Month: December 2012
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Cheaper heroin showing up in Eastern Kentucky as crackdown on pain pills makes that trade less attractive
About 60 grams of heroin, worth about$8,000. (AP photo) It was only few months ago that Northern Kentucky law enforcement officers and substance abuse clinics began expressing grave concern that...
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Merry Christmas: Mistletoe extract being used for colorectal cancer treatment in Europe, could be a great boon for Kentucky
Kentucky has one of the highest rates of colorectal cancers in the nation, with about 50 of every 100,000 Kentuckians being diagnosed with the disease each year. The state also...
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American Lung Association calls state’s tobacco-cessation benefit inadequate now that Medicaid is under managed care
Kentucky added a robust tobacco cessation benefit to its Medicaid program, only to lose much of it in 2011 by putting the program under managed care by insurance companies, the American...
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Health coalition asks Nickelodeon to stop marketing sugary and fatty snacks to children
A coalition of health groups thinks maybe it’s time to enlist SpongeBob in the childhood obesity fight. Earlier this week, the groups asked the Nickelodeon Channel to stop airing commercials...
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Northern Kentucky included in Medicaid’s pilot program to increase data about quality of health care
The Health Improvement Collaborative of Greater Cincinnati, which includes much of Northern Kentucky, is included as one of three regions to participate in a program designed to bolster availability of...
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Report: 110,000 Ky. youth 16 to 24 aren’t in school or employed; state’s rate of ‘disconnected youth’ exceeds U.S. average
Almost 110,000 teens and young adults in Kentucky are not enrolled in school and are not employed, even part-time, according to a new Kids Count report from the Annie E. Casey...
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UK creates nation’s first cancer-reporting system that uses electronic health records
Kentucky has the highest incidence of cancer in the United States, but it is about to be a national leader in delivering information about cancer cases to researchers. With the...
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Study: Raising cigarette taxes does curb even heavy smoking
The more you raise cigarette taxes, the less people smoke. That presumption was confirmed this week in a study by the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. This...
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Medical licensure board changing rules to focus more on painkillers; fewer urine tests for patients, fewer reports for doctors
Patients in long-term treatment with controlled substances won’t have to have their urine tested for drugs unless they are on painkillers, and doctors will have wide discretion over how often...
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Kentucky hospitals score mostly Bs and Cs on hospital safety scorecard; most in U.S. earned an A or B
In an analysis of the nation’s hospitals and their safety records, many of Kentucky’s health care facilities have some shortcomings. A study by the Leapfrog Group finds that the vast...