If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org To access American Sign Language services via 988, you can call 1-800-273-8255 on a phone with video capabilities, or press the ASL NOW button on 988lifeline.org. The 988 Lifeline is working to make videophone…
If you or someone you know is in crisis, please call, text or chat with the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988, or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741. Shekinah Jackson walked into her first day at Chicago Vocational High School on the city’s South Side convinced she’d spend the next…
More than 100,000 people died of an opioid overdose nationwide in 2022 and more than two-thirds of those deaths involved synthetic opioids. Synthetic opioids are substances that are synthesized in a laboratory and act on the same targets in the brain as natural opioids to reduce pain. In contrast, natural opioids — including heroin, morphine,…
A federal agency is alarmed by the magnitude of Medicaid coverage losses in states including Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky. In recent letters sent separately to each state, the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, raised concerns about the high rates of people losing Medicaid insurance. The letters pointed to people who were kicked off Medicaid,…
Many respiratory viruses circulate year-round in the United States, and more activity is typically seen during fall and winter. The public is likely to be exposed to coronavirus, flu, and RSV in the coming months. Here’s what people should know about these viruses and the available vaccines. RSV Respiratory syncytial virus is a common virus…
The Midwest is experiencing rising temperatures this week, as heat waves become more frequent and deadly across the U.S. Experts studying the connection between climate change and health say that extreme heat is not just an inconvenience. “The biggest challenge in this country is making sure that people are aware that extreme heat is a…
If you or someone you know is in crisis, please call, text or chat with the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988, or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741. When 24-year-old Marie texted 988 last December, she was in the middle of a dissociative episode that left her unable to speak….
Many common outpatient services, like X-rays and check-ups, can cost Medicare twice as much in a hospital as in an independent clinic. Congress is actively considering nearly half a dozen pieces of legislation aimed at changing this. All of this bipartisan interest in Washington has the nation’s biggest hospitals on high alert. The proposed fix,…
Since Black women are overrepresented in the Medicaid population, they’re more likely to lose coverage after 60 days in states that have not extended postpartum Medicaid coverage.
Some days, the phones at the Trust Women Wichita clinic ring nonstop, and staff are unable to keep up. Since the U.S. Supreme Court ended federal protections for abortion last summer, the clinic has had a math problem: too many patients desperate for care with limited time and resources to see them. “We are averaging…
Hospice doctor Bethany Snider sees the writing on the wall: “The hospice care we’ve known and loved won’t be the same 10 years from now.” Hosparus Health, the Louisville-based hospice agency where Snider serves as chief medical officer, is one of more than 100 provider organizations partnering with some of the country’s largest health insurers…
Jake West grew up in La Porte, Indiana, not far from Lake Michigan. His mother, Julie West, said he was always friendly to others. “He was just kind and he brought other people in,” West said. “He was a type of kid that if someone wasn’t included, he was going to make sure that child…
As the second year of the pandemic was nearing an end, employees at Johnson Memorial Health hoped they could catch their breath after dealing with a weeks-long tsunami of COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths. But on a Friday at 3 a.m., the hospital CEO’s phone rang with an urgent call from the chief of nursing. “I…
On Feb. 17, 2017, Joe and Sarah Dudley were getting ready for a late Valentine’s Day celebration when Joe started complaining about feeling sick. He had a bad headache. “So I told him to go lay down, and we’d just celebrate another time,” Sarah said. Shortly after, Joe started running a high fever –…
Lee Reed spent his first night after getting out of prison sleeping in the stairwell of a parking garage in downtown San Francisco. Just a few days shy of his 62nd birthday, Reed had nowhere else to go. During his two decades in prison, his mom and wife had died, and he’d lost touch with…