Author: Al Cross
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Trying to stop overdose epidemic, CDC tells docs to limit most opioid prescriptions to 3-7 days, use low doses and warn patients
Graphic from CDC guideline brochure Kentucky Health News Doctors who prescribe highly addictive painkillers for chronic pain should stop and be much more careful to thwart “an epidemic of prescription...
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Customers of exchanges such as Kynect are more likely to get prescriptions than other private health-insurance customers
“People enrolled in health plans through the Affordable Care Act exchanges are ramping up their use of prescription medications more rapidly than those in employer or government-sponsored plans, according to...
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85 percent of Kentucky adults want schools to be tobacco-free, but only 28 percent of the state’s school districts are
An overwhelming majority of Kentucky adults, 85 percent, want schools to be tobacco-free, according to the latest Kentucky Health Issues Poll. But only 28 percent of the state’s school districts...
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Rice Leach, battling cancer and headed for hospice, gets Public Health Hero Award that Fayette health board will name for him
Rice Leach Dr. Rice Leach, a state and national leader in public health for decades, was honored March 14 with the Public Health Hero Award from the Lexington-Fayette County Board...
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Did you know that smoking can lead to Type 2 diabetes?
Smoking can lead to diabetes, and then cause more complications from the disease. So writes Dr. Laura B. Hieronymus, associate director of education and quality services at the Barnstable Brown...
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McConnell touts bill to fight opioid abuse; blocks extra funding, says money is available and more should require cuts elsewhere
The U.S. Senate passed a bill 94-1 March 10 aimed at “the growing epidemic of painkiller and heroin abuse,” Karoun Demirjian reports for The Washington Post. “Drug abuse has been...
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Whistleblower lawsuit accuses Humana of billing fraud in Florida, says misleading data in medical records put patients at risk
By Fred Schulte Center for Public Integrity Louisville-based Humana Inc., which operates some of the nation’s largest private Medicare health plans, knew for years of billing fraud at some South...
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Bills to preserve Kynect and Medicaid expansion are going nowhere, put prompt a lively debate among legislators on KET
Democratic state Rep. Darryl Owens of Louisville has filed bills to keep Gov. Matt Bevin from keepimng his campaign promises to dismantle the Kynect health-insurance exchange and scale back the...
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Poll shows 13% of Kentucky adults 18-64 said they were not covered by health insurance last fall; employer coverage drops
By Al Cross Kentucky Health News Fewer Kentuckians reported having employer-provided insurance last year while the percentage on public insurance such as Medicaid continued to increase, according to the latest...
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Series on suicide as a public-health issue in Ohio is one of five finalists for national journalism ethics award
A newspaper series on suicide as a public issue in Ohio is among the five finalists for the Anthony Shadid Award for Journalism Ethics, which is given for aggressive reporting...