Month: March 2024
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Anthem is among health insurers now covering anti-obesity drug if it is prescribed to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke
One of Kentucky’s major health insurers is among the first that have “agreed to start paying for the popular anti-obesity drug Wegovy for certain people on Medicare with heart-related conditions,” The...
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Chair of U.S. Senate health committee demands maker of weight-loss drugs, most popular in Kentucky, cut their prices by two-thirds
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who chairs the U.S. Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee says the maker of two popular diabetes and weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy should...
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Government Accountability Office says Medicare and Medicaid each overpaid health-care providers by about $50 billion in 2023
Improper payments, mainly through overpayments, in Medicare and Medicaid are expected to total about $50 billion each for 2023, the federal Government Accountability Office says in its annual report on the...
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Four-part series from PBS and KET tells the story of public health
Kentucky Health News “Public health saved your life today and you don’t even know it.” That’s the catchphrase of a PBS series that began on KET Tuesday night, about the...
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Legislature sends Beshear bill decriminalizing medical mistakes; some in vitro fertilization advocates say bill will protect it
By Sarah Ladd Kentucky Lantern A bill giving Kentucky’s health-care providers criminal immunity for medical mistakes — which one lawmaker thinks will enshrine protections for in vitro fertilization by default...
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Health insurers again win lobbying battle with doctors and hospitals over prior authorization of procedures, treatments
By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News A bill to exempt health-care providers who have 90% or more of their claims approved from health-insurance companies’ requirements for prior authorization of ceratin...
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Emergency-department visits and hospitalizations for respiratory illness keep dropping; at ‘moderate’ level for first time since fall
By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News For the first time since December, the state Department for Public Health says both respiratory-virus activity and hospital admissions related to respiratory disease are moderate...
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State Senate weakens bill to curb underage vaping and sends it to the House with just days left in the legislative session
By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News A bill set up a regulatory framework to curb underage vaping passed out of the Senate on Thursday, March 21, but hasn’t yet been...
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‘Momnibus’ bill nears passage with change to require hospitals, birthing centers and midwives to offer perinatal palliative care
By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News A House-approved bill aimed at reducing maternal-mortality rates in Kentucky was approved without dissent by the Senate Health Services Committee on March 22 and...
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Bill to let pharmacists give vaccines to children 5 and older heads to governor’s desk; 11 Senate Republicans vote against it
By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News A bill to allow Kentucky pharmacists to order and administer vaccinations to children down to the age of 5 has gained final passage, but...