Take 5 For Your Health

Osawatomie State Hospital (File photo)

Budgets Reflect Kansas Legislators’ Attention To State Hospitals The Kansas House and Senate both passed budgets last week that shift money from several sources to shore up an underwater state general fund. But even in lean budget times, the lawmakers found a few million dollars in the general fund to provide additional money for the…

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Forum Explores Conservative Route to Kansas Medicaid Expansion

panelist makes a point at the forum

If policy makers in deep-red Indiana can do it, so can their equally conservative counterparts in Kansas. That was the dominant – though not unanimously held – message at a Medicaid forum Tuesday at Johnson County Community College, where the topic was expanding the Kansas Medicaid program to cover as many as 150,000 additional Kansans.…

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Take 5 for your health

Young children playing

Medicaid Mystery: Why Is Coverage Dropping Among Kansas’ Youngest? For two years now, the staff at Kansas Action for Children has been trying to unravel a mystery: Why is Medicaid enrollment dropping among the state’s youngest children? Enrollment of low-income children 1-5 peaked in October 2012 and has been dropping steadily since. Enrollment of infants…

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Take 5 for your health

Telemedicine Expands, Though Financial Prospects Still Uncertain Say you’re a Midwestern farmer in a hospital bed, recovering from surgery or a major illness. It’s time for the nurse’s check-in, but there’s no knock on the door. At Mercy Hospital in St. Louis, a camera attached to the wall over the foot of the bed whirls around, as a…

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Take 5 for your Health

NURSES RALLY TO PROTEST STAFFING AND COMPENSATION AT RESEARCH MEDICAL CENTER Dozens of registered nurses and supporters marched and chanted outside of Research Medical Center in Kansas City on Thursday evening to draw attention to labor issues. The picketers, who were organized by the National Nurses United union, say the hospital is failing to comply…

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