift for infrastructure, so the clinic is on its own to keep it running.
When the pandemic began, senior service agencies hustled to rework health classes to include virtual options for older adults. Now that isolation has ended, virtual classes remain. For seniors in rural areas, those classes have broadened access to supervised physical activity.
An investigation of records from 25 county jails across Pennsylvania showed that nearly 1 in 3 "use of force" incidents by guards involved a confined person who was having a psychiatric crisis or who had a known mental illness.
This strategy 鈥 now in place in at least 10 states 鈥 is part of an effort to curb accidental opioid overdose deaths by patients who take these powerful medications.
Some rural residents must travel hours for a sexual assault exam. Specialized telehealth services are expanding so they can obtain care closer to home.
In El Paso County, where five people were killed in a mass shooting at a nightclub in November, officials have filed relatively few emergency petitions to temporarily remove a person鈥檚 guns, with scant approvals.
As teens, these three women lived amid street gangs around East St Louis, Illinois. Now, as adults, they support the families who have lost loved ones to gun violence. And because of their past, some residents trust them more than they do the police.
An examination of billing policies and practices at more than 500 hospitals across the country shows widespread reliance on aggressive collection tactics.
Across the country, there are no consistent requirements for the officials who investigate suspicious and unexpected deaths. Some have no medical training, others are doctors trained in forensic pathology. Washington, California, Illinois, and Georgia are among the states that have recently attempted to make changes 鈥 with mixed success.
Pediatric cases of RSV and flu have families crowding into ERs, as health systems juggle staff shortages. In Michigan, only 10 out of 130 hospitals have a pediatric ICU.
Research shows offering clean syringes to people who misuse IV drugs is effective in combating the spread of HIV. But an epidemiologist and advocates say state and local officials in West Virginia, home to one of the worst HIV outbreaks in recent years, have taken measures that render syringe exchange less accessible.
Since 2017, Medicaid expansion has been adopted in seven states where a question was placed directly on the ballot. But campaign leaders say that strategy may not work in Florida and Wyoming, where Republican opposition remains strong.
漏 2026 KFF