LaShana McGee marvels at the exploits of her 4-year-old daughter around their neighborhood pool in Piper, Kan. “She goes straight to the deep end. It’s crazy,” McGee said. “I don’t know why she does that, but she does. She just jumps right in, and she will swim her way back to the stairs where you…
Kansas was one of just three states that saw their rates of people without health insurance go up since last year, according to a new survey. And, if the poll results are accurate, Kansas was the one whose rates went up the most. The data, collected as part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, show that…
Like millions of other Americans, I exercised my right to vote today, but it took three tries – thanks partly to my own ignorance and partly to the fact that our pervasive fear of gun violence in this country has finally invaded the voting booth. My early morning trek began at a small elementary school…
Among the issues Missouri voters will face at the polls Tuesday is a proposed amendment to the Missouri Constitution that has pitted veterans advocates against education supporters. The proposed amendment, Constitutional Amendment 8, would create a veterans lottery ticket by July of next year, the proceeds of which would be deposited in the Veterans Commission…
The same groups that used the wedge issue of Obamacare to unseat moderate Republican senators two years ago are targeting several House members for defeat in Tuesday’s GOP primary. But this time around, their efforts are being countered by groups that have organized to reverse the recent conservative tide in Kansas politics. TheKansas Values Institute and…
The Johnson County Mental Health Center has not resolved long-standing security concerns to protect employees at its Shawnee location, according to an internal audit presented to the board of commissioners Thursday. The audit, conducted by Interim County Auditor Ken Kleffner, said that the mental health agency had rejected security recommendations made in 2007 “because management…
From PBS NewsHour The National Collegiate Athletic Association agreed to settle a number of cases brought in a class-action head injury lawsuit. The proposed settlement, which must still be approved by a federal judge, would create a $70 million fund for concussion testing and diagnosis of current and former athletes. NewsHour’s Gwen Ifill talks to…
Just days after Prime Healthcare Services agreed to buy two Kansas City-area hospitals, laid-off employees of two other area hospitals owned by Prime sued the company, claiming they were not provided with promised severance benefits. The suit seeks class-action status on behalf of other terminated employees. It says 49 workers were let go immediately after…
Update: Prime Healthcare Services now faces a lawsuit from employees laid off from two other Kansas City-area the company owns. Co-authored by Dan Margolies, health editor at KCUR, Kansas City Public Media. Prime Healthcare Services, the for-profit California health care company that has agreed to acquire two nonprofit Kansas City area hospitals, is no stranger to…
No fewer than five candidates are seeking the Republican nomination for Kansas insurance commissioner, an office that has been dominated by Republicans since its creation in 1871. In the 20th century, only one Democrat has held the office, Kathleen Sebelius, who used it as a springboard to become Kansas governor in 2003 and, in 2009,…
A West Coast hospital company has agreed to acquire two hospitals and other related facilities as part of a deal with Kansas City, Mo.-based Carondelet Health, the parties announced Monday. The buyer is Ontario, Calif.-based Prime Healthcare Services, which has signed a letter of intent that includes the acquisition of St. Joseph Medical Center in…
A year and a half ago, a local safety-net clinic underwent one of the most significant changes in its more than four decades of serving the metropolitan area: it went from a purely free provider to one that also accepted paying patients covered by insurance. Known for years as the Kansas City Free Health Clinic,…
The now well-established local food movement in and around the university community of Lawrence is in danger of stalling unless a concerted effort is made to expand its reach beyond an already committed group of consumers and build more demand for locally grown or produced fruits, vegetables and meats. That’s the conclusion of a recent…
When Steve Jobs needed a liver transplant in 2009, the Apple CEO left California and went to Memphis, Tenn. While his home state has some of the longest waiting lists in the country for donated livers, Tennessee has some of the shortest. Many health advocates point to Jobs’ story as an example of the harsh disparities…
Unique Hughley likes to compose poetry by the glow of his iPhone while he walks around at night through the urban core of Kansas City, Missouri, where he grew up. “I grew up in a bad place. I grew up right on Prospect and that’s like a horrible place where I come from,” Hughley said.…