Author

Arielle Zionts
Arielle Zionts, Rural Health Care Correspondent for Kaiser Health News, is based in South Dakota. She primarily covers South Dakota and its neighboring states and tribal nations. Arielle previously worked at South Dakota Public Broadcasting, where she reported on business and economic development. Before that, she was the criminal justice reporter at the Rapid City Journal and a general assignment reporter at the Nogales International, on the border of Arizona and Mexico. She graduated from Pitzer College in Claremont, California. Arielle lives in Rapid City with her cat, Sully.
It takes a village: Foster program is a new model of care for Indigenous children
By: Arielle Zionts - February 14, 2023
LA PLANT, S.D. — Past a gravel road lined with old white wooden buildings is a new, 8-acre village dotted with colorful houses, tepees, and a sweat lodge. The Simply Smiles Children’s Village, in this small town on the Cheyenne River Reservation, is home to a program aimed at improving outcomes and reducing trauma for […]
Telehealth brings expert sexual assault exams to rural patients
By: Arielle Zionts - January 3, 2023
Amanda Shelley was sitting in her dentist’s waiting room when she received a call from the police. A local teenage girl had been sexually assaulted and needed an exam. Shelley, a nurse in rural Eagle County, Colorado, went to her car and called a telehealth company to arrange an appointment with a sexual assault nurse […]
South Dakota voters approved Medicaid expansion, but implementation my not be easy
By: Arielle Zionts - November 14, 2022
RAPID CITY, S.D. — South Dakotans voted last week to expand the state’s Medicaid program to cover thousands of additional low-income residents, becoming the seventh state to approve expansion via the ballot box. But as other conservative states have shown, voter approval doesn’t always mean politicians and administrators will rush to implement the change. In […]
Campaigning ramps up as South Dakota voters decide on Medicaid expansion
By: Arielle Zionts - October 25, 2022
CUSTER, S.D. — A silver minivan decorated with a large sticker reading “Love Your Neighbor Tour” recently circumnavigated South Dakota. Catholic nuns, Protestant pastors, a synagogue president, and a Muslim nonprofit professional were among the interfaith leaders who packed into the rented six-seater or caravanned behind. The road trip’s mission: to register voters and urge […]