Author: Al Cross
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State health commissioner backs needle exchanges, most controversial part of anti-heroin legislation passed this year
The Kentucky General Assembly cracked down in 2012 on “pill mills” that dispense painkillers irresponsibly, and addicts responded by going for heroin, creating a big problem in much of the...
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Lexington Herald-Leader says Kentucky Hospital Association report on members’ finances damages the group’s credibility
The Kentucky Hospital Association‘s recent “Code Blue” report on its members’ finances is a symptom of “financial hypochondria,” the Lexington Herald-Leader said in a long editorial Sunday. It said the...
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3,047 got private health insurance in special March-April signup designed to avoid or reduce tax penalty for not being covered
More than 3,000 Kentuckians signed up for health coverage during a special March-April enrollment period that allowed them to avoid or reduce tax penalties for being uninsured. “At the Feb....
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Elementary-school students prompt Middlesboro smoking ban
UPDATE, May 20: The council passed the ban with one member opposing it. Gary Mills said, “I don’t think it’s the government’s right to intrude on businesses owned by individuals....
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Southern Kentucky physician expands his in-school clinics; already in Russell County, will be in Adair County next year
Dr. Eric Loy (Columbia Magazine photo) An entrepreneurial physician in Southern Kentucky has developed a way to deliver school health services that could have a broader impact on communities. Cumberland...
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Anthem gives $140,000 for 3-county program to cut smoking by pregnant women, still at 21.9% in Ky., among highest in U.S.
Health departments in Christian, Hopkins and Madison counties will start a program called Giving Infants and Families Tobacco Free Starts, with a $140,000 grant to the state health department from...
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Washington Post columnist looks at data, talks to experts and concludes Obamacare is working, at less cost than expected
The federal health-reform law “has accomplished its goal of expanding coverage — at a significantly lower cost than expected,” columnist Ruth Marcus writes for The Washington Post “after talking to...
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Kentucky is one of three states to get Walmart Foundation money to expand farm-to-school programs
Kentucky will use money from The Walmart Foundation to partner with the National Farm to School Network to expand efforts to get more local foods into schools. A project called Seed Change will “jump...
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Health reform law has been good for hospital finances, health-care costs, Obama administration says
U.S. hospitals have saved billions of dollars because the federal health-reform law has provided coverage for patients who were once charity cases, the Obama administration announced Monday, the fifth anniversary...
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Reform law ‘quietly accomplishing the goals it was created to achieve,’ McClatchy Newspapers reporter writes
The federal health-reform law is still controversial and still facing a legal challenge, but “is quietly accomplishing the goals it was created to achieve,” Washington correspondent Tony Pugh reported for...