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Medicaid is the United States health program for eligible individuals and families with low incomes and resources. It is a means-tested program that is jointly funded by the states and federal government, and is managed by the states.

Missouri’s thin dental safety net stretched amid Medicaid expansion

At the Access Family Care clinics in southwestern Missouri, the next available nonemergency dental appointment is next summer. Northwest Health Services, headquartered in St. Joseph, is booked through May. The wait is a little shorter at CareSTL Health in St. Louis — around six weeks.

16 Nov 2021

As big pharma and hospitals battle over drug discounts, patients miss out on millions in benefits

In early July, as the covid-19 pandemic slammed rural America, the president of a small Kansas hospital sat down on a Friday afternoon and wrote the president of the United States to plead for help.

16 Nov 2021

How rural communities are losing their pharmacies

Batson's Drug Store seems like a throwback to a simpler time. The independently owned pharmacy in Howard, Kansas, still runs an old-fashioned soda counter and hand-dips ice cream. But the drugstore, the only one in the entire county, teeters on the edge between nostalgia and extinction.

15 Nov 2021

How low can they go? Rural hospitals weigh keeping obstetric units when births decline

As rural hospitals struggle to stay financially stable, their leaders watch other small facilities close obstetrics units to cut costs.

12 Nov 2021

Researcher: Medicare Advantage plans costing billions more than they should

Switching seniors to Medicare Advantage plans has cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars more than keeping them in original Medicare, a cost that has exploded since 2018 and is likely to rise even higher, new research has found.

11 Nov 2021

Medicare’s open enrollment is open season for scammers

Finding the best private Medicare drug or medical insurance plan among dozens of choices is tough enough without throwing misleading sales tactics into the mix.

11 Nov 2021

As overdose deaths soar, DEA-wary pharmacies shy from dispensing addiction medication

When Martin Njoku saw opioid addiction devastate his West Virginia community, he felt compelled to help. This was the place he'd called home for three decades, where he'd raised his two girls and turned his dream of owning a pharmacy into reality.

9 Nov 2021

CDC study shows COVID-19 in newborns is rare

To date, there have been relatively few cases of neonates with COVID-19, and there is limited knowledge of neonatal severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. However, recent studies have suggested an increased risk of severe COVID-19 in infants compared to older children, which is based on data that shows an increased rate of hospitalization among infants.

9 Nov 2021

Research: Less than 10% of Medicare beneficiaries with heart failure get cardiac rehabilitation

Cardiac rehabilitation enrollment rose among adults with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction after Medicare started covering it in 2014, yet overall enrollment among Medicare beneficiaries remains very low – less than 10% of those eligible according to preliminary research to be presented at the American Heart Association's Quality of Care and Outcomes Research Scientific Sessions 2021.

8 Nov 2021

Middlemen take home almost 53% of the net proceeds from insulin sales, finds study

Despite its discovery nearly 100 years ago, insulin's list price has been going up, not down, with trade secrets and other protections preventing researchers from pinpointing who is receiving profits from its sale.

7 Nov 2021

Despite restraints, democrats’ drug pricing plan could still aid consumers

The Medicare prescription drug pricing plan Democrats unveiled this week is not nearly as ambitious as many lawmakers sought, but they and drug policy experts say the provisions crack open the door to reforms that could have dramatic effects.

5 Nov 2021

Democrats plan to expand Medicare hearing benefits. What can consumers expect?

President Joe Biden's mammoth domestic spending bill would add hearing benefits to the traditional Medicare program — one of three major new benefits Democrats had sought.

5 Nov 2021

Few acute care hospitals escaped readmissions penalties

Preventable rehospitalization of the nation's older adults has proved a persistent health and financial challenge for the U.S., costing Medicare hundreds of millions of dollars each year.

4 Nov 2021

Study finds significant increase in cannabis use disorder during pregnancy

As more states legalize cannabis (now 37) for medical or recreational purposes its use during pregnancy is increasing, along with the potential for abuse or dependence.

3 Nov 2021

Socioeconomic barriers impact women's cardiovascular health early in life

Socioeconomic barriers unique to women, including inadequate access to contraception, postpartum follow-up and maternity leave, set women's cardiovascular health back early in life and can result in heart attack, stroke and cardiovascular death in at-risk populations later in life, according to a review paper from the American College of Cardiology Cardiovascular Disease in Women Committee and Health Equity Taskforce published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

1 Nov 2021

Research indicates increasing rates of crash deaths involving both alcohol and cannabis

New research indicates that between 2000 and 2018, the percentage of car crash deaths in the United States involving cannabis have doubled, and the percentage of deaths involving both cannabis and alcohol, have more than doubled.

29 Oct 2021

If Congress adds dental coverage to Medicare, should all seniors get it?

William Stork needs a tooth out. That's what the 71-year-old retired truck driver's dentist told him during a recent checkup.

29 Oct 2021

Medicare punishes 2,499 hospitals for high readmissions

The federal government's effort to penalize hospitals for excessive patient readmissions is ending its first decade with Medicare cutting payments to nearly half the nation's hospitals.

28 Oct 2021

Analysis: A procedure that cost $1,775 in New York was $350 in Maryland. Here’s why.

For the past 18 months, while I was undergoing intensive physical therapy and many neurological tests after a complicated head injury, my friends would point to a silver lining: "Now you'll be able to write about your own bills." After all, I'd spent the past decade as a journalist covering the often-bankrupting cost of U.S. medical care.

26 Oct 2021

Direct primary care, with a touch of Robin Hood

Britta Foster and Minerva Tiznado are in different leagues as far as health care is concerned.