-
A new report from the USDA shows that rural areas are continuing to see growth among people over 65 while the working age population continues to decline.
-
Some long-term care facilities in Kansas are closing or reducing the number of clients they can serve due to a shortage of employees. And while staffing agencies can help fill the void, one advocacy group says they're charging "extortionate prices for staffing."
-
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.
-
A federal emergency declaration that has allowed children to receive continuous Medicaid coverage throughout the pandemic could end soon, and health providers are worried.
-
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.
-
A jury found Jorge Perez, who oversaw 18 rural hospitals in eight states through his management company EmpowerHMS, guilty of fraudulently billing insurance companies for services the hospitals did not perform. Perez had proclaimed it his life’s mission to protect rural health care.
-
Kansas City residents rally for abortion rights following the fall of Roe v. Wade. Plus, the story of two shuttered Missouri hospitals may well serve as a warning for what happens when private companies acquire rural hospitals.
-
Dr. Joe Corrado saw his hospital being whittled away. Supplies for surgery disappeared, crucial medicines went unstocked, paychecks never came, he said. Just days before Noble suspended operations, he told management: “We don’t have the ability to do the things we need to take care of patients.”
-
Young Jews in Kansas City hoped their generation wouldn’t have to worry about discrimination, but anti-Semitic incidents are only increasing. Plus, getting dangerous chemicals out of drinking water could just about bankrupt small towns in Kansas.
-
For towns with only a few hundred residents, keeping tap water clean and safe can pose a crippling expense. The predicament is likely to become more common in western Kansas as farm chemicals seep into dwindling water supplies.
-
In rural places like western Kansas, the physical distance between support services and victims of domestic and sexual violence adds to the psychological and cultural barriers that might keep someone from seeking help.