Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services

The federal government requires banks to inspect every marijuana facility and licensee. Since Missouri's DHSS already does that, banks want them to share that information so they don't have to duplicate effort.

The position will oversee the equity measure that legalization campaign supporters boast to be the first of its kind in the nation — a microlicense program designed to boost opportunities in the marijuana industry for businesses in disadvantaged communities.

Adults in Missouri can now legally use marijuana. Dispensary operators say that some residents with medical marijuana cards may choose to keep them to take advantage of lower taxes and other benefits that customers who use marijuana recreationally don't get.

Missouri has the 8th highest maternal deaths in the country. A bill filed in the upcoming legislative session would extend postpartum care for low-income women.

Police officers in Johnson County’s biggest cities say they do not expect Missouri's impending recreational marijuana law to change much about their operations. Marijuana possession is still illegal, as is driving while impaired.

Missouri's abortion ban contains only one exception, not for rape or incest, but for "medical emergencies." But the law is vague on what that means — and that's a problem for hospitals, since performing an abortion could carry a felony and prison time. It's also a problem for patients in critical need of care.

A Missouri woman who was denied an abortion prompted an unprecedented federal investigation into whether a hospital violated the law by failing to provide her medical care.

Influenza cases continue to rise even as RSV and COVID-19 case numbers are plateauing across the Kansas City area. Children's Mercy staffers are picking up extra shifts as they treat more patients than the hospital can handle.

After being admitted to Freeman Health Services in Joplin, a patient whose water broke before 18 weeks of pregnancy could not obtain an emergency abortion because of Missouri's near-total ban. Now the hospital is under investigation for possible violations of a federal law requiring hospitals in the Medicare program to provide care for patients in emergency situations.

In a campaign ad for Democrat Trudy Busch Valentine, a woman explained that she could not obtain needed care at Freeman Health System in Joplin because of Missouri's strict abortion ban. Investigators from the Department of Health and Senior Services then visited Freeman.

During the pandemic, participation in the federal program for low-income women and children dropped more steeply in Missouri than in all but one other state, a new report found. One cause might be Missouri's burdensome administrative system, which requires EBT cards to be physically swiped when loading benefits.

After weeks of requiring people to submit online eligibility forms to receive the monkeypox vaccine, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services is now letting clinics determine eligibility for the shots. LGBTQ advocates fear the online form, which asks questions about sexual behavior, discourages some people from seeking the vaccine.