The feds sent letters to 44 states to fix SNAP application errors and inefficiencies

The feds sent letters to 44 states to fix SNAP application errors and inefficiencies

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…

Are schools prepared to respond if a student’s heart stops? Data shows some aren’t

Are schools prepared to respond if a student’s heart stops? Data shows some aren’t

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…

5 Ways America’s courts could change health care in 2024

5 Ways America’s courts could change health care in 2024

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…

Why are people afraid of the most popular opioid addiction treatment?

Why are people afraid of the most popular opioid addiction treatment?

Buprenorphine saved Eric Ezzi. Heroin had overrun the Philadelphia-area native’s life in his early 20s. He lost jobs, went to jail and burned bridges with his family. A few years into his addiction, Ezzi found what he hoped would be the ultimate solution: buprenorphine. Often known by the brand name Suboxone, buprenorphine is a medication…

Some Midwest states earn failing grades in tobacco prevention and cessation efforts: ALA report

Some Midwest states earn failing grades in tobacco prevention and cessation efforts: ALA report

The American Lung Association released its 2024 State of Tobacco Control report Wednesday, which evaluates state efforts to eliminate tobacco use. Indiana, Missouri, Kentucky, Iowa and Ohio scored failing grades in most categories. The report compares state policies to evidence-based practices known to prevent youth from using tobacco and help smokers quit. It looks at…

Medicaid unwinding is causing people with disabilities to lose coverage with devastating consequence

Medicaid unwinding is causing people with disabilities to lose coverage with devastating consequence

Since the pandemic-era freeze on Medicaid disenrollment ended this spring, millions across the country –– including eligible recipients –– have lost their coverage for administrative reasons. Paperwork errors, system glitches, long wait times and outdated notices are kicking people off the rolls and vexing those caught up in the process. For people with disabilities, the…

Some states with abortion bans saw slightly more births, new analysis finds

Some states with abortion bans saw slightly more births, new analysis finds

Abortion bans may have led to an increase in birth rates in some states, a new report suggests. Three university researchers closely analyzed 13 states that prohibited abortion in nearly all situations by the end of 2022, after the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated a federal right to abortion. The IZA Institute of Labor Economics published…

Your college student is back home and you want to talk mental health? Keep this mind

Your college student is back home and you want to talk mental health? Keep this mind

Mental health experts say the holidays provide an opportunity for parents to check in on their children’s psychological wellbeing as thousands of college students are back home. “This is an important time of year because you’re going to be spending more time with your kids,” Rhonda Randall, UnitedHealthcare’s chief medical officer, said. Having conversations about…

New federal requirements aim to fix chronically understaffed nursing homes

New federal requirements aim to fix chronically understaffed nursing homes

At the Prairie View skilled nursing home in Sanborn, Iowa, the cafeteria was noisy on a recent Thursday. But not far from the sounds of conversation among dozens of residents is a unit that sits quiet and empty. Wendy Nelson, Prairie View’s administrator, used a code on a keypad to enter into what used to…

Losing sleep over binge watching shows and online shopping? New survey finds 75% of  U.S. adults do

Losing sleep over binge watching shows and online shopping? New survey finds 75% of U.S. adults do

More than three-fourths of Americans lose sleep because of digital distractions, according to a new survey from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Experts say that can be harmful for people’s health. More than 90% of the adults surveyed said they have lost sleep due to binge watching television and 75% said they have lost…

Sickle cell experts say a cure without care jeopardizes the freedom promised by new gene therapies

Sickle cell experts say a cure without care jeopardizes the freedom promised by new gene therapies

Two new, cutting-edge cures for sickle cell disease, a debilitating genetic blood disorder, have been approved on Friday. The sickle cell community is cautiously hopeful as questions around access and comprehensive care loom large. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Exa-cel, also known by its commercial name Casgevy. It’s a gene-editing therapy that uses…

After Dobbs, doctors say more people are turning to permanent contraception

After Dobbs, doctors say more people are turning to permanent contraception

Sitting in the living room of her Cleveland home, 30-year-old Grace O’Malley reflects on when she ruled out having kids of her own. O’Malley has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a genetic condition that weakens the body’s connective tissue, and can get much worse postpartum. About three years earlier, when she was in her mid-twenties, her condition worsened….

The White House is urging schools to address a rise in fentanyl exposure among teens

The White House is urging schools to address a rise in fentanyl exposure among teens

Narcan, also known by its generic name Naloxone, is a life-saving medication that reverses opioid overdoses. But in two-thirds of adolescent overdose deaths, the medication wasn’t used even though there was someone nearby. The main driving factor behind these overdose deaths is fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is so potent even a tiny amount can…

More children are being poisoned by e-cigarette liquids. Here’s what parents need to know

More children are being poisoned by e-cigarette liquids. Here’s what parents need to know

Dr. Hannah Hays has seen what exposure to the liquid used in vapes and electronic cigarettes can do to children. One child who had ingested a large amount of liquid from a vape pen “developed loss of consciousness, muscle jerking, repeated vomiting and had to be placed on a ventilator or breathing machine,” Hays, the…

Scammy Medicare ads and unsolicited calls bombard seniors shopping for health insurance. Will federal efforts help them?

Scammy Medicare ads and unsolicited calls bombard seniors shopping for health insurance. Will federal efforts help them?

New regulations designed to crack down on misleading marketing of Medicare insurance plans face their first big test when seniors begin shopping for coverage on Oct. 15. One minute last December Leslie Montgomery was a medieval warlord pillaging a nearby kingdom. The next she was a retiree drowning in a flood of confusing Medicare sales…