LaFayette and other rural areas of the country tend to have high rates of health problems but not enough doctors. Many are adapting by investing in nontraditional prevention and treatment options.
Like much of rural America, LaFayette, Alabama, has no hospital or urgent care clinic. As the town’s two primary care doctors approach retirement, some experiments are bubbling up to care for people.
Supporters say the proposed rules would balance the goals of increasing access to health care and helping prevent medication misuse. Opponents say the rules would make it difficult for some patients — especially those in rural areas — to get care.
Thousands of South Dakotans are being knocked off Medicaid, only to be eligible to requalify several months later. Even more enrollees are likely to experience a temporary loss of coverage in North Carolina.
Community paramedicine is expanding nationwide, including in rural areas, as health care providers, insurers, and state governments recognize its potential to improve health and save money.
Doctors have no national standards on when to order urine tests to check whether adult ADHD patients are properly taking their prescription stimulants. Some patients are subjected to much more frequent testing than others.
A foster care program on the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota is attracting attention from officials elsewhere as they search for ways to reduce trauma inflicted on Indigenous families, who’ve faced generations of high rates of family separation.
Some rural residents must travel hours for a sexual assault exam. Specialized telehealth services are expanding so they can obtain care closer to home.
South Dakotans voted to expand the state’s Medicaid program to cover thousands of additional low-income residents. But as other conservative states have shown, voter approval doesn’t always mean politicians and administrators will rush to implement the change.
A broad coalition of Medicaid expansion supporters faces off against a smaller group of opponents as early voting begins on a constitutional amendment that would increase coverage under South Dakota’s program.