Last month, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revised and reduced the childhood immunization schedule, paring down the recommended vaccines. That change won’t impact access to vaccinations, but Kansas City health officials believe it will heighten the burden on parents and providers.

Missouri Mental Health Director Valerie Huhn told state lawmakers that the department and courts need options to get defendants treatment in their communities.

Suicide deaths crept up last year in Johnson County, Kansas, but officials warn the numbers are preliminary and don’t signify a trend. Public health authorities say they will adjust their efforts to focus more closely on access to guns, mental health care, and the social factors that might lead a person to take their own life.

The legislation threatens the death penalty if doctors don't provide life-saving care to babies born after an attempted abortion. It also opens the door for lawsuits against people who help someone access abortion medication.

The “mortality” of Missouri prisoners is not a performance standard for the state’s health care contractor, the MDOC director said this month.

Missouri Planned Parenthood clinics can currently perform procedural abortions but state laws limit the scope of care, and medication abortion is blocked. A trial in Jackson County could clarify which state-imposed standards abortion providers must meet.

Following hours of testimony last week, a Missouri House committee on approved bills that would cement the state's restrictions on transgender athletes and health care for transgender minors.

According to recent data from medical records, Nebraska and Kansas have the highest rates of Parkinson’s disease diagnoses. Groups in Kansas are helping people with Parkinson’s slow the progression of the disease through activities including exercise and art classes.

Allergic reactions from alpha-gal syndrome can be dangerous to one's physical health — even deadly. But for hunters who deal with fur and blood, the tick-borne disease can also be a blow to their mental health.

Dozens of people impacted by alpha-gal syndrome — a tick-borne allergy to mammalian products such as red meat and dairy — rallied at the Missouri capital Tuesday. There is no standard reporting for the disease so it's hard to know how common it is.

The Kauffman Foundation recently gave its first “Uncommon Leader” award, along with a $150,000 prize, to a nurse practitioner from Swope Health Services who has been delivering heath care to homeless individuals for more than a decade. The committee cited the way Dr. Rachel Melson focuses on restoring dignity to the treatment of unhoused residents.

Gender-affirming healthcare for transgender minors and participating on sports teams that align with trans athletes' gender identity are currently prohibited in Missouri. Those bans are set to expire in 2027, unless the state legislature opts to extend them indefinitely.