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As President Donald Trump’s heightened immigration enforcement continues across the country, some states are updating temporary guardianship laws to keep the children of detained and deported immigrants out of state custody.
After Eric Tennant died, his widow vowed to speak out against West Virginia’s Public Employees Insurance Agency, which had denied cancer treatment recommended by Tennant’s doctor. Her efforts paid off. In March, West Virginia’s governor signed a bill to protect some patients from harm tied to prior authorization.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act will add red tape and restrictions for those seeking Medicaid and SNAP benefits. And the costs to update computer systems that determine eligibility for those programs will be steep.
The Affordable Care Act put in place a package of benefits that health insurance plans must cover. Critics contend this mandate has jacked up premiums. Evidence supporting that claim is mixed.
Scientists are cheering California Gov. Gavin Newsom as he builds a public health bulwark against health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s anti-vaccine stance and President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the World Health Organization. Still, federal cuts have sapped morale and left local health departments less prepared for outbreaks.
Mobile crisis units are trained to respond to emergency calls when people are experiencing delusions or hallucinations. But unlike police departments, which are generally funded by local taxpayers, mobile crisis teams don’t have a single, reliable funding source. As a result, some are closing down, despite successful operations and local support.
Some Republican state lawmakers and state health associations are pushing back against spending plans under the Trump administration’s $50 billion federal rural health fund. Federal administrators already approved states’ plans, but in many cases, state lawmakers must greenlight spending.
Two Trump administration regulatory rollbacks affect nursing home staffing and home care workers, and a new AI experiment in Medicare has alarmed eldercare advocates and congressional Democrats.
Every state will receive at least $100 million annually from the federal Rural Health Transformation fund, but some scored millions more based on how the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services judged the “quality” of their plans and willingness to pass policies embracing "Make America Healthy Again" initiatives.
Clinicians and epidemiologists warn the decision to no longer recommend the birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine could unravel decades of progress and expose newborns to a deadly, preventable disease.
Genesis HealthCare’s bankruptcy case in Dallas will allow the nursing home chain to avoid paying millions of dollars it promised for residents who were injured or died while in its care. Families say bankruptcy nullifies one of the main ways to hold nursing home owners accountable for poor care.
Local governments have received hundreds of millions of dollars from the opioid settlements to support addiction treatment, recovery, and prevention efforts. Their spending decisions in 2024 were sometimes surprising and even controversial. Our new database offers more than 10,500 examples.
States, counties, and cities are receiving millions in opioid settlement money to address the addiction crisis. The ways they spent the dollars in 2024 sometimes drew criticism from advocates and at least one state official, who alleged misuse.
Some injured patients say they wish they had tried harder to check the backgrounds of doctors and clinics they trusted, but those records are hard to find.
A pilot program testing the use of artificial intelligence to expand prior authorization decisions in Medicare has providers, politicians, and researchers questioning Trump administration promises to curb an unpopular practice that has frustrated patients and their doctors.
Whistleblower lawsuits alleged that Exactech covered up defects in knee implants while patient injuries mounted.
Young adults without jobs that provide insurance find their options are limited and expensive. The problem is about to get worse.
Coronary artery calcium scans can offer a more precise estimate of a patient’s chances for major cardiac events. Some cardiologists say it remains underused.
Billions in opioid settlement money was meant to be spent on treating and preventing addiction — but what happens if it’s misspent? Some advocates say attorneys general need to pay closer attention. If they don’t, a new tool might empower the public.
States that run their own health insurance marketplaces fear an end to automatic Obamacare reenrollment under the tax and spending megabill would have an outsize effect on their policyholders.
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