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Fewer than two dozen rural hospitals were converted into Rural Emergency Hospitals in the program鈥檚 first year. Now, advocates and lawmakers say tweaks to the law are necessary to lure more takers and keep health care in rural communities.
A pilot project in northern Minnesota aims to pave the way for fully autonomous vehicles to offer independence for people who can鈥檛 drive.
The federal government requires state Medicaid programs to pay for abortions in limited circumstances, but Iowa hasn鈥檛 done so for years. No providers seek Medicaid payments, which require the approval of the governor, an anti-abortion Republican.
More than 43 million Americans drink, bathe, and cook with water from private wells, which can be tainted by farm or industrial runoff, leaky septic systems, or naturally occurring minerals.
鈥淧eople want covid-19 to be in the rearview mirror,鈥 one nursing home official says. Faced with a slow rollout of the updated covid vaccines, and without state mandates for workers to get vaccinated, most skilled nursing facilities are relying on persuasion to boost vaccination rates among staff and residents.
The Biden administration says a recently proposed minimum staffing standard would help ensure quality care, but nursing home leaders predict many rural facilities would struggle to meet it.
Distrust of public health authorities, who say drinking raw milk is dangerous, fuels demand for unpasteurized milk products, leaders on both sides of the issue say.
The number of DOs is surging, and more than half of them practice in primary care, including in rural areas hit hard by doctor shortages.
The median life expectancy for a U.S. baby born with Down syndrome jumped from about four years in 1950 to 58 years in the 2010s. That鈥檚 largely because they no longer can be denied lifesaving care, including surgeries for heart defects. But now, aging adults with Down syndrome face a health system unprepared to care for them.
In-person mental health care is hard to arrange in rural nursing homes, so video chats with faraway professionals are filling the gap.
States take drastically different approaches to recovering Medicaid money from deceased participants鈥 estates. Demands for repayment of Medicaid spending can drain the assets a person leaves behind, depending on where they lived.
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.
The number of U.S. health care providers certified to prescribe buprenorphine more than doubled in the past four years, and treatment advocates hope to see that trend continue.
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.
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.
Dozens of Iowa hospitals have closed their birthing units. A team of University of Iowa nurse midwives can鈥檛 reopen them, but they鈥檝e found a way to provide prenatal checkups and other crucial services in two towns.
A new federal rescue program that pays rural hospitals to shutter underused inpatient units and focus solely on emergency rooms and outpatient care hasn鈥檛 generated much interest yet.
Montana, one of about a dozen states still managing its own Medicaid programs, has a new Medicaid director who championed handing the management of the program to private companies in Iowa and Kansas.
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