Health Care
Wash U alleges Missouri AG illegally sought patient records from transgender center
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey does not have the legal authority to demand access to patient records at the Washington University Transgender Center, according to a lawsuit filed Monday in St. Louis Circuit Court. Bailey cited Missouri’s consumer protection law, known as the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act, to demand access to all electronic health records […]
Missouri abortion-rights amendments face ‘torturous’ process to make it to 2024 ballot
Pulling off a successful ballot initiative campaign in Missouri is an undertaking so difficult that one Democratic political consultant compares it to skiing the slalom at the Olympics. There is a laundry list of deadlines to meet, an army of signature gatherers to hire, a host of legal battles to fight — all with a […]
HIV prevention, education improve in Missouri. But stigma still stands
Jody Dorcy has been living with HIV for 20 years. He said the hardest part about having HIV is the stigma surrounding it. Society thinks he’s “contagious,” “dirty” and “infectious.” But, Dorcy said, people with HIV shouldn’t be treated differently. “Just not being part of the HIV-negative world, being that person that’s different … it’s […]
‘Food is medicine’: Farmers market, food bank dedicated to nourishing Missourians
When Katie Molitor joined the Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture in 2019, she knew Boone County needed to put nutritious, affordable food on more tables. Two years later, she came up with a plan: Give year-long prescriptions to patients for fresh fruits and vegetables to supplement their diet. The idea took root, and the result […]
Some states act to protect residents from extreme heat — with a new focus on young people
After two years of record-breaking heat that brought a surge of deaths and health emergencies, several states have enacted or are considering measures designed to protect residents — with a new focus on younger people whose vulnerability is rising with the temperatures. Nationally, heat-related deaths rose from about 1,000 in 2018 to 1,722 in 2022 […]
Missouri rape hotline reporting requirement in abortion-rights petition draws criticism
When Trish Mitchell got an abortion three decades ago in Missouri, she didn’t tell the doctor her pregnancy was a result of sexual assault. She couldn’t bring herself to. It would be years before she told anyone that she had been raped. “Speaking for myself, it was literally almost impossible,” said Mitchell, who was 21 […]
Missouri Supreme Court won’t hear Jay Ashcroft’s appeal of abortion ballot summaries
The Missouri Supreme Court has denied Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft’s atrempt to appeal rulings against his ballot summary for initiative petitions seeking to enshrine the right to abortion in the state constitution. The court also rejected an appeal seeking to reject cost estimates crafted by Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick. The decisions came down Monday evening, less […]
Abortion rights won big on the ballot in Ohio. But in Missouri, advocates remain divided
Missouri could be the first state with a near-total abortion ban to use the initiative petition process to restore access. But time is running short, with a May deadline to collect enough signatures looming and court battles over ballot summaries still plodding along. And while voters in Ohio became just the latest to overwhelmingly back […]
Transgender minors sue University of Missouri for refusing puberty blockers, hormones
Two transgender boys filed a federal lawsuit Thursday seeking to reverse the University of Missouri’s decision to stop providing gender-affirming care to minors. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, alleges halting transgender minors’ prescriptions unconstitutionally discriminates on the basis of sex and disability status. University of Missouri […]
Biden administration’s limit on drug industry middlemen backfires, pharmacists say
The Biden administration’s first major step toward imposing limits on the pharmacy benefit managers who act as the drug industry’s price negotiators is backfiring, pharmacists say. Instead, it’s adding to the woes of the independent drugstores it was partly designed to help. The so-called PBMs have long clawed back a fee from pharmacies weeks or […]
Missouri Supreme Court weighs state’s push to defund Planned Parenthood
The Missouri Supreme Court on Wednesday heard arguments over whether the state’s move to block Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid reimbursements was constitutional — the second time in three years the issue has reached the state’s highest court. After the state legislature voted to block Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid reimbursements last year, the organization […]
More than 52,000 kids were kicked off Missouri Medicaid from June to September
More than 52,000 Missouri children have been kicked off of Medicaid in the first four months of renewed eligibility checks, though the state isn’t sure how many of those kids have managed to re-enroll. At Tuesday’s quarterly meeting of the board that oversees Missouri’s Medicaid program, the MO HealthNet oversight committee, concerns about the number […]