Nurse practitioners want to change law that requires them to make deals with physicians to prescribe strong painkillers

Nurse practitioners Julie Gaskins, left, and Beth Partin own Family First Health in Columbia. (Photo by Melissa Patrick) By Melissa Patrick...

State health plan provides free or low- cost diabetic meds and supplies; study finds program improves employees' health

Kentucky.gov photo An analysis of Kentucky's state-employee health insurance plan, which provides free or reduced-cost diabetic medicati...

Paul tells doctors and officials at Ashland hospital, a beneficiary of Medicaid expansion, that the country can't afford to keep it

Sen. Rand Paul at the hospital. ( Daily Independent photo by Rachel Adkins) The nation can't afford to continue the expansion of Medica...

Study of Ind. Medicaid, proposed model for Ky., finds more than half of enrollees missed paying a premium and thus lost coverage

By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News Kentucky's plan to change Medicaid would require poor people to pay small, income-based premiums...

Life expectancy in 13 U.S. counties declined from 1980 to 2014; eight of them are in one contiguous area of Eastern Kentucky

Map by The Washington Post , based on data from University of Wisconsin Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation A knot of eight Eastern...

How Medicaid came to cover 1 in 3 people in Ky., 1 in 5 in U.S., and how it could be changed despite health bill's failure

Medicaid is the main reason many more people have health insurance, especially in Kentucky. These New York Times maps are interactive, with ...

Health officials and advocates list Kentucky's top 5 health issues, including one newly identified: adverse childhood experiences

About 125 people worked on the state health assessment at the Kentucky History Center in Frankfort on Wednesday, March 22. By Melissa Patric...

Legislature passes bills to name caregivers, help smokers quit; could still pass dense-breast notice and student-concussion bills

By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News FRANKFORT, Ky. – Kentucky lawmakers have passed bills this year to make sure someone knows how to ca...

Though more have insurance and can see a doctor, Ky. shows little gain on health outcomes; Chandler says that takes time

By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News The percentage of Kentuckians without health insurance has dropped by more than half since the imple...

Bill sent to Bevin would remove insurance-company barriers that keep Kentuckians from getting smoking-cessation treatments

By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News FRANKFORT, Ky. – Kentuckians would have an easier time getting smoking-cessation treatments covered ...

Paul says conservatives won't support Republican health plan, hope to negotiate one more to their liking with Trump involved

Sen. Rand Paul ( ABC image) By Al Cross Kentucky Health News Republican U.S. Sen. Rand Paul laid out his objections to House GOP leaders’ bi...

Longtime Whitesburg doctor, winner of national honor, fears patients will lose Affordable Care Act's preventive care

Dr. Van Breeding ( Lexington Herald-Leader photo) Whitesburg physician Dr. Van Breeding says his patients got "bamboozled" by poli...

State Senate committee approves bill to remove insurance-company barriers to smoking-cessation treatments

Feb. 22 Update: SB89 passed 35-2 out of the full Senate and now heads to the House for consideration. March 14: SB89 passed 90-1 out of the ...