Category: HEALTH POLICY
-
Health officials in counties with high and low Covid-19 death rates point to vaccination rates, residents’ underlying health status
By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News Health officials from Kentucky counties with some of the state’s highest and lowest Covid-19 death rates both cited vaccination rates as a contributor, but...
-
Nurse practitioners’ drug-prescribing power was expanded in Covid-19 emergency; they’re still trying to make it permanent
Kentucky law requires advanced practice registered nurses to have a collaborative agreement with a medical doctor to prescribe controlled substances. It’s a requirement that they have worked for years to...
-
Don’t forget to turn your clock back one hour Nov. 5-6; sleep experts say standard time is the better one for health and safety
By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News It’s almost time to “fall back” one hour into standard time, which sleep specialists say is better for our health because it more closely...
-
Enrollment for subsidized health insurance begins Nov. 1 on Kynect; ‘family glitch’ fix makes plans available to many more
By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News Open enrollment for federally subsidized health insurance plans starts Nov. 1 and runs through Jan. 15, for coverage that begins Jan. 1. Kentuckians can...
-
Half of Kentuckians on Medicare now have Advantage plans, but such plans have smaller networks and marketing issues
By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News With open enrollment for Medicare plans up and running, it’s important that seniors pay close attention to what each type of Medicare plan offers...
-
Beshear announces initiative that will expand Medicaid dental, vision and hearing benefits for more than 900,000 Ky. adults
By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News Pitching it as a way to expand the state’s workforce, Gov. Andy Beshear announced Thursday the expansion of dental, vision and hearing benefits for...
-
Covid-19 booster rates in nursing homes lag, especially among staff, and especially in Ky., where rate is among nation’s lowest
By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News Covid-19 booster rates lag in both nursing-home residents and staff, but especially among the staff. A Kaiser Family Foundation analysis found that while over 85% of...
-
FDA chief, at UK, says ‘It’s fair to be critical’ of failure to control e-cigarettes; voices concern about life expectancy, misinformation
By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf said Friday at the University of Kentucky, “It’s fair to be critical of the FDA” regarding the...
-
Abortion question on Kentucky’s Nov. 8 ballot may be confusing, but it becomes clearer when you look at the possible outcomes
By Al Cross Kentucky Health News FRANKFORT, Ky. – What would it mean if Kentucky voters changed the state constitution Nov. 8 to say that nothing in the document shall be...
-
CDC survey shows more than 2.5 million young people used electronic cigarettes in 2022, and most were flavored products
By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News The 2022 National Youth Tobacco Survey found that 2.5 million middle- and high-school students, or about 9 percent of the total, said they used electronic...