Sarah Fentem
Sarah Fentem reports on sickness and health as part of St. Louis Public Radio’s news team. She previously spent five years reporting for different NPR stations in Indiana, immersing herself deep, deep into an insurance policy beat from which she may never fully recover. A longitme NPR listener, she grew up hearing WQUB in Quincy, Illinois, which is now owned by STLPR. She lives in the Kingshighway Hills neighborhood, and in her spare time likes to watch old sitcoms, meticulously clean and organize her home and go on outdoor adventures with her fiancé Elliot. She has a cat, Lil Rock, and a dog, Ginger.
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EMS workers across Missouri are receiving training on how to give overdose victims a dose of buprenorphine, which manages cravings and withdrawal symptoms, after reviving them from an overdose with the overdose reversal drug naloxone.
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A Missouri Foundation for Health report finds both planned and unexpected costs of medical care create financial, physical and emotional burdens for the state’s residents. “It's a system where even insured folks struggle,” one analyst says.
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A family-owned funeral home in Missouri purchased the 19th-century building and converted it into an operation for performing alkaline hydrolysis — a water-based alternative to traditional cremation.
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More than 300,000 Missourians have signed up for plans on Healthcare.gov, the federal health insurance marketplace. At the same time, Medicaid enrollment has dropped by more than 100,000 since Missouri's Medicaid purge began in June.
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BJC Healthcare has formally closed the deal that merges the St. Louis-based company with Saint Luke's Health System in Kansas City, officials announced Monday. The $10 billion merger creates a system that comprises 28 hospitals across Kansas, Illinois and Missouri.
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Missouri's prescription drug monitoring database went online last week. Health workers will now need to enter patient information into a statewide database when they dispense opioids and other controlled substances.
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St. Luke's, a Kansas City-based health system that operates 14 hospitals in Kansas and Missouri, has finalized plans to merge with BJC Healthcare in St. Louis. The two systems expect to complete the $10 billion deal by Jan. 1.
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Beginning in the new year, patients 18 and under who enroll in Missouri's insurance programs for low-income people will not be removed for 12 months. Missouri was one of the few U.S. states that did not offer guaranteed yearlong coverage.
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Missouri University of Science and Technology professor Mark Towler has patented a glass powder that helps wounds stop bleeding. He's now investigating whether it also can prevent infections.
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The St. Charles County Council decided not to act yet on a resolution condemning the International Institute’s efforts to bring Latin Americans to the region. The resolution opposes "the importation of illegal immigrants," but Institute leaders said people helped by their program are in the country legally.