NEW ORLEANS — Elyse Stevens had a reputation for taking on complex medical cases. People who’d been battling addiction for decades. Chronic-pain patients on high doses of opioids. Sex workers and people living on the street.

“Many of my patients are messy, the ones that don’t know if they want to stop using drugs or not,” said Stevens...Read more

After years of talking with teens and their parents about substance use, here's the single most important thing I've learned: Connection matters more than control.

I hear it from parents all the time: "I'm scared my teen might be using drugs, but I don't know how to bring it up." These fears are valid.

Although most teens don’t use drugs or...Read more

A new year is often challenging. Despite knowing we should throw out old, bad habits along with the New Year's Eve party favors, change is hard.

Many of us eat more than we should. Yet nothing changes for the better — especially in terms of health — when we keep eating those bad-for-us-but-tasty processed junk foods that are high in sugar, ...Read more

Colorado will receive about $1 billion in federal funding to reshape rural health care over the next five years, but hospital CEOs aren’t happy with the state’s plan to spend the money.

Last year’s H.R. 1 — also known as the “big beautiful bill” — allocated $50 billion for the federal Rural Health Transformation Program over five ...Read more

Jonna Quinn was initially thrilled when she got her first job after her medical residency, working as an OB-GYN in Mason City, Iowa. It was less than two hours down the road from West Bend, where she grew up on a farm.

But the hospital started restricting certain birth control options and fertility treatments based on its affiliation with the ...Read more

BOSTON — The circulating bird flu has been confirmed in the Bay State, as agricultural officials report that backyard chickens tested positive for the disease and were killed.

The Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources and its partner agencies “safely depopulated and disposed” of a backyard flock of chickens due to the ...Read more

When Matthew Hurley was looking to take PrEP to prevent HIV, the doctor hadn’t heard of the medicine, and when he finally did prescribe PrEP, the bills sent to Hurley were expensive … and wrong. “I decided to write in because the process was really super frustrating.” At one point, Hurley asked, “Am I just going to stop this medication...Read more

WASHINGTON — A band of House Republicans bucked party leaders to join Democrats in passing a measure to restore expired Obamacare subsidies through the end of President Donald Trump’s term, as rising health care costs drive midterm election anxieties.

The House voted 230-196 Thursday to send a three-year extension of the expired tax credits...Read more

U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick accused some of his Republican colleagues of being “intellectually dishonest” about the Affordable Care Act, hours before he and other Republicans broke party lines to pass a bill to restore recently expired healthcare subsidies.

The Democratic-led bill passed the House by a vote of 230 to 196 after Fitzpatrick ...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Flu cases are surging in Kansas City and more people are hospitalized with the virus this year, mirroring a nationwide uptick, medical staff at the University of Kansas Medical Center said Thursday.

According to chief medical officers in the health system, KU Med’s hospitals are facing operational challenges with high ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota is continuing to urge shots that protect children against 17 infectious diseases, despite a federal recommendation last week that cut the number to 11.

It’s rare for state health officials to break with federal vaccine guidance, but Thursday’s decision aligned Minnesota with professional medical organizations such ...Read more

Lenia Watson-Burton, a 37-year-old U.S. Navy administrator, expected that cosmetic surgery would get rid of stubborn fat quickly and easily — just as the web advertising promised.

Instead, she died three days after a liposuction-like procedure called AirSculpt at the San Diego office of Elite Body Sculpture, a cosmetic surgery chain with more...Read more

Dr. Heather Skanes opened Alabama’s first freestanding birth center in 2022 in her hometown of Birmingham. Skanes, an OB-GYN, wanted to improve access to maternal health care in a state that’s long had one of the nation’s highest rates of maternal and infant mortality.

Those rates are especially high among Black women and infants. Skanes�...Read more

In 2013, before the Affordable Care Act helped millions get health insurance, California’s Placer County provided limited health care to some 3,400 uninsured residents who couldn’t afford to see a doctor.

For several years, that number has been zero in the predominantly white, largely rural county stretching from Sacramento’s eastern ...Read more

One commercial farm in Queen Anne’s County remains under quarantine for bird flu, Maryland officials said Wednesday; however, the rest of the state has no such restrictions.

Avian influenza, or bird flu, is a highly contagious airborne respiratory virus that affects poultry — including chickens, ducks and turkeys — as well as some wild ...Read more

With multiple measles cases reported in North Carolina, rising flu deaths and shifting federal recommendations, state health officials stressed the importance of vaccination and urged people to contact their health care providers with questions.

“In North Carolina, we are seeing an increase in measles cases, an uptick in respiratory illnesses...Read more

WASHINGTON — Swing-district Republicans defied party leaders to join Democrats in advancing legislation to revive expired Obamacare subsidies for three years, an indication of the political risks facing the GOP majority in the U.S. House heading into this year’s midterm elections.

Nine House Republicans joined Democrats on a procedural ...Read more

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of Senate deal-makers labored toward an agreement Wednesday on reviving expired health care tax credits but are still managing sticking points as the House prepares to vote on a largely symbolic measure backed by Democrats to extend the subsidies for three years.

In a procedural step, the House voted 221-205...Read more

Colorado measles vaccination rates are falling behind other states, leading to a lower herd immunity among children.

A recent data analysis by The Washington Post found that Colorado has an 88% herd immunity status regarding the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine between 2023 and 2024 — well below the 95% threshold set by doctors across the ...Read more