hospitals

Kansas hospital spending grew 13% in 2020, at a faster rate than the national average. That could mean higher health insurance premiums.

Noble Health, a three-year-old private equity-backed startup, acquired Audrain and nearby Callaway Community Hospital during the coronavirus pandemic. Facing staggering debt, lawsuits and two federal investigations, it sold the hospitals to a Texas-based Platinum Health Systems. This month, Platinum Health told hospital workers they no longer had jobs.

The Department of Mental Health has continued to grapple with steep vacancies among staff, causing access to care across its state-run mental health facilities to decline as wings are shut down.

A new bivalent booster shot for COVID-19 is being administered at pharmacy chains in the Kansas City area and will soon be available at local health departments. Should you get one if you've already had a booster?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration are set to consider authorizing a new “bivalent” vaccine as early as this week. The Platte County Health Department is preparing for the new shot by assessing community needs.

The most controversial of the bills that took effect Sunday put new restrictions on voting and voter registration, including a requirement to show a photo ID to cast a ballot.

Hospital directors and health officers across the Kansas City metro addressed concerns with available bed space Tuesday, driven in part by low staffing numbers. It's already creating difficulty getting patients the services they need and could get worse if the level of need increases.

The larger facilities in central and southern Kansas are stretched thin. Hospital staff say rural facilities lack resources to help.

The U.S. Labor Department investigates Noble Health after former employees of its shuttered Missouri hospitals say the private equity-backed owner took money from their paychecks and then failed to fund their insurance coverage.

Communities of color in Kansas and Missouri face a far higher burden of medical debt than white people in those states and people of color in many other states. Plus, we hear another Kansas City woman share her abortion story.

Communities of color here face a burden of medical debt that dwarfs what white people experience, and what people of color experience in many other states

Premiums for health plans through private-sector jobs in Kansas shot up nearly 40% from 2010 to 2020. That’s twice as fast as general inflation.