Suzanne King
Health Reporter, Kansas City BeaconSuzanne King Raney is The Kansas City Beacon's health reporter. During her newspaper career, she has covered education, local government and business. At The Kansas City Star and the Kansas City Business Journal she wrote about the telecommunications industry. Suzanne is also the proud mom of three daughters.
Email her at suzanne@thebeacon.media.
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Opioid settlement payouts will be made to thousands of communities across the country over 18 years. Payouts in the Kansas City metropolitan area so far have ranged from $2.4 million to Kansas City, Missouri, to Kansas City to $4,500 to Westwood, Kansas. -
Missouri banned gender-affirming health care for minors, and Kansas could follow suit this spring. So families are forced to move to other states or travel hundreds of miles, sometimes with the help of a growing network of groups determined to make the care available. -
The Supreme Court heard a case Tuesday about whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration overstepped when it revised requirements for how a medication abortion drug should be dosed and prescribed. The case was brought by attorney Erin Hawley, the wife of Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley. -
About 1,000 nurses at Research Medical Center in Kansas City and Menorah Medical Center in Overland Park want more support and higher staffing levels. They started negotiations for a new contract this week with the hospitals’ owner, HCA Healthcare, a for-profit hospital giant with profits topping $5 billion. -
The burst of gunfire that killed a young mother and wounded almost two dozen others at the Chiefs Super Bowl victory rally on Valentine's Day could have turned out even deadlier. But with mass shootings now regular events, local hospitals and trauma doctors have been trained on how to accommodate and triage large numbers of victims. -
The merger of St. Luke's Health System in Kansas City with BJC Health System in St. Louis closed earlier this month. But economists and consumer advocates warn that mergers like this one could ultimately bring higher prices to people on commercial insurance and lessen access for those on Medicare and Medicaid. -
Naloxone, sold under the brand name Narcan, offers an over-the-counter medication that rapidly reverses the effects of opioid overdoses. Despite efforts to make it more widely available, high prices mean Kansas City doesn't have enough doses for the people who need it most. -
In the Kansas City area, hospitals are already seeing a steady stream of cases associated with respiratory viruses, including COVID. If the trend of hospitalizations continues, the CDC warns that hospitals will be forced to ration care. -
The CDC reports that only 16% of adults and 7% of children have received the updated COVID vaccine. Although hospitalizations are currently low in Kansas City, providers warn the virus can still be deadly.
