A big question for many people on election day will be how a new president could impact health care –– particularly Medicaid, the public health insurance program for low-income adults. Much has been made of Project 2025, a nearly 1,000-page blueprint for if former President Donald Trump were to win the upcoming election. It’s authored by the…
Hospitals across the U.S. are bracing for a potential shortage of intravenous fluids, also known as IV fluids, after Hurricane Helene brought the country’s biggest manufacturing plant –– responsible for nearly 60% of IV fluid supply –– to a halt. It’s the latest example of a natural disaster’s impact extending well beyond its immediate human…
Patients and their caregivers are often left to navigate the confusing world of dementia by themselves, but Medicare is launching a new program to change that.
Thirteen states across the U.S., including much of the Midwest, introduced bills this year that could give some rights to embryos and fetuses usually associated with people. None passed but people in the fertility world are concerned that lawmakers will try again and what that means for reproductive rights.
The Federal Trade Commission says drug makers are gaming the system in order to keep drug prices high by filing what it describes as “junk patents”.
While stories of private equity firms running amok in health care are easy to find, new research paints a more nuanced picture.
Wheelchairs may seem straightforward to use, until you need to move up and down hills or stairs. Around 3.7 million people use a wheelchair in the United States. They push themselves an average of 2,000 to 3,000 times a day, but some don’t have access to formal skills training that helps them smoothly navigate the…
A total solar eclipse is when the moon completely obscures the sun’s bright surface. Parts of the Midwest including Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and Illinois are in the path of totality, which means people there will be able to see the spectacular moment the moon totally covers up the sun. With the excitement and anticipation surrounding…
On a recent morning, Celita Flowers, 68, sat on her red leather couch in the Waterloo, Iowa home she’s shared with her husband for the past 35 years. Her black toy poodle, Preston, nestled closely to her side. Flowers has eye and knee issues. In January, she got sick with COVID and pneumonia, ending up…
PFAS have been found in all kinds of non-stick, waterproof and stain-resistant products — from pans, to carpets to fast-food wrappers.
A new report found a growing number of rural hospitals no longer have labor and delivery services. The Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform analyzed federal data and found, as of last month, 55% of the nation’s rural hospitals no longer have obstetric care, and of the rural hospitals still providing care, one-third were…
At a time when many rural hospitals continue to make the tough choice to shutter their obstetrics units and stop delivering babies, Iowa Specialty Hospital’s OB unit is thriving. Jenn Mewes steps around construction equipment into Iowa Specialty’s brand new labor and delivery room in Clarion, Iowa. The new room is equipped with a bathtub,…
The majority of states are not processing food assistance applications on time and making too many payment errors, according to the federal government. U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack sent a letter to the governors of 44 states earlier this month that are failing to meet federal standards when it comes to processing applications…
A 56-year-old football official went into cardiac arrest on the sideline at Jefferson High School in Lafayette in 2006. Then, a teenager who was playing basketball during lunch at the school’s Tecumseh Junior High gym went into cardiac arrest a decade later. Both were in the Lafayette School Corporation. Both survived. The district’s preparation for…
Health care policy experts are keeping close tabs on the courts in 2024. Judges are poised to weigh in on health policies — new ones, like Medicare’s power to negotiate drug prices, and old ones, like the Affordable Care Act’s insurance rules. The ramifications of these decisions, some on politically charged issues such as abortion…