Author: Al Cross
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Medicaid expansion has dramatically reduced share of uninsured in most counties; some legislators worry about future cost
The expansion of Medicaid under federal health reform has greatly reduced the number of Kentuckians without health insurance, but state legislators are wary of its future cost. Medicaid Commissioner Lawrence...
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Ballard County joins schools with free meals for all students
Ballard County is the latest in Kentucky where all public schools will provide free lunch and breakfast to all students, now that more than 40 percent of its middle- and...
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Anthem, Humana, Golden Rule and Time health insurers to refund $6.2 million in Ky. for not spending enough on patient care
Four insurance companies will refund $6.2 million to Kentuckians because the insurers didn’t meet a requirement of federal health reform, to spend at least 80 percent of the money they get...
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Older rural residents are more likely to seek care at rural hospitals, national study finds
Rural hospitals are more likely to serve older patients seeking hospitalization, while younger rural residents seek medical care in urban areas, says a study by the National Center for Health...
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Beshear says that even if Republicans take over, they won’t be willing or able to reverse his Medicaid expansion
By Al Cross Kentucky Health News Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear may be succeeded by a Republican next year, and the state legislature may even sooner be controlled by Republicans who...
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Daytime mental-health programs shrink, citing problems with managed-care Medicaid; pastoral counselors to be licensed
Access to daytime mental-health care “is on a steep decline in Kentucky, leaving what some fear is a gap in care that isolates the mentally ill at home or drives...
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As Edelen begins hearings on rural hospitals’ finances, state gives figures on Medicaid expansion and reimbursement
By Al Cross Kentucky Health News The expansion of the federal-state Medicaid program funneled $284 million to Kentucky health-care providers in the first quarter of the year, the state Cabinet...
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‘This kind of sloppy defiance reeks of a Podunk attitude,’ Hopkinsville paper says after fair doesn’t enforce smoking ban
It’s been a while since we read an editorial as clear, blunt and well-taken as the one the Kentucky New Era ran about the flouting of Hopkinsville’s smoking ban at the...
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Drug developed to treat addiction is being abused, so much that clinics have been opened to sell it
“Suboxone, a popular and highly touted medicine designed to get people off opioids such as painkillers and heroin, is increasingly being abused, sold on the streets and inappropriately prescribed, according...