healthcare

A federal prescription drug program could see a boost under a Michigan bill heard in committee Wednesday.The 340B Drug Pricing Program requires drugmakers that take part in Medicaid to provide eligible groups with discounted medications. Those health care-providing entities can contract with pharmacies to get that medicine to patients.

Nearly $5 million in federal funding is going to community organizations and hospitals in Indiana to address the state’s persistent disparities in infant and maternal health outcomes. Five organizations will receive funding to address the health care and social needs of parents and infants.

Hospital mergers and consolidations that limit competition are driving Indiana’s high health care costs. That’s according to national experts who spoke at the Health Care Cost Oversight Task Force meeting. They recommend lawmakers consider legislation focused on reviewing potential mergers and addressing the impacts of mergers that have already happened.

Former Vice President Mike Pence addressed the latest indictment of Donald Trump Wednesday, saying “no one is above the law” and that Trump deserves the “presumption of innocence.”

The shortages will be nearly universal, a new report predicts, but especially acute in rural areas.

As artificial intelligence, or AI, enters into the health care field, some experts say there is hope and harm possible for its future.

Senate Bill 7, which would ban employers from placing physicians under new non-compete agreements, left committee last month in uncertain waters. But it ultimately passed the full Senate Tuesday with the ban fully intact.

Indiana's hospital leaders say that they have been operating in the red in 2022 due to inflation and rising labor costs. And they are worried that proposed legislation to address rising health care costs could push them deeper into financial stress.

A bill prohibiting new physician non-compete agreements passed the Senate Health and Provider Services committee Wednesday with nine voting for and three against. Indiana has a shortage of physicians and an unusually high cost of care compared to other states.

For many high-poverty rural and urban areas, there are sparse health care resources. One listener in Columbus wondered why this problem was so prevalent.