Month: December 2015
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Bevin picks UK health executive to lead redesign of Medicaid, accuses Beshear administration of lying about expansion’s costs
By Al Cross Kentucky Health News FRANKFORT, Ky. – Gov. Matt Bevin said Wednesday that a University of Kentucky health executive and former state health secretary, Mark Birdwhistell, will help him design...
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Small, rural hospitals doing more orthopedic surgeries, but their 30-day death rate is one-third higher than that of larger hospitals
Critical-access hospitals, a linchpin of health care in rural areas, are performing many more orthopedic surgeries. But the Medicare patients who get the five most common orthopedic procedures at such...
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Kynect will sell federally subsidized health insurance through Jan. 31, but there will be little or no advertising to tell people about it
Kynect, the online marketplace where Kentuckians can buy federally subsidized health insurance, will remain open for enrollment through Jan. 31. But you will see little if any more advertising for...
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Conway gets $24 million from Purdue Pharma to settle Oxycontin claim, $15.5 million from J & J subsidiary in Risperdal case
Purdue Pharma will pay the state $24 million to settle a lawsuit that claimed the drug maker “illegally misrepresented and/or concealed the highly addictive nature of OxyContin and encouraged doctors...
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Needle exchanges don’t have to involve exchanges of needles, attorney general’s opinion says
Users of needles don’t have to trade in used ones to get new ones from needle-exchange programs authorized by this year’s anti-heroin law, Attorney General Jack Conway said in a...
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U of L, Norton Healthcare end battle for control of Kosair Children’s Hospital with cooperative agreement
A battle for control of Kosair Children’s Hospital, between Norton Healthcare and the University of Louisville, has ended with agreements that give Norton clear control of the facility but give...
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Northern Ky. health officials fight outbreak of whooping cough
Whooping cough is spreading in Northern Kentucky. The disease, formally known as pertussis, is mostly “being seen in school-aged youth, but whooping cough is concerning because of the risk of...
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Kentucky ranks first in deaths from cancer, a longtime fact given big play on the Sunday front page of The Courier-Journal
Kentucky has led the nation in cancer deaths for several years, but that fact hasn’t been trumpeted on the front page of a major newspaper in quite the way The Courier-Journal did...
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Some local officials reject needle exchanges and research showing that they don’t encourage and enable drug abuse
By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News Needle-exchange programs were approved this year as part of a landmark heroin bill, but they require local consent, and this caveat is proving to...
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Dangerous and stealthy, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is on the rise, but is reversible with weight loss and exercise
Many Kentuckians and other Americans are walking around with a liver disease that has the potential of progressing to cirrhosis, which can then lead to liver failure, and don’t even...