Author: Al Cross
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Most Ky. communities not friendly to walkers, joggers, cyclists
Few Kentuckians live in walkable communities, according to the latest Kentucky Health Issues Poll for the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky. Only 32 percent of Kentucky adults said there are a number...
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Fellowships of $10,000 available for reporting on mental health
Each year the Carter Center Mental Health Program awards six Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism to six American journalists. They get a stipend of $10,000 to report on a mental health topic...
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Passport Health Plan drops secrecy as managed care expands
Passport Health Plan, the managed-care organization for Medicaid in the Louisville area, announced today that it would no longer fight to keep its records secret, deciding not to appeal a...
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Feds say they will post data on performance of dialysis centers
“Federal regulators say they are moving to make once-confidential data about the performance of kidney dialysis clinics more readily available to the public,” reports Robin Fields of ProPublica, the nonprofit,...
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Beshear will use line-item veto on Medicaid bill to remove mandatory cuts in other state programs and school funding
Democrats appear to have prevailed in the State Capitol battle over the budget and Medicaid. (Update, March 25: Beshear issued the vetoes.) After the Republican-controlled Senate passed a budget fix...
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Near-unanimous House passes Medicaid plan; Senate mum
By an overwhelming margin of 94-4, the state House today passed a bipartisan bill to fix the state Medicaid budget, again putting the ball in the court of the Republicans...
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New website, www.SortingThroughTheSmoke.com, offers journalists local and state information on tobacco and health
Three Kentucky organizations are launching a website to serve as a one-stop shop for journalists covering tobacco and health issues in Kentucky, and for others interested in documenting the impact...
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As meds-for-meth bill dies, backer asks colleagues to find solution
The bill that would have required prescriptions for three popular decongestants used to make methamphetamine “was buried today, but not without a eulogy and a promise to resurrect it,” Renee...
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States can’t reveal drug costs because federal law makes them secret; Montana governor blames drug lobby, Ky. contractor
When Montana journalists asked Gov. Brian Schweitzer to reveal the prices the state pays for drugs in government health care programs, he said he wanted to tell them, but had...
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Almost all nursing homes have employees with criminal past, estimated 5% of employees; background-check bill seems dead
A new federal report says 92 percent of nursing homes employ someone with a criminal record. Most states require such facilities to check the backgrounds of applicants for employment, but the...