Suit seeks to force feds to disclose Missouri health insurance rates

Binary scales

A Missouri consumers group has sued the Department of Health and Human Services over its alleged failure to disclose health insurance rates filed with the state. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in federal court in St. Louis by the Consumers Council of Missouri, comes just six weeks before the enrollment period for coverage under the Affordable…

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Documentary casts light on Kansas City’s mental health care woes

Officer and liason with man on street

The state of Kansas City’s mental health care services is dire, according to a forthcoming new documentary. Journalist and documentary filmmaker Michael Price’s Lost Minds: KC’s Mental Health Crisis focuses on the growing number of fraught confrontations between severely mentally ill people and police on Kansas City’s streets. The locally produced documentary airs Wednesday, Oct. 1, at…

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Feds expect more consumer choice in health reform insurance marketplace

Consumers in Missouri and Kansas should see more companies offering coverage through the health insurance marketplaces established by the Affordable Care Act, according to preliminary estimates released Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. A report issued by the department, released in advance of the open enrollment period scheduled to run from…

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Olathe Medical Center opens facility for final stage of life

screened-in porch at hospice

Olathe Medical Center officials say they have added a building block to their vision of providing cradle-to-grave care. On Wednesday, in front of a crowd of about 300 donors, employees and other well-wishers, the hospital officially opened a freestanding inpatient hospice on its land at Interstate 35 and 151st Street. “In the early 1980s, when…

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Medical PACs concentrate spending on incumbents

Political action committees for medically related groups in Kansas tended to throw their money behind incumbent House members before this year’s primary — even if those members did not support all of the groups’ political initiatives. Fifteen medically related PACs raised about $253,000 and spent about $125,000 this year in the reporting period that ended…

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