Healthcare

Benjamin Anderson

Take 5 For Your Health

Rural Kansas Hospital Thrives By Keeping Patients Out Of The Hospital Rural hospitals are struggling to stay open as the communities around them shrink and average patient counts drop as well. A study released earlier this year said one in three rural U.S. hospitals is at risk of closing. But one small hospital in southwest Kansas…

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levee trail

Take 5 For Your Health

Levee Trail In Kansas City, Kansas, Begins To Take Shape Standing at the meeting point of the Kansas and Missouri rivers, you can still get a glimpse of what Lewis and Clark might have seen when they camped here 212 years ago: vast skies, tall trees, wide, shimmering rivers, even the occasional eagle. Rick Behrens,…

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photo of kids in coffeyville school district

Take 5 For Your Health

Kansas Children’s Cabinet Grant Programs Face Imminent Cuts Children’s programs across the state are scrambling to deal with grant cuts that take effect at the start of July. The cuts come from a $3.3 million reduction in funding for the Kansas Children’s Cabinet, which uses the state’s share of the 1998 master settlement agreement with…

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Take 5 For Your Health

Disability Service Providers Await Budget Change Details Organizations that provide support services to Kansans with disabilities are anxious to see how the state will implement payment changes they fear will hamstring their operations. The changes are part of cuts Gov. Sam Brownback announced last week after the Legislature approved a budget that didn’t balance. Brownback’s administration…

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Nicolas Rohner

Why Scientists Are Falling For A Blind, Albino, Binge-Eating Cavefish

Bob Caviar has seen his share of heavy eaters. He’s the owner of Papa Bob’s Bar-B-Que in Kansas City, Kansas, and the creator of a sandwich he’s christened “The Ultimate Destroyer.” “This wasn’t designed as a challenge,” Caviar says. “It was really designed to feed families.” But the football-sized sandwich, which contains four and a…

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Gov. Sam Brownback

Take 5 For Your Health

Brownback Budget Cuts Include $56 Million From Medicaid Gov. Sam Brownback trimmed more than $56 million from Medicaid in Kansas as part of larger budget cuts announced Wednesday, raising concerns that health care providers may decide not to take unprofitable patients. About $38.2 million of the $56.4 million in budget cuts comes from reducing reimbursements…

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The former Cerner Corp. headquarters in North Kansas City.

Take 5 For Your Health

Cerner Faces Another Lawsuit Over Its Overtime Policy Another class-action lawsuit alleging Cerner illegally failed to pay employees overtime wages has been filed against the health care technology company. The latest was filed in federal court in Kansas City on behalf of so-called AMS delivery consultants at Cerner, basically help desk workers who offer technical…

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children playing

Take 5 For Your Health

Kansas Action For Children CEO Leaving For Job In Nebraska Shannon Cotsoradis, president and CEO of Kansas Action for Children, is stepping down after 19 years at the nonprofit advocacy organization. Cotsoradis is leaving to assume “a leadership role” at the Nebraska Early Childhood Collaborative, LLC, according to a KAC news release issued Monday morning….

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Take 5 For Your Health

In Missouri, 300,000 Patients’ Dental Care Is In Limbo As State Struggles To Fund Coverage Earlier this year, 69-year-old Aneita McCloskey needed her two front teeth filed down and capped. “They were kind of worn down, and they were also getting little tears and cavities,” she recalls. Without dental insurance, McCloskey is on the hook…

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picture of inside of the bus

Take 5 For Your Health

Kansas schools, churches try new ways to deliver summer meals Delivering meals to low-income people is a long-standing way to improve nutrition, but a project in Iola Unified School District 257 will bring the whole diner. Kathy Koehn, nutrition and wellness coordinator at USD 257, said students taking vocational classes in the district are working…

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